Foil wrote: ↑Mon Mar 16, 2020 11:24 am
bragnouff wrote: ↑Mon Mar 16, 2020 11:10 am
Not too sure of the reason in Fuerte, I assume they follow Spain's guidance. I've seen official recommendations from various sports governing bodies in France (FFVL for kiting) asking to avoid any unnecessary activity that could result in an injury. The idea being that the hospital beds are, or are about to be in short supply, and the hospital staff being stretched out would rather not have to deal with accidents that could have been avoided through abstinence. In case of accident it could mean you're not treated correctly because of the overload, or you're treated, but someone else isn't.
That's a debatable reason, but my experience over the last 20 years of kiting has shown that you might really think that you'll take it easy, play it safe, and enjoy kiting with all those good intentions, but the most serious accidents still happen in the most stupid cases, and not really in extreme challenging conditions where you'd expect them. Shit happens, that's a fact.
great point made and understood.
however when a blanket ban happens and it makes no sense at that place and time, ie remote island locations without anyone in hospital at that time needing a bed or treatment then the ban may well be ignored and then we have a bigger problem and local confusion, and trust wavers in the decisions made for that region, many regions do need the strict rules and the population then see its a valid reason to take decisions that restrict movement.
Bragnouff is right. That is exactly what is happening. They want to make sure that all Hospital Beds are free in case they are needed for Covid19 patients. Another thing is that insurance for any sports are suspended in "state of emergency" so you are not insured if something happens to you. Also your car insurance company will not pay out in this time of you have a accident and cannot prove that you where supposed to be on the road. All people working need a special form filled out from your employer if you want to be driving your private car at the moment. So a trip to the beach can also land you a hefty fine. The police are really cracking down hard on anyone breaking the rules at the moment. Yesterday an Italian guys tried to be funny and film a video of riding a bike down the high street and trying to run from the police (Jackass style) . The chased him down and arrested him on the spot.
On Sunday they pulled everyone off the water, took their pictures and handed out warnings that if they were caught on the water again they would be fined or jailed.
I know it it really hard for most of us locals here, mainly because now we have some amazing wind, but everyone needs to calm down and follow the rules. To be honest getting on the water is the least of my concerns, me and the rest of the locals are more worried about how our businesses will survive this crisis. The Government is predicting at least a 3 month "Zero Tourism" period this year. Most hotels have started laying off their staff and are closing down. The virus itself may not do much damage here, but the financial fallout might kill most businesses on the island.
On the other hand, there may be a good side to the whole thing. The local government might be so desperate for any type of tourism, that they might overlook the damaging behaviour from visiting Kiters in the last years. This might make them think twice about banning kiting outright which has been on the cards again recently.
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Gunnar