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-   -   another hobie day (http://www.fksa.org/showthread.php?t=9416)

patrickrynne 03-14-2010 11:11 PM

another hobie day
 
another sketchy day at Hobie. West winds ranging from 6-20 knots...maybe gusts a bit higher.

the final count was 3 kites in the seaquarium wall. Each incident happened when the rider cut upwind too close to the wall and either botched a manuever or hit a lull. End result each time was kite in the water, and little distance to work with to relaunch or pull in for a self-rescue. Totally avoidable by staying farther upwind of the wall.

later in the day 3 riders were doing some freestyle very close to shore...airs, kite-loops etc... One rider on a foil kite stalled on the landing, tried to recover but was forced to release from the kite as a gust hit him. Kite went up, up and away, but snagged a palm and started looping and then crashed down hard in the parking lot. Not sure about injuries. Todd went down to check it out.

NOW, as if this wasn't enough. One of the original 3 riders who had witnessed the accident began pulling shoreside tricks again!

By this point I was pretty blown away by the lack of judgment, and decided to go down and take video. Judge for yourself, but to me this is as dumb as it gets for a clearly talented rider.

We keep asking why beginner/intermediate riders do stupid things, especially at Hobie? Well for me this is the answer....if our instructors, locals and overall experienced riders are doing stupid things, everybody else will follow their lead.

(Built some awareness, now let's work on solutions. These problems are limited to Ft. Lauderdale but by some accounts occur in spots worldwide. Some ideas are in motion on how to better manage things. So have at it, our sport and your ability to pursue may be riding on how we do.)

lets try to stop this before some kid/mother/grandmother/friend gets killed...if you see something stupid taking place, call them out.

~patrick

ricki 03-15-2010 05:49 AM

Astounding, the guy is dealing with gusts and lulls rides within five feet upwind of that woman on a shallow sand bar. Then he throws a kiteloop over people's heads on the beach, landing in inches of water. Amazing indifference to the safety of others, much less yourself. Could see this guy going to jail in some other countries or even in this one if someone gets hurt. A dozen local kiters should have been having a serious heart to heart with this guy. Most of us realize what can happen in something like this, right? The water is so shallow, strike bottom and off he goes at light speed into the people, timber posts and parked cars. Or, he just screws up, the wind gusts, something breaks, he hits someone, etc. etc.. Luck doesn't last forever, or even much more than a few weeks at this launch.

robertovillate 03-15-2010 08:35 AM

astounding.

and do you mean that NOBODY there is willing to intervene?

kent 03-15-2010 08:59 AM

wait a second... you called him a local. i think that we know who this is and he is not a Miami local. in hearing about all of the issues, i think Miami can thank Ft. Lauderdale for sending down some great kite ambassadors that are threatening our access.

i didn't see the accidents, but the video is pretty clear. what the video didn't show is the hundreds of people in the water and on the beach with their kids. the funny thing is that the conditions were far better out on the sand bar.

come on boys, we have all seen enough dangle kite loops. take it off shore until you learn a new trick and show it too us later.

ricki 03-15-2010 09:24 AM

I was thinking it would be good for a dozen local kiters to talk with the guy whoever he is. Maybe Neil knows the guy, looks like he was on a SS kite.

I know folks just want to kite and probably don't want to get involved. Still ... someone gets slashed by lines, someone's child, mother or as Patrick pointed out. Even more likely, who wants to volunteer their car get get some major front end work, smashed windshield, hood with an inbound kiter? It's happened before.

Is there enough interest at Hobie, really all our launches wherever they may be in the State for a bunch of guys to stop what they are doing long enough to talk some sense to someone like this? If a guy was riding a dirt bike like this through your neighborhood, you would just let him do it? It isn't someone else's job, it's our job, like it or not. If you see something like this, you should want to get involved, if for no other reason than preservation of your ability to ride.

So, how about it, would people get involved or just blow it off?

Josh 03-15-2010 10:21 AM

I was at Hobie yesterday. Man, what an awesome day for kiting. After 3:00 we had 20+, sunny, and "warm" weather for the first time in a long long mediocre season here.

To everyone who was out on the sandbar yesterday, props. It was a blast riding out there with everyone pushing themselves in the huge flatwater paradise. I saw some insane stuff being thrown down out there, wow.

I'm not sure why anyone stayed near the shore? The wind was flukier, it wasn't as flat, and there wasn't any room to push yourself because if you missed the bar on a pass it would be in the trees immediately. Am I missing something?

greg meintjes 03-15-2010 10:54 AM

sad
 
One of the things , I find really disturbing is that the guy is not even a beginner , so he can not even claim ignorance regarding his behaviour,he just could not care ,all he wanted to do was show off, there were also a lot of other riders that should not have been riding where they were from what I could see on the video. I think it is great that this video was posted so we can at least put faces to the guys that are going to ruin access at certain spots for us,I do not ride there,but a bad accident there can definately affect other launch sites.

Greg

neil xrated 03-15-2010 12:22 PM

FYI, this is "a". He does not ride for Slingshot, he is not from Ft. Lauderdale. He has been a rider for x ago, then y then z now nobody, I wonder why???????????

kent 03-15-2010 01:55 PM

Sorry Neil for calling out Ft. Lauderdale. I guess that the other guy was from around there. Not sure, but I'd bet that he got the heck scared out of him when he ditched his foil after nearly killing himself and at least 5 others. I hear that he's a pretty nice guy and is probably at home feeling stupid. As for "b", he's a good guy, but should know better. I hope he'll respect our riding area a bit more in the future. I know that you more than most have had to deal with riders like this when trying to preserve access. It's not easy.

Good seeing you in Tampa. As it stands, it looks like we would have been better off staying on this coast for the weekend!

cabdriver 03-15-2010 03:26 PM

I vote that we implement an IQ test for existing and new riders. The problems with "a" and "b" yesterday would have never happened because they would have never passed the test. Seriously, how many frickin' times do we have to write about this?

NO KITING INSIDE THE SWIM BUOYS AT HOBIE BEACH!!

This isn't even a locals issue, you shouldn't ride like that at any location. Props to Patrick for catching it on video. I watched both of those two cracking up 10 feet from the "beach" inside of an exposed sandbar no less... DUH. I drove down to see who died after "b"'s incident, but he had already packed up. Apparently he released his kite before "final" impact and miraculously, nobody was injured.

There were at least three lessons inside the swim buoys as well. That's brilliant too. The sad fact is that the other concessionaires at this location (windsurfing, catamarins, and SUP) have stuck their necks out for the kiters because they don't want regulation coming down on their sports if heavy regulation is imposed on the kiting. I somehow doubt that they will continue to support us after we continue to disregard any standard of safety at this spot, as well as to endanger their patrons.


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