longwhitecloud wrote:6 deaths in 2013 at least so far (i am pretty sure i have heard of others in non english speaking countries), most on land or ended up on land. I can also think of a handful in 2013 that ended up critically injured in intensive care and survived -(couple in uk from memory).
Hard to conclude accidents are only due to bad decisions, ability and weather conditions too; but there is no doubt about one thing - we can learn from these...
Very sorry to hear abut the NYC kiter.
Also agree that this has been a rough year with kite related deaths. It was starting to seem that improved safety systems, training and good judgement had overcome the death toll from prior years.
I am sure all of us have been in situations where we thought, "wow, I was lucky, that could have ended badly," which makes it more scary. If that happens to just about everybody, than it is a bit of a numbers game. You certainly plan accordingly to minimize your risks but there are times that the wind does things you did not anticipate or, for whatever reason, your kite goes down in a bad place. You have to get it up in the air safely and keep clear of lines either way.
That's what scares me about parents teaching young kids to kite. I know they take all precautions, but does a child have the knowledge or the sense to clear lines from the bar or the experience to tread water while keeping lines from wrapping around legs or body? You can die in this sport, without being reckless, right in front of people who won't be able to get to you fast enough to help. I *know* there are risks in *every* sport, so spare us the climb on that soapbox, please. It's a kite forum...we're talking about kite risks.