Injury at Skyway

[DanB]

Here is an update from my friend who spoke to the family.

The rider is from Venice Florida and had a gash on his head, sprained neck, broken vertebrae, broken tailbone and several lacerations.

He stayed overnight and will be released today.

Hope that he is more careful next time.

This does pose a serious risk of beach closure and yesterday at skyway was pretty messy.

I am not sure the best answer but we as a group may need to consider something soon.

Sad to hear about this. It's disappointing that someone didn't stop this guy when they saw the deal going down. Asking for lessons, trying to ride right before the wind picks up at 7, etc. Who launched him?

So much talk about self regulating our sport and obviously it is not working.

If you try to speak up instead of just giving a thumbs up you are branded as a drama queen, chastised, etc. We are getting 25 new riders per week and if we are going to be too polite to stop someone (obviously unqualified) from riding we are going to have a few more serious injuries this year, maybe a fatality.

Sad, I hope he recovers and gets trained correctly.

[BigR]

It's pretty obvious.

We need a gatekeeper.

An that person is the person who is always at the beach.

Also , if that person doesn't have the time to keep the new person under constant vigilance then that new person cannot kite there until they prove to be proficient.

It's also in the best interests of the gatekeeper since shuting down access also shuts him down.

Otherwise we won't last another season there

[TritonKiteboarding]

Almost got jumped on the other night about half a dozen times, also watched guys jumping about 10-20 feet from the shore. Mainly saw waroo's doin it, but as everyone has one, they're pretty much hard to single out. Was pretty suprised no one got injured sunday night.

The stoke is good and its cool to encourage people to progress and jump but i'd try and refrain from cheering it on when it only takes a gust to move their landing zone to dry land.

Sorry to hear about this guy hope he his recovery goes well and he's learned his lesson.
-TritonKiteboarding.com

Originally Posted by TritonKiteboarding

Almost got jumped on the other night about half a dozen times, also watched guys jumping about 10-20 feet from the shore.

Totally agree... I showed up to ride on Sat night and saw the same thing. People jumping right on shore. It was complete chaos .... ended up riding alone after everyone packed up. It completely blew my mind as to how irresponsible many riders have become in just the last year. Can't say I didn't see it coming though. Either these people will learn a hard lesson and it will stop, or it won't stop and we'll all learn a hard lesson later.

[toby wilson]

I agree with Bob. A certification means close to NOTHING. It is easy for a "certified" instructor to get lost in trying to pound out lessons to make the most money possible or to lose genuine concern for the student due to the number of students that they teach. I am not saying that this happens locally but rather that I feel that a good quality instructor is more than a piece of paper saying that you are "certified" to teach.

"What kind of board was he on? I know a guy that showed up earlier with a particular brand board asking about lessons and had already purchased a board and seemed very gung-ho."

Don't worry Scott, it wasn't one of my Skywalkers this guy was riding...

Creating drama on a forum because you are bored is something completely different than showing genuine concern for someone's safety Tom. Stop complaining about it on the forum as has been done on countless threads (not pointing the finger just at you, but at myself and others as well) and actually PROVE that you are CONCERNED by showing that concern at the beach. You are right, someone should have stopped this guy if he was exhibiting kook-like behavior...like asking about lessons and when he couldn't get them just launching.

I agree a "gatekeeper" would be a good idea but that person also needs to have close contact with others in the area who have given lessons and "approved" other newbie riders or it will cause friction on our beaches.

Bottom line is that you can't control this type of thing, it WILL happen sooner or later just like car accidents do. It is a fact of life and I don't see any sense in bringing attention to ourselves until the authorities ASK us to. I thought the sign with rules idea a while back was a great idea to post at each launch site but these ideas never seem to develop into reality. I think we as a community have a good track record in our area as far as accidents go, keep it what it is...as soon as you change it you will be wishing it was like it was "last season".

[TampaBay Noob]

Originally Posted by toby wilson

Don't worry Scott, it wasn't one of my Skywalkers this guy was riding...

Don't take it the wrong way toby, but that guy I spoke of WAS on one of your lightwind skywalkers.....i was on the other of course.

[toby wilson]

Originally Posted by TampaBay Noob

Don't take it the wrong way toby, but that guy I spoke of WAS on one of your lightwind skywalkers.....i was on the other of course.

Not taken in a bad way Sean. We all make mistakes and it sounds like the rider you are referring to was a proficient enough rider to be jumping...I was referring to the guy that got hurt...and in my opinion YOU are more than ready for riding the Skyway. To avoid out of control kooks, just ride upwind of them my friend.

[BigR]

Who launched him? I'm not pointing a finger at you Raul

I have no clue, I was way upwind ( where its safe ) . in fact I didn't launch a single kite for anybody yesterday

Originally Posted by toby wilson

Creating drama on a forum because you are bored is something completely different than showing genuine concern for someone's safety Tom. Stop complaining about it on the forum as has been done on countless threads and actually PROVE that you are CONCERNED by showing that concern at the beach.

Toby, I don't know why you feel you need to single me out and make it personal attack every time I voice my concern about safety.

If you aren't disagreeing with me why exactly did you choose to single me out on this thread?

If you actually showed up to ride once in awhile you'd see that I usually spend more time helping beginners, recovering boards and launching and landing kites than I do riding. I've learned some hard lessons myself and am always sharing stories with beginners to educate them about the dangers of kiting.

You just can't agree with everything and expect to make a change at the same time. We definitely cannot promote safety by nodding and giving the thumbs up to everything under the sun while some newb launches himself into the black void.

[edited, i got the Steve's mixed up]

Btw, I agree instructors should be certified... but it is obvious that the training required for some certifications at the moment is not quite up to the level it should be. That IS a problem, but it's a problem of the certifying agency, not the certification itself. And of course there are some great instructors who are not certified... but that is usually because they let their certification lapse, not because they were never trained to begin with. There are still a few who are just good at teaching anything... but there is no way for a beginner to recognize that without some form of certificate.