Who was this crazy guy who kited hurricane Irma in Miami Beach?

[grigorib]

What were the winds in Miami Beach at 12pm Eastern time?

[magnusod]

The wind could double or triple in strength in a hurry and you know it.
The first responders have other things to do than rescuing an obvious idiot.

The hurricane winds are pretty steady. If it's blowing 35 it won't triple.
Also, first responders will risk their lives to save him. And he won't be the first not being risked for.

What happened here then? I believe this is what Toby was referring to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UCQFJg4JaQ

[alkiter]

Meh, all our girls were out that day too.

[dylan*]

What were the winds in Miami Beach at 12pm Eastern time?

I was a little north in Boca Raton and was pretty underpowered on my 7m, should have taken the 10. Miami was getting much stronger gusts, when I looked at the meters down that way it was more like 30-35. Wind was very gusty - some people commented how this guy was a kook because he was dropping in the water, but the same thing kept happening to me during jibes on my surfboard. There was something really funky going on with a strong rip close to the beach + the lulls in the wind.

[CaptainArgh]

Yeah, this is media BS. The reporter is the idiot who doesn't know what she is talking about and is just looking for an excuse to find shocking news.

I understand there are some local access issues in Miami where this action causes concern, though. That's an issue because he is kiting in front of a camera, but I'm hoping he didn't go out seeking a reporter. They found him.

From a kiting standpoint, doesn't look particularly extreme. Most of us have kited in higher wind, but there usually isn't a reporter on scene pointing at us. The surf is big but he's staying in close, on a twin tip, not even jumping. Kind of a boring session, actually. Not news-worthy. Hopefully he had kite friends on scene to help if needed.

[longwhitecloud]

Not for me to decide how you run your country but i am surprised that if you had a 14 year old son that was part of hold up a store and no one got hurt - is was ok for him to go to prison for 120 years so he cannot hurt anyone else including himself. Each to their own. Off topic politics for sure..

I saw 3 skateboarders get arrested for skateboarding on the pavement when i was in Oahu on a holiday kiting - 3 cop cars turned up. There is no law in NZ for skateboarding on the pavement or road in NZ so it was a huge surprise - so maybe they can arrest a kiteboarder too! alien to me, but different places and cultures i guess.

[grigorib]

Not for me to decide how you run your country but i am surprised that if you had a 14 year old son that was part of hold up a store and no one got hurt - is was ok for him to go to prison for 120 years so he cannot hurt anyone else including himself. Each to their own. Off topic politics for sure..

I saw 3 skateboarders get arrested for skateboarding on the pavement when i was in Oahu on a holiday kiting - 3 cop cars turned up. There is no law in NZ for skateboarding on the pavement or road in NZ so it was a huge surprise - so maybe they can arrest a kiteboarder too! alien to me, but different places and cultures i guess.

Skateboarders used to have tendency to trespass and ride empty outdoor swimming pools. There's no brake on the board so that fact might freak out aging lazy worried farts. In Hollywood, FL I was stopped by a park ranger for skateboarding too. Town of old people, I say. Hey, in Germany the Segway is outlawed because "it has no mechanical brakes". Go imagine mechanical brake on a Segway. On the other hand it would free roll from a hill when turned off, so maybe some kind of parking brake and head/tail lights would be necessary. And in UK you're not allowed to ride Segway on any public property. In Greece kiteboarding is illegal "outside of dedicated kitesurfing businesses/stations". All on "last I heard" basis, I hope things changed.
We also have active bird watchers who would push laws to protect shores from kitesurfers, etc.

As I see that guy - nobody needs to risk their lives attempting to save him and from the video it doesn't look he needed to be saved. If he dies, it's his bliss and his family tragedy, and a nice story and another picture frame otherwise.

The media sell mix of hype and fear. Too much excitement but who'd care to watch TV if she said "yeah, the wind is kind of crap, you see a guy riding 12m behind me which is a pretty big kite so nothing's happening, boring...."

We're not in most extreme sport, probably bicycles leave more people with broken bones and dead in absolute counts. Percentage wise, who knows
Let him ride, it's his life and right to do so....

[Cab Driver]

The wind could double or triple in strength in a hurry and you know it.
The first responders have other things to do than rescuing an obvious idiot.

The hurricane winds are pretty steady. If it's blowing 35 it won't triple.
Also, first responders will risk their lives to save him. And he won't be the first not being risked for.

I respectfully disagree. Hurricane winds are not predictable and steady. The wind is generally crap. Specifically in a case where one chooses to ride in a very large diameter and powerful storm, a feederband could easily have triple the wind in a lead-in gust and would creep up without warning in full cloud cover like I see in the video. This is just hero riding to tell the grandkids one day.

[Cab Driver]

This rider chose to use a wind-limited C kite and made the conditions look worse than they probably were. I live in Miami and those photos show NE or even NNE wind, which must have been late Friday or early Saturday, because on Sunday winds were super E and then SE and then SSW eventually. The Beach was under mandatory evacuation, covered with water, and non-kiteable wind conditions on Sunday. Sunday was when we really had the "hurricane". I like the storms myself, but I wouldn't screw around with a Cat 4 storm simply because the feeder bands are so unpredictable. If a tropical storm scrapes the coast and we get 25-35 kts? That's my kind of wind because it's more reasonable and the exposure and risk is much lower if the right rain and storm conditions are present (i.e. not present) and the precautions are taken. To say this was during the "hurricane" was total B.S. A Hurricane is sustained winds of >=74mph. 12m C-kite is like maybe riding a 9 Switchblade, so I'm giving this 12-22 kts, not a hurricane.

[Eckhardt]

I actually think the conditions during the megaloop challenge were worse