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Helmets Hit SBC Kiteboard

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RickI
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Helmets Hit SBC Kiteboard

Postby RickI » Tue May 11, 2004 4:29 pm

The Spring issue of SBC Kiteboard magazine just arrived yesterday. It has lots of good content as always, BUT in addition to that there are a couple of articles by Paul Menta and myself that I wanted to draw attention to.

Paul's article title is simple ... "Wear A Helmet"

Mine is ... "Helmets, Brain Pans, Lids - Who Needs 'Em?"

The mag is worth a read and so are these articles.

There have been recent accidents in which a helmet might have made a difference including the sad accident involving a kiteboarder last week in Utah. I understand that this safety conscious rider often would wear a helmet but didn't on the critical day. At last report he was still in a coma but hopefully soon to come out of it and get on the road to full recovery. More about this unfortunate accident at:
phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=2302823

Picking and choosing when and when not to wear a helmet is a dicey proposition. Best to get a good one for kiteboarding, wear it whenever you ride and forget about it. This stuff is for just in case after all.
Last edited by RickI on Thu May 13, 2004 1:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Postby Toby » Tue May 11, 2004 5:01 pm

big thx to you and Paul.
Our sport needs guys like you to have a future.
I hope more magazines see the need of articles like that, since their future is over when the sport is...

Thx
Toby

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Postby Thor » Thu May 13, 2004 5:36 am

Great job Rick. We all know you are one safety minded individual and anyone who sees you kiteboard will see that you walk the talk. :bye: Paul on the other hand, how many pictures do we see on his web sites where no one is wearing a helmet I think he is talking the talk and collecting the money. :cash:

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RickI
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Postby RickI » Thu May 13, 2004 1:36 pm

Thor wrote:Great job Rick. We all know you are one safety minded individual and anyone who sees you kiteboard will see that you walk the talk. :bye: Paul on the other hand, how many pictures do we see on his web sites where no one is wearing a helmet I think he is talking the talk and collecting the money. :cash:
Thanks Toby and Thor, it is good to see more people taking simple precautions to focus on the fun and try to dodge the down side of things.

Paul started using a helmet and promoting their use in the last year. The Velocity Games a year ago this month was the first competition in the USA in which helmets were REQUIRED for competitors hitting the kicker and slider. Paul was an important contributor/organizer of that event and is heavily involved in organizing VG '04 that is to start in a couple of weeks.

I understand that use of helmets in kiteboarding instruction under PASA is going to be actively enforced and verified through planned course audits. Paul is the lead instructor for PASA and should be performing many of the audits personally. I frequently speak with Christopher Nygard also of PASA about new measures for adopting and effectively promoting sensible steps like this focused on safety and sustainability of our sport.

Paul is actively promoting helmet use in more ways than the article and the few actions described above but it is premature to talk much more about those efforts at this time. More to come on this in the future though.

Lastly, the rider in Utah that was seriously injured in a lofting accident last week is a close personal friend of Paul. If he was motivated to promote helmet use in the past he is REALLY motivated now. I understand that Derik appears to be close to coming out of his coma after more than a week, I truly hope he awakens soon and rapidly recovers.

Your idea about showing more folks rigged out on kste.net website is a good one though, I will pass it along. I have been using and plugging helmets, etc. for many years but this is just a hobby for me. It is great that the guys in the business are starting to take up promoting these simple precautions. More supporters are welcome.

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Postby Steve Martin » Thu May 13, 2004 2:00 pm

Any chance of us reading one or both articles on the internet?

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RickI
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Postby RickI » Thu May 13, 2004 5:11 pm

Steve Martin wrote:Any chance of us reading one or both articles on the internet?
I spoke with the folks at SBC Kiteboard about that and I should upload the articles to the FKA column in a few days. Checkout the print version if you can though, there is a lot of good stuff in the issue.

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Postby sid5150 » Thu May 13, 2004 5:58 pm

Toby wrote:big thx to you and Paul.
Our sport needs guys like you to have a future.
I hope more magazines see the need of articles like that, since their future is over when the sport is...
Those are kind words to our handwringing pals, but I've noticed that you don't necessarily buy in :wink: . Of course, it is intolerable to suggest helmets won't ensure you live forever. But you don't want to look like a chump (or Crank Yanker's 'Special Ed') while kiteboarding either.

By the time you need a helmet, it is already too late - Safety is best addressed BEFORE you even set up your gear.

Safety is what you do to prevent horrendous things from happening. Helmets simply mitigate the damage (sometimes) when you have failed to implement safety.


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Postby oceanplay » Thu May 13, 2004 6:54 pm

thank's rick i was looking for one that looked good, you found it i always where a baseball cap to protect my bald spot from the sun and it keeps the spray out of my eyes. now i will always have some skull protection also. if we can only get some kite shops to sell them now. i'v been looking in some and they don't keep any in stock they had one didn't like it nor did it fit.

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Postby oceanplay » Thu May 13, 2004 7:08 pm

Here's the link. just got off the phone with the guy's there real nice people got all in stock today order up be safe and happy this is for the sweet one's, i'm sure they have many more. :D

http://www.noc.com/ss/wkhelmet.htm



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Postby Kitedude » Thu May 13, 2004 7:54 pm

oceanplay, we looked into stocking them a while back. but they were just far to expensive, we done a survey and no onewe asked was willing to pay such a high price for sweet helmets.

kinda silly isn't it. willing to spend their money on other stuff but when it comes to their life. its to expensive

which one did you get??


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