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Old 02-11-2005, 09:02 AM
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ricki ricki is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Florida
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Default Serious Head Injury

On Friday, January 28, 2005 a 185 lb. a well experienced kiteboarder was rigging up to go kiteboarding. He was near the NE corner of Cable Beach, Nassau, Bahamas as shown on the map. The launch is known as Go Slow Bend for the nearby roadway to the east. In NE winds it is a popular launch for smooth water in side to side offshore winds with a lee shore in the distance to land on if necessary.


Nassau and the location of Cable Beach on the north central coast.

The wind had been mainly sideshore from the NE at around 20 to 25 kts and building slightly. The weather was partially cloudy with no storms in the area.



The rider was anxious to go kiteboarding as he had not had the opportunity for a free riding session for a while. He considered not going out given the strengthening wind conditions but decided to go anyway. Another kiteboarder gave him an assisted launch with his 8 m inflatable kite at a point northwest of the rider with both of them on the beach adjacent to the water at about 2 pm.


In the area north of the launch looking to the NE.

It was at low tide and the bottom nearshore consisted of more or less level hard bottom with sand pockets and scattered small rocks. The area was well covered over with sand until the hurricanes blew through last summer.


The view to the west southwest from the launch across Cable Beach.

The wind was NE or sideshore at time of launch at about 20 kts and gusted and then lulled while shifting more easterly. At this point the wind was OFFSHORE blowing the kiter away from the land. This caused the kite to initially power up and then drift downwind to the west closer to the center of the wind window when the wind gusted strongly to about 27 kt.


I understand that the weather resembled what is shown above. These represent, dangerous supercell squalls with the potential to toss out far stronger winds that actually happened on this day. Winds over 60 kts. aren't that uncommon in such storms with violent direct changes.

The rider had the sick sinking feeling rush over him at this point and started to unhook and pull the bar to steer the kite downwind away from shore. He was lofted about 3 ft. off the surface a short distance and then landed on his back. He was dragged across the shallows a distance of approximately 30 m at about 30 mph. He had a Dakine moveable spreader bar which he credited with aiding him in unhooking and releasing the kite. His spreader bar and kite leash attachment ripped free from his harness as it was damaged during the dragging resulting in the kite flying away. The kite flew off and landed on the beach on the far side of the bay.

The rider suffered serious scalp lacerations possibly from scraping across the bottom along with other injuries. He managed to stumble into shore and await the arrival of the ambulance.





*** WARNING: GRAPHIC INJURY PHOTOS FOLLOW ***














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transcribed by:
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Last edited by ricki; 01-19-2012 at 09:05 PM.
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