Quote:
Originally Posted by Skyway Scott
I just found the article by back tracking the reporters name on google.
The article had several misquotes from me, and imo, distorts statistics to make kiting look dangerous.
I wouldn't care so much if I didn't think it could sway public perception, but obviously it can.
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He also got all of the statistics wrong.
The statistics were obtained (and then twisted) from
http://kitesurfingschool.org/safety....t%20Statistics
If you look at the stats, accidents were DOWN FROM 2002.
2000 - 9 accidents - 1 fatal
2001 - 16 accidents - 3 fatal
2002 - 59 accidents - 9 fatal
2003 - 21 accidents - 1 fatal
14, he claims is the number of fatalities for 2003 is actually the TOTAL from 2000-2003.
So as popularity increased, equipment became better and riders became better trained and accidents went down by more than 50%. Fatal accidents went down by more than 90%!
This is also where he obtained the misspelling of Rick's name... so we know this is where these statistics came from.
It's interesting that the author would completely ignore the facts from the very source they were obtained unless of course he wanted kiteboarding to seem more dangerous than it actually is.
The facts suggest that kiteboarding is safer now than it has ever been.
2007 equipment is significantly better than 2003 equipment in regards to safety. 2003 equipment was so poor that none of us would even consider using it today.
1 fatality per year? I bet the easy bake oven has killed more people.