Really sad story from Gran Canaria!
http://spanishnewstoday.com/bather-virt ... 894-a.html
Now you wonder if this is also possible with kitesurfers.
Luckily the windsurfer was in the windsurf zone...so he didn't do anything wrong.
But imagine now, a kitesurfer gets into a swimmer's zone...and now we have to talk hydrofoils too...anyone on a foil has to take special care to avoid a situation like this.
What happens if a foil hits someone?
Windsurfer decapitate diver on Gran Canaria
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Toby
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Re: Windsurfer decapitate diver on Gran Canaria
I think only foils have the same cutting potential as a slalom windsurfing fin. Arinaga, the place where the accident happened, is famous between ws speed racer for the strong wind and the flat water. The article says the windsurfer was training for the world cup, so he was for sure using a slalom kit (a big sail and a long and sharp straight carbon fin), not to mention a dedicated speed kit. I don't think a TT would have made the same damage, for several reasons: first, a slalom board rode by an expert is far more fast than an average TT Second, the overall mass of the windsurf is 5 times the mass of the TT. Third, a TT does not carrry a balde (a 35 cm. carbon slalom fin launched at 25/30 knots IS actually a blade).
About the foil, no doubt they can be far worse than a ws, a really lethal weapon if they hit a swimmer.
About the foil, no doubt they can be far worse than a ws, a really lethal weapon if they hit a swimmer.
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Jake-Skymonster
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Re: Windsurfer decapitate diver on Gran Canaria
Maggie - perhaps not with fins but hitting someone in the head at speed on a TT would probably lead to the same end result...
PS. Poor guy by the way, he'll have to carry this to the end of his life, regardless of who was at fault...
PS. Poor guy by the way, he'll have to carry this to the end of his life, regardless of who was at fault...
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Oldpeople
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Re: Windsurfer decapitate diver on Gran Canaria
I was kiting once in Bonaire where there are hundreds of scuba dive sites and only one place allowed for kiting and that spot is also a dive site. I was cruising along when I looked down and realized that I had passed over a diver's head about 2 feet below the water who was returning to the beach. If he had popped his head up to check his direction to his exit spot on the beach I would have hit him in the head at full speed. The divers could see all the kiters and had hundreds of other equally nice spots to dive but decided to dive beneath the kiters. No one kiting was even aware they were out. It scared the hell of me. It made me sick to my stomach to think of what could have happened. Regardless of who is at fault, its not something I would want to have to live with.