another Kitesurf accident Causing the death of a woman :(

[calibra]

http://www.lindependant.fr/2015/04/04/u ... 013226.php

[alamos_kiter]

.

[ronnie]

Condolences to her family.

Translation.

This Saturday afternoon, 30 to 16 hours , a young woman was killed by practicing kite surfing ( surfboard towed by a kite ) on the pond Barcarès . The 30-year -old victim was practicing kite-surfing on the lake, at the Dosses center. Very strong winds were blowing and the young woman is gone. It is unfortunately fallen violently on the floor. Quickly rushed to the scene of the accident, firefighters and ambulance service team practiced CPR to try to bring the girl back to life. In vain. She was declared dead by rescuers on site.

[SupaEZ]

France time 4:30 pm this afternoon
Very strong gusty wind....30 year old women got lofted....dropped violently to the ground
Very very sad news

[Toby]

very sad to hear this. My condolences to family and friends.

Does anyone know how strong the wind was?

[SupaEZ]

very sad to hear this. My condolences to family and friends.

Does anyone know how strong the wind was?

I found this wind graph (from Leucate) just a bit North of where it happened
At 4:00 pm it shows 16 mph gusting to 35 mph
At 4:30 which is the time they report the accident happened 14 to 29 mph

http://www.windfinder.com/report/saint- ... orary=True

[Vin Stefanelli]

a lake?
a big lake?

[RedSky]

Probably a library picture. She died doing what she enjoyed but obviously very sad for those she leave's behind I'm sure. Kite safe, drive safe, try to be safe whatever you do.

[Toby]

16 gusting 35 is serious pressure, specially with assuming a girl with not much weight.

Sounds like she got lofted and crashed hard...on land?

[RickI]

I am very sorry to hear about this as well. Strength to her family and friends at this tragic time.

The windplot on Windfinder is in knots. If she had something on the order of 14 to 29 kts. or worse 16 gusting to 35 kts. that could be enough wind to cause problems particularly if she was rigged too big, lacked experience in such conditions or something else was off. Plus local winds could have been stronger than those at Leucate. We may never know but if someone learns more details it would be good to know and discuss to try to avoid repetition. It is strange that there is very little in the media other than the same limited information, even in the French forums I checked. I have never been to that area, is NW a particularly gusty direction through land, mountain effects as in some other parts of the Med coast of France? Was it a Tramontane?