That's sad. I have seen a few kiters get yanked in big winds, it's not like windsurfing, when you can just drop your sail. Kiters don't let your friends go out in gusty storms. It's to dangerous. And try and sail with a buddy.........

Very sad. The interesting thing though, reading through the description of how it happened, is that it may have nothing to do with the fact that it was gusty.

Seems the guy did an accidental kite loop, and came down hard backwards. I know this has happened to me and Grant Watson too, and I personally feel lucky to have kited away. While it is more likely to happen on windy days (because with smaller kites things tend to happen faster), it can also happen on nice sunny perfect wind days at Nitintat Lake.

In fact, I saw a kiter friend get knocked unconscious on a beautiful day at the lake (while wearing a helmet). The reason I mention all this, is I think it is easy to dismiss those who have been killed as risk takers, and thus think it can't happen to the rest of us. It can happen, and it will. Gusty or not, kiters die every year and all we can do is wear protective gear and choose our times carefully. Making sure someone is with you, as Gwind suggests, is a great idea. Bottom line, even that will sadly not be enough to prevent tragedy.

oops, I meant to add that the kiter knocked unconscious was out on the water, trying to do a normal jump. Kite did a half loop, then BAM. If Gmac hadn't been on hand almost immediately, I still wonder what might have happend....

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/336 ... der20.html

this lesson hurts, a lot.
a borrowed 7m sle, launching in the wrong area and almost biting it.
then losing the board on the 1st reach and having trouble controlling the kite while recovering it...
this talented sailor should have been talked out of going out.