Nevin Sayre Accident

[Clarencephil]

What happened ?

http://www.sail-world.com/index.cfm?nid=97327

What is U.S. Sailing’s plan to safely include kitesurfing into Junior Sailing Programs, the Olympic Youth Development Team, Youth Worlds Team, the Junior Olympic events, and all the pathways that leads to the Olympics? There are over 110 reported kitesurfing deaths in the last 10 years. That should be compared with an excellent safety record in windsurfing’s 40 year history. I am personally very lucky not to be on the fatality list, and suffered a head wound with 150 stitches from kitesurfing. And I consider myself a decent kiter, and knowledgeable about the wind. There is no way I would allow my kids to kitesurf.

[DALLROCK KITER]

I think a helmet would of done you some good! And yes most kids don't need to be kiting, but not all. There's a 6 time world champ running around that started when he was 9 or 10 ,

[MikeBirt]

Care for me to list all the injuries I sustained whilst being a pro windsurfer for 10 years?
You'll be reading for a while I can tell you, and after I bet you wouldn't want to take your kids to learn either.

There was a facebook page titled 'get kitesurfing out and windsurfing back in'. Why deliberately use negative press about kitesurfing to lever windsurfing's position? There are a few dinghy classes to take up if you don't like our sport. Windsurfing needs to stand on it's own, this kind of press gets my goat.

I hope Nevin makes a speedy recovery, get well soon chap.

[Toby]

There will be more campaigns like this against kitesurfing.

Go figure from whom and why.

Sad. But looks like the sport with more open minded people was chosen.

Personally I just had two incidents with aggressive windsurfers...I am just happy to be a kitesurfer!

[streax]

He needs two things if he is going to keep kitesurfing:
1. A new helmet.
2. Some extra sutures between his legs to stop the bleeding down there!

Hopefully that quote is made up by someone with an agenda or he got his bell rung pretty hard when he got that cut.

[Clarencephil]

What some of you don't seem to know was that Nevin Sayre performed at high levels in windsurfing competition (five-time U.S. National Windsurfing Champion, World champion) but has gone seriously into kitesurfing, like Mike Gebhard. He is into both sports, so he is certainly not anti-kitesurfing.

[edt]

I love the old guys at my local place that windsurf. It's a lot like snowboarding vs skiis in which all the old guys are on the old style stuff, but there's a big difference between skiers and windsurfers.

Windsurfers are for the most part really laid back, they are pretty tolerant of kooky beginners, and they find the ocean big enough to share.

Skiiers tho . . . the mountain is not as big as the ocean and they despise snowboarders for taking over their mountain, try to keep snowboarders down at every opportunity.

It's really unfortunate that windsurfers are pitted against kiteboarders, when we should both be aiming at getting the dumbest sailing class ever invented, the Finn class for fatties taken down.

Politics is dirty.

[Bille]

My "HELMET" covers most of where he got cut !!

I see a Lot of kids wearing helmets at skate-parks now ; do Ya think
they might Know something about head-injury ?

WAS Nevin wearing a Helmet (?) , if not then it kinda changes my opinion
of the guy , 5 time Champ or Not !

Bille

[stefaans]

5 times whatever the guy is retarded. What does what happened to him have to do with kite racing in the Olympics. Did this accident happen in a race? absolute not! who knows what this idiot did.

[MKM]

Nevin’s real accident was to use a very, very old accident that occurred at a time when there was no legitimate instruction available, and none of us had any idea of safe riding practices, to promote a very personal agenda at the expense of all of us.

Sure he has a lot at stake. He works for Bic, and the 293 windsurfing surfing class is a feeder to Olympic windsurfing. Additionally, he is the father of a very promising young female racer that had a very good chance at representing the US in 2016.

Nevin has worked tirelessly to promote windsurfing via sailing clubs, etc. He is surely among the best in the business and deserves recognition for outstanding achievement in the area.

The tragic tale of this story is that for purely personal gain, Nevin is seriously jeopardizing riding access everywhere for kite surfers, windsurfers, and surfers “and para gliders for that matter”, due to his careless, misrepresentation of kite surfing. To law makers, park managers, municipalities, and enforcement agencies, WE ARE ALL THE SAME.

Now, when decision makers are scanning the internet looking for information on kite boarding safety, Nevin’s dated, fanatical misrepresentation of this sport may become an overwhelming factor in banning access for all of us.

While everyone is entitled to express an opinion on the mater, I’d have guessed that someone of his stature and position in the water and wave sports industry could easily have taken a higher road and promoted the best aspects of windsurfing in the Olympics instead of carelessly attaching kiting access with old accounts and gruesome accident photos from the earliest days of the sport. As someone that has, and continues to work in the wind and wave sports industry for over 16 years, this embarrasses me. It’s up to Nevin if he wants to allow his children to participate in kite boarding, not us.

I agree with Nevin that windsurfing should be in the Olympics. It meets all of the criteria and is the 2nd most popular, and lest expense discipline in sailing. Excellent youth and junior programs support it worldwide. The fact still remains however that irrespective of whether or not kiting participates in the Rio 2016 games, Nevin will also no doubt be deserving of credit for helping to ban all types of water access around the globe. I’m sure that US Sailing doesn’t give awards for this…

Kent Marinkovic