IKO's new program: no more board leashes!

[Toby]

The IKO does not use board leashes for their instruction courses anymore!

I did an interview with Sandrine Roussos, manager of the IKO, and asked about her opinion of using board leashes.

If you followed the forum the last weeks, we reported about a nasty accident, where a girl got hit hard on her teeth and a fellow kiter in Taiwan died using a board leash.

I interviewed Sandrine and was very happy to hear, that the new IKO workbooks and instructions do not work with board leashes anymore, even using a helmet. This is a major step towards more safety in our sport. We all have to properly learn how to drag back to our boards and recover them, this way it can be learned from the first minute on.

Here you can watch the complete interview:

[kiteforumtv]http://www.kiteforum.tv/video/Interview ... nager.html[/kiteforumtv]

[surfingwithkites]

Professional kite instructors were actually using leashes for beginners? And it took how many years to figure that one out? Are you serious?

Makes me glad I learned before the days of kite lessons.

[tungsten222]

bis repetita non placent.

[Cumbuco]

Hi Toby

what do you mean with " even using a helmet " ???

Hasnt it been always the rule that IKO teached with helmets ?

Greetings from Cumbuco

www.Cumbuco.com

[Experimental player]

The next thing IKO can think about is -
"1 action quick release to a instant flagging safety."

Forget pullies and bridles. We have learnt they break when fully powered.
This is the tragic moment when an instant flagging safety is needed.

Also teach your students the relaunch advantages of 5 lines.

[Toby]

the IKO always say to use helmets during instructions.

People say using a board leash is ok when you also use a helmet. But now even with a helmet you should not use any board leash at all, since still too much can happen.

[Feng]

"Go Joe" from Ocean Rodeo is in my point of view the best alternative.
Actually, my jumping went better the day I decided to put a Go Joe on my two boards.

Rational: before I was "afraid" to spend 10 minutes in the waves/shoppy water doing my (not very efficient) body dragging.

So I often did not took the chance to make a little pop or a small jump.
Now with the "Go Joe" I do not care anymore. I take all possible opportunity as I know that I will be able to get back to my board very quickly.

[RickI]

Thanks for passing word of this along Toby. For years we've talked about a sequence of water instruction going from body dragging, to body dragging upwind to recover the board to working on water starting on the board. It would be good to see this added to formal IKO course content with effective promotion among instructors.

Another plus is that you don't need as much wind to teach body dragging upwind as you might for water starting. I know instructors that stopped using leashes for students about seven years ago. It is good to see the IKO adopt and promote this policy of no more board leash use.

As an aside, I think helmet and impact vest use in instruction is an obvious precaution. When accidents happen at least the instructor can show some precautions were taken independent of instruction to try to protect the student. Absent such protections it is that much harder to avoid appearing negligent and at fault for the training accident and consequences. Not sure what it will take for effective promotion of these simple aids among kiteboarding instructors.

What is the formal position of some of the board leash manufacturers specific to kiteboarding on these safety issues? Not talking about leashes intended for use on surf boards which will always have an important place in conventional surfing. How about using a board leash for wakeboarding? Sound idiotic, it is. Kiting is little better given our collective experience over many years. It would be good to hear from the kiteboarding leash manufacturers on this question, retailers too for that matter. How about it guys?

FKA, Inc.

transcribed by:
Rick Iossi

[paul m]

All i can say is its about time! At least it happened, but took way to long. Many more things need to be looked at in this industry in a hurry and not wait until to much has already happened. When a data base of instructors is had, feed back and input should be used, it is not at this point. That is a waste of great knowledge from people all over the world.

[afflatus]

well,

That was entertaining, how many times did she say "safety" 50? 70? times, never once said money or profit potential...

Considering the topic, that struck me as both telling and egregious..

I found it interesting that those who lack communication skills were encouraged to book another hour or two, in extreme cases of ill suited to the task, another eight hours was seen as-- ought to do the trick....

Eh, I've never viewed the iko as anything more than a business in business solely to leverage a word ...

In a word, the word "safety"

how many times did she say it?

LOL