I wish his family and friends what comfort they can find at this terrible time.
Severe accidents can culminate from a long list of small choices. Many have been mentioned in this thread already. Even experienced riders can get into trouble, for many years in the earlier days of the sport the more experienced guys were the ones primarily getting killed. So, it comes down to the decisions we make, no news there.
Some related posts;
- Wind shadow, it really is important and has factored in way too many accidents both severe and minor ones. Wind shadow or mechanical turbulence is caused by land features disturbing the air flow resulting in significant gusts and lulls, at times to a lethal degree. This is a main reason why offshore winds or winds which have passed over nearby land, particularly high points on land can relate to poor and even non-kiteable conditions.
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2354972
- Inland kiting, a now ten year old post but the information is still worth thinking about.
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2297514&p=90620#p90620
I did a study for a private concern some years ago now. One of the conclusions was the incidence of severe accidents involving a solo kiter were significantly higher. Even if you are kiting in a crowd, as some victims have in the past, if you don't have a buddy, someone keeping an eye on you and vis versa, you are kiting alone in practical terms. Some solo victims riding in a crowd didn't rapidly come to the attention of responding kiters at times in the past or at least not rapidly enough. This doesn't equate to avoiding problems or instant salvation but could make a difference in the critical moments of an accident.