http://bestsmileys.com/angry2/6.gif
Look at the type of person that gets involved in this sport. They're independent thinkers that don't follow along with everything in society like cattle. They love and cherish their freedoms.

Wearing a helmet should be up to the individual.

Wow.. I picked a great topic to discuss. I got a person who has never posted before to give their input. Thanks for your input Technochick. :D

I agree with the majority that it should be up to the individual on weather or not to wear a helmet. I just have a feeling that goverment run parks might start requiring to wear helmets. I hope it doesn't get as crazy as Crandon Park.

http://www.miamikiteboarding.com/New...%20Crandon.htm

So how many of you would not wear a seatbelt if it were not a law?

Maybe common sense is lacking here.

i wouldnt say common sense is lacking....
in the words of Skyway Scott (risk vs reward), most people look at the situation and know its dangerous not to wear a seat belt, but they know that the odds are low they will get into an accident so they dont mind the risk, i see tons of people smoking at the beach and thats a huge risk to their health, but they obviously dont think the risk is high enough to quit, heck, we all kite board, and thats a huge risk as well, but we still do it

i wouldnt wear a seatbelt all the time if it were not the law, i even used to ride my motorcycle without a helmet, that doesnt mean i dont have common sense, i personally dont view the risk as high enough to do otherwise
my two cents

I wear a seat belt in a car because in my work in insurance, I have noted that people who do not wear seat belts are generally worked harder in an mva. Of course, when I was 17, I was in an mva without a seat belt on and, although I shattered a femur, I would have likely died with the belt on because of how one side of the car was crushed (and I would have been, too, had I stayed on that side of the car). Seat belt laws are based on vast amounts of data compared to what we know about kiteboarding safety, yet there are still countervailing arguments to mandatory seat belt laws. Those laws are based on odds, but some people still get killed by safety devices such as air bags and seat belts.

Maybe the helmet controversy is more analagous to the motorcycle helmet laws. Some bikers fear that they can cause a more serious injury under some circumstances. Some bikers just don't want to wear them and resent the idea of a nanny state telling them what to do and when to do it at every turn. I am not surprised to see the same concerns here.

Other safe riding habits will go further than helmets. Putting a helmet on and then thinking that you are safe no matter what is like putting a seat belt on, congratulating yourself for being safety-minded, and then driving 100 mph in a pitch-black rainy windstorm in a car with bad brakes and bald tires.

If it's all about safety, then we should not be jumping or doing powered moves, kiting in gusty wind, kiting without boat support, kiting if there are any pollutants in the water, kiting for too long in the sun, kiting in shark-infested waters, kiting if the spot is crowded, kiting at night, kiting at dawn, kiting on the wife's birthday or Christmas morning, etc.

Let's regulate other riders only when their behavior directly threatens others (i.e., a newby launching a kite hot on a crowded beach, etc.). I don't want to be a nanny to anyone else and I am certainly not looking for a nanny to take care of me.

ahhh tom.. that is a conversation that requires much more bandwidth than this server could provide..

:P

I do hope that people would choose to wear their helmets. I dont think any areas around here would give up their staff's time to check in riders, hand out streamers, etc.

if Ft. De Soto was a park that you had to drive through a check point to get into, maybe something like that would come into play. but as its just a drive up and park beach, if it came down to restricting us in any way.. it would just be "sorry, no kiting allowed"...

age old converstation.

Well, I think you're right. common sense is not really what I should have said... excercising poor judgement would be better.

thats much better Tom... :? ...wait.... was that an insult?????

I saw this and thought it could be applied to the seatbelt post. LOL

http://www.casadice.com/signs/pages/outside_sign10.htm

http://www.casadice.com/signs/images/outside_sign10.jpg