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  #31  
Old 10-02-2007, 09:23 AM
Roadancer Roadancer is offline
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Steve-O has a great class at Water Sports West; kind of the "before you go out on the water" fundamentals class. In it he packs locations and hazards, all on a CD as well as the basics you need to know before you even get out.

Had me pretty well set by the time I started taking lessons from Randy.

Amen on the local instructors, just make sure they are PASA certified.
-Roadie

Quote:
Originally Posted by bryanleighty View Post
just a thought ...

this is a great example of why its so important to stress that local riders get lessons from local instructors.

yes you can make a fun trip to cabarette or another exotic location and learn to kite.. but by learning from a local you get inside knowlege on riding spots and weather conditions.
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  #32  
Old 10-02-2007, 11:41 AM
Christopher Kenny Christopher Kenny is offline
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Default Chris' condition

Thank you to everyone who has expressed concern regarding Chris. He is still in the ICU but is improving everyday and will be ok. I told him about how great most of the kiteboarders and people had been and he has been reading the blog. As such, please understand that Chris did have quite abit of instruction and was doing well. He should have had more local lessons and trust me it was not for lack of trying. He will kiteboard again and will have a better understanding about local conditions. THIS WAS AN ACCIDENT. THERE WERE ALOT of EXPERIENCED kiteboarders at the causeway...he thought it was ok if they were there. It does not help anyone, including my son, to keep talking about whether kiting there was 'stupid'. We have remained quiet even though the press has hounded us as Chris' first concern was that his accident not affect the sport he loves negatively and knew that things would get turned around in the press. Alot of people read these blogs...negative comments are not going to help ANYONE. Thank you for your concern, he is in the ICU at St. Joe's in Tampa and doing as well as can be expected. Chris' mom
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  #33  
Old 10-02-2007, 11:45 AM
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bryanleighty bryanleighty is offline
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while I am not as harsh with my words, I have to agree with some of what you are saying sandandsurf...problem is that its just so easy to feel like you have control 100% of the time.. and with the newer style kites you can handle extreme gusts with relative ease.

its the subject of most all of our forum threads and the facts are that people are going to do what people want to do in a sport like this. we can, as a community, try our best to enforce rules for safety and whatnot.. but if someone wants to put up their kite near some power lines.. no one can really stop them..

I am glad that every quote I read or saw regarding this accident emphasized the safety and education side instead of people saying "Its EXTREME man!! Its an adrenalin rush!! Lets all have a Mountain Dew and chase it with a red bull and go hit the sliders!! YEEHAW!!"...

and I alway get a kick outta someone misspelling genius.
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  #34  
Old 10-02-2007, 11:52 AM
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bryanleighty bryanleighty is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Christopher Kenny View Post
Thank you to everyone who has expressed concern regarding Chris. He is still in the ICU but is improving everyday and will be ok. I told him about how great most of the kiteboarders and people had been and he has been reading the blog. As such, please understand that Chris did have quite abit of instruction and was doing well. He should have had more local lessons and trust me it was not for lack of trying. He will kiteboard again and will have a better understanding about local conditions. THIS WAS AN ACCIDENT. THERE WERE ALOT of EXPERIENCED kiteboarders at the causeway...he thought it was ok if they were there. It does not help anyone, including my son, to keep talking about whether kiting there was 'stupid'. We have remained quiet even though the press has hounded us as Chris' first concern was that his accident not affect the sport he loves negatively and knew that things would get turned around in the press. Alot of people read these blogs...negative comments are not going to help ANYONE. Thank you for your concern, he is in the ICU at St. Joe's in Tampa and doing as well as can be expected. Chris' mom

I think I speak for the absolute majority of the group of guys and gals that kitesurf in our area that we know that accidents of this nature can (and unfortunately will) happen. Please keep us updated and let him know we cant wait to see him back out on the water..
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  #35  
Old 10-02-2007, 01:53 PM
E-Bone
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When I heard about the accident, I had a reflexive thought of "kiting by power lines, WTF?" until I heard that Chris is 16 years old.

The guy's in high school, still growing up. I am glad to see that the post flaming Chris was removed. Let's give Chris a break and not write him off as some jerk who was bound to get hurt somehow, someway because of recklessness. Whatever Chris's story is, I am sure he is not as wild and insane as I was at his age. I don't believe that I've met Chris but it sounds like he is a pretty cool guy.

Besides, Chris is hurt. I am sure no one has the cajones to go to his hospital room and spew venom at the guy in front of his family, so why go on this forum and kick him while he is down? Some of his decisions may have been bad but personal attacks on a forum are weak under any circumstances and even worse here. Quality people make bad decisions at times. It is important for us to talk about the controllable factors that contributed to his accident so others can avoid such decisions, but there is no need to insult Chris or any other kiter around here.

Chris's accident drives home the point of why it is important to identify and calculate risk in this sport, at all levels. If Chris had assessed the situation correctly, he likely would have kept his kite on the ground or found another place to ride because he would have realized that the risks inherent at that spot at that time were too great for the potential reward. I suspect Chris wishes he could turn back the clock and decide differently.

It sounds like some other kiters dodged the bullet that day, but a bad kiting decision is a bad decision regardless of outcome. Sometimes you pay sooner, sometimes later, but if you keep making questionable kiting decisions, the odds will eventually catch up with you. Every kiteboarder who plans to continue pursuing this sport needs to think long and hard about that reality and sweep his or her own doorstep.

The sure way to avoid kiteboarding injuries is to shun the sport entirely. Given that such an approach is not acceptable to most kiteboarders, the next best approach is to minimize or eliminate risks that do not contribute much to the rewards of kiting. Riding in appropriate weather at safe kiting locations with well-designed gear that is in good repair goes a long way to reducing the likelihood of an accident. Start messing with that formula and your risk starts to go up but you are probably not having much more fun. Indeed, you are probably having less fun.

Get well, Chris. I have a stack of kiteboarding mags from the past several years, so if you want something to read while you are stuck in the hospital or at home, send a private message my way with your mailing address and I will send them to you via UPS Ground.
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  #36  
Old 10-02-2007, 02:28 PM
popeye
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Christopher Kenny View Post
Thank you to everyone who has expressed concern regarding Chris. He is still in the ICU but is improving everyday and will be ok. I told him about how great most of the kiteboarders and people had been and he has been reading the blog. As such, please understand that Chris did have quite abit of instruction and was doing well. He should have had more local lessons and trust me it was not for lack of trying. He will kiteboard again and will have a better understanding about local conditions. THIS WAS AN ACCIDENT. THERE WERE ALOT of EXPERIENCED kiteboarders at the causeway...he thought it was ok if they were there. It does not help anyone, including my son, to keep talking about whether kiting there was 'stupid'. We have remained quiet even though the press has hounded us as Chris' first concern was that his accident not affect the sport he loves negatively and knew that things would get turned around in the press. Alot of people read these blogs...negative comments are not going to help ANYONE. Thank you for your concern, he is in the ICU at St. Joe's in Tampa and doing as well as can be expected. Chris' mom
Very relieved to hear he is recovering quickly. I hope he is up and riding again soon.
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  #37  
Old 10-02-2007, 03:33 PM
Skyway Scott
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I am also relieved to hear that he is okay.
I didn't read a flame post on here (maybe it was removed, I just got home). I feel like most of us have expressed geniune concern for Chris and pray he gets well.

However, I do believe it would be irresponsible to not learn from each other's mistakes. If we do not discuss the mistakes made, others might make the same mistake again.
I also believe that since this did grab media attention, making it clear most of us avoid that area and those types of conditions is necessary to assure the public that we are safe. I hope Chris sees it that way and agrees.

I was asked to give some inputs today on safety and the local kiting scene, to what I thought was going to be Channel 8 (I don't know now who it was, in all honestly, because I did a phone interview and then someone showed up in "normal" car).
I demonstrated our safety gear and I was asked if Chris's accident was avoidable. I did answer yes, and explained about not launching upwind of power lines. I think I phrased it "He would have lessened his odds drastically". I definitely wasn't going to answer the question with "no, nothing different could have been done."

I made it clear I was not there, and was going by what I heard.
If they edit that out, trust me, I made it clear from the get go I was answering the question based on information received, not personally witnessed. I was also asked if Chris was an experienced rider.
Again, I said I didn't know Chris, but that most of us know each other and the fact so few of us have met him and the nature of the mistake made, that I assumed Chris was a new rider (to me, less than 2 years is a fairly new rider). I answered questions regarding Chris's accident the best I could given information provided by from eyewitnesses
My answers were non-emotional and matter of fact. My single goal was to the leave the interviewer with the understanding that our sport is safe when performed properly.

Hopefully they don't axe murder it to the point of editing out everything but three words "can be dangerous".

I hope you and Chris understand some of our points of view in simply trying to keep our sport safe and educate riders as well as the public. This accident has become a focal point, like it or not, and we need to make it clear it was an avoidable accident, imo.
I don't think any of us feels anything but sad for Chris's accident and we just want to lessen the odds of similar accidents occuring in the future.
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  #38  
Old 10-02-2007, 03:46 PM
popeye
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I heard you comparing kite boarding to shuffleboard.

Shuffleboard is dangerous. When I was 10 I got hit in the face with the stick. My life as a super model was over
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  #39  
Old 10-02-2007, 03:55 PM
Skyway Scott
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Oh, huge thanks to BigAirAl for letting us borrow his gear for awhile.
He was itching to ride BIG time, and we were sitting there pointing at his kite and the bar and lines and stufff. To add insult, Bob was out riding and having a good time.
Thanks for being patient and not getting dragged on your launch in the mud on film, Al!
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  #40  
Old 10-02-2007, 04:38 PM
Skyway Scott
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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.

One : I said most riders average age is between 25 and 35, not all riders. Heck, I am 40! Howard is 65.
Not a biggie to most, but I am a stickler for getting people's words correct and made an effort to break down the population by age, sex, etc. To me, this just shows lack of attention to detail and not caring about accurate reporting.

Two: I said Chris would have lessened his odds of injury by not being near the powerlines. The size of the kite (which I don't even know) is irrelevant and I didn't mention it. I focussed most of my discussion on location.
I also stressed that as a new rider, knowing about local weather would be very difficult and that only made matters worse and that the gust event caught him off guard. I went on to say (not related to this event) that in most situations, riding a distance offshore gives any rider more time to respond to a non-anticipated event.
I didn't say Chris in particular. It might sound like I am splitting hairs, but it's a misquote.

Third: I pointed out I didn't want to point the finger, especially to a new rider that was injured, but that I felt the accident could be avoided. Again, I focussed on the object and powerline, and made it clear new riders have little experience with weather.
The quote sounds much more harsh than I remember.

The video was edited to the best of light in my opinion (if focussing on the accident). Julie obviously wanted to focus on Chris's accident and that it was indeed an accident, not a common occurence.
We spent much more time demonstrating the safety gear (don't know why now) than talking about Chris.
I guess they have to focus on something. The accident has been in the spotlight, it was still the focal point.
I expected a little different, still naive at 40, I guess.
Anyway, just want people to know the scoop on what was said and then what was represented in the article.

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2007/oct...?news-breaking

I am intersted, btw, accidents are on the rise?
One is one. I guess one is larger than zero?

My conclusion, these guys are in it (writing articles) for the headlines and not in it for providing accurate information. Misquoting or distorting quotes for a "better" story is wrong. I am frustrated that my effort to provide accurate information was distorted.
I was concerned about this when Rick contacted me about giving the interview (why I CMA'd on prior post).
But, I did it anyway. I won't make that mistake again.

Last edited by Skyway Scott; 10-02-2007 at 05:19 PM.
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