Video - Kiter Dragged Through Rocks

[RickI]

I understand this accident happened to a well experienced kiter visiting Key West for a week or so in mid January. He lives in Florida but may not have been all that familiar with things at Smathers particularly the outlying submerged rocks along the jetty. It is amazing that he came away with no TBI or spinal injury and only 60 stitches to deal with rock cuts. Blake and other friends helped to secure both the rider, his kite and get him to the hospital for treatment. That is how accidents work out, you never know how you will hit. A kiter in Europe died after hitting a rock like this with the subsequent head impact on another. This kiter was very lucky.



https://vimeo.com/152792946



A surface view looking south over the east side of the jetty where the accident presumably happened.



A look at all the stray rocks in the shallows in the area of the jetty. I understand it was around high tide and the water was turbid when the accident happened. These conditions made spotting the rock in advance quite difficult.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwYzFmnyFeY

This video shows off the location on the outer eastern side of the jetty at Smathers beach and general weather conditions at the time.

The accident may have happened within the hour before the wind clocked north with the movement of the front, taking wind dead offshore at Smathers. The wind was exceptionally gusty, approaching a range of 30 mph per this wind record from the USCG station. I understand westerly winds can be like that at Smathers, not real friendly in short. Excessive gust ranges like this make kiting extremely punchy and challenging.



Lots of us kite in shallow water, sometimes we may know we have hard submerged objects, other times not. Very little time was available to do anything after the high speed impact happened. The rider was knocked forward, did a head plant on the bottom, may have struck another rock, his board tensioned a kite leader aiding the start of a powered kite loop and the rider dropped the bar. Despite dropping the bar, the kite and rider still had plenty of forward momentum to drag him through the rocks. Given all that, the uncertainty of effectively being able to do anything after striking, the best course would be to try to avoid the impact in the first place.

So, work to avoid hitting hard submerged objects as obvious as that seems. It is an easy mistake to make for any of us. It might be a surprise to some to learn something as simple as that has killed people. Assume there may be stray rocks around piles of rocks as with jetties and groins and keep a reasonable distance away. If you are walking out and hit rocks, there you are. Try to stay in deep water, twin tip boards usually won't strike if you have at least 6 inches or so of water on level plane. Wave action can expose more deeply placed rocks to make them a threat however. When in doubt, turn for deeper water, walk if you can or at least go slow. You can down loop even with a fairly slow impact so the last may or may not help.

Wearing reasonable safety gear may help as well. He just as easily could have had his skull raked over a rock (or his face) causing a severe abrasion along with the risk of traumatic brain injury (TBI). A helmet might make the difference between growing back a bunch of hair and skin or worse serious brain injury, or not. Some impacts are just too hard for conventional helmets to help out that much. Still, you never know in advance what type of impact you will have and whether a helmet might just save your life and/or aid in more rapid recovery. It is best to wear a good one for the demands of kiting and forget you have it on.


FKA, Inc.

transcribed by:
Rick Iossi


.

[alamos_kiter]

Kiting at speed just upwind of a jetty... won't do that again in a hurry I guess

[Toby]

Wow, that's a tuff one!

Well, distance is your friend. Rule no 1 !

[RickI]

He was downwind of the jetty, on the east side. He struck near the outer or southern end of the structure. The water is deeper there, apparently not deep enough to avoid all rocks particularly if you are riding (too) close to the jetty. I understand the wind was gusting to around 40 mph near the time of the accident and was excessively gusty. Nasty, demanding conditions like that are yet other reasons to stay away from hard objects, even if they are upwind. I imagine the wind field over the jetty was torn up by uplift driven by incoming rotored wind. Unexpected things will happen. Being out in extreme conditions in particular should dictate playing it conservatively with what factors you able to control.

as Toby said, "Distance is your friend" in kiting, driving, lots of things, except in playing horseshoes.

[sarc]

Well experienced rider maybe, smart... maybe not so much

[Bille]

...

Lots of us kite in shallow water, sometimes we may know we have hard submerged objects, other times not.
...


FKA, Inc.

transcribed by:
Rick Iossi


.

This March , (when the water & air, warms a bit more) i will be kiting a new aria on the Virgin
river basin, Lake Mead. I have NO idea about where shallow rocks, may be lurking ; because
the Google-earth shots were taken at a water level, of 1204-ft, and the current water level is
near 1108-ft.

After seeing this Thread , i decided to have my buddy, fly me over the new aria ; while i take
pictures from his airplane.

That Video , was Major scary , but made me wanna spend some money for a plane ride ; in
the interest of safety !
Unless there is there a way, to get Current Google-earth shots ?

Thanks Rick : Bille

[alamos_kiter]

He was downwind of the jetty,..

? Wind shift 90º ?

[NHKitesurfer]

...

Lots of us kite in shallow water, sometimes we may know we have hard submerged objects, other times not.
...


FKA, Inc.

transcribed by:
Rick Iossi


.

This March , (when the water & air, warms a bit more) i will be kiting a new aria on the Virgin
river basin, Lake Mead. I have NO idea about where shallow rocks, may be lurking ; because
the Google-earth shots were taken at a water level, of 1204-ft, and the current water level is
near 1108-ft.

After seeing this Thread , i decided to have my buddy, fly me over the new aria ; while i take
pictures from his airplane.

That Video , was Major scary , but made me wanna spend some money for a plane ride ; in
the interest of safety !
Unless there is there a way, to get Current Google-earth shots ?

Thanks Rick : Bille

Are you able to get out there with a kayak or SUP first to scout the area for submerged objects?

[Toby]

Bille, ask someone with a drone?

[RickI]

You are welcome Bille and it is good to think ahead as opposed to do after action analysis like this. We all face hazards, just driving to the beach, anticipating and avoiding problems when we can is where it is at.

Anyway, Google Earth usually updates imagery once a year. You can buy other satellite imagery but it often can be fairly expensive. Toby's idea of having a drone fly and shoot the area makes sense. Good luck with it.