Don't know him myself but I'll be thinking of him and those who do know him all day...




Kitesurfer critical after slamming into lake rocks
By MIKE WATSON - The Dominion Post
Last updated 05:00 18/11/2009

A man was last night in a critical condition in intensive care after a kitesurfing accident on Lake Taupo.

Byron Smith, a Taupo barista and barman, was kitesurfing with a friend off Three Mile Bay about 7.30pm on Saturday when a rogue gust slammed him into rocks near the shoreline.

Mr Smith, 25, landed on his head, suffered a severe head gash and was knocked unconscious.

He was last night in an induced coma and in a critical but stable condition in Waikato Hospital's intensive care unit, the hospital said.

Mr Smith's mother, Sam Lamb, and his sister were at his bedside yesterday.

"It's early days yet and we don't really know what the outcome will be, but there is hope that he will recover," Ms Lamb said.

Karin Davies, of Taupo, said she was walking along the bay when the accident happened.

"He was close to me when this big wind gust just picked him up and lifted him out of his board. He landed headfirst on the rocks in the water."

Mrs Davies rang emergency services while a man tried to clamber down a cliff to Mr Smith, who lay half-submerged. Other passers-by rushed to help.

Mr Smith was taken by ambulance to Taupo Hospital and airlifted by helicopter to Waikato Hospital.

About eight kitesurfers were on the lake at the time. Mr Smith had been kitesurfing for a year and was safety conscious, a friend who was with him on the lake said.

"He is a top bloke, wise about conditions but he had been using a sea kite with power controls at the time, which is more susceptible to wind gusts."

ACC does not keep statistics on kitesurfing accidents but there has been one fatality in New Zealand. American winemaker Doug Wiser was killed in 2005 at Te Awanga Beach in Hawke's Bay when a gust picked him up and threw him at trees and a caravan. He died from multiple injuries.

Golden Bay kitesurfer Nigel Marsden was caught by a gust and hurled 50 metres on to the roof of his house at Pohara in 2003. He punctured a lung and received serious chest and shoulder injuries.

Nelson man Michael Baker was lucky to survive when he was slammed into a parked car in 2002.

A reminder to us all about helmets.
I have been slack recently about not wearing my helmet, but it only takes one accident to remind us all how crucial they can be.

Hopefully he will make a good recovery.

I hope that guys pulls through ok, from the news report he didn't sound in good condition.
Being the kitesurf and risk guy at work, it was the first thing that that my colleagues mentioned to me when I walked in this morning. Unfortunately it is these type of relatively rare events (these days) that really stick in the public's mind. As I said to my colleges, yes this is a bad accident but would the papers give the same prominence to someone falling of their mountain bike and getting seriously injured? And also what is the likely hood of getting injured biking compared to kitesurfing? Well at the moment ACC don't collect the stats so it is difficult to explain to someone that biking is potentially more dangerous.
Does anyone have more details on the circumstances and what kite he was using?

Ouch thats everyones kiters worst nightmare.
I was lofted into a fence a couple of years ago. the lines wrapped around a post powered the kite up and snapped the 4" post like a carrot. The post then smacked me square in the forehead..... I was wearing a helmet. and walked away from the accident with a 4cm gash in my head from my helmet getting squashed flat... ooh had i not been wearing a helmet i suspect i would have been enjoying a similar fate to this poor bloke.

Yeah makes me think about all those near-misses and actual accidents I've been in and seen..

I'm gonna forward the story to a few people round here..

plummet wrote:

It is situations like this where the quality of the helmet as much as anything determines the injures one will sustain. Coming from a kayak background I am pretty shocked at the rubbish helmets people wear kitesurfing. May don't fit properly and they are usually nothing more than thin plastic with glued padding inside.
If you helmet moves during impact it is going to be less effective so make sure it fits and doesn't move. Look at the quality of the materials used, ask for something that has a decent liner rather than glued foam and make sure it has been independently tested.
At the risk of sounding like a pimp I have been using a Sweet Helmet for years now and did a lot of research into the best helmet that I could buy. Sweet came up trumps every time and look good as well. They do cost more than your average helmet but I also use it on the snow so get good use out of it.
www.sweetprotection.com/#/whitewater/
www.paddle-power.com/sweet/sweet.htm - NZ distributor

Everyone used to be too cool to wear a helmet skiing now it is accepted practice It's funny because I used to work in a ski shop in the states and everyone said you don't need a helmet for skiing, that all changed when 2 high profile deaths occurred around 2000 (Sony Bono and one of the Kenedys). Helmet sales went from 50 to 300 that season!

in that accident i was wearing a pudding bowl style skate helmet. similar to the wanderer in your link. it was of reasonable quality. however after than accident i discovered it is important to have helmet where the foam moulds past the hard plastic shell. If i had one of those helmet i would not have ended up with stitches in my head. I'm now running a Fox flux mtb helmet which performs dual duties of mtb and kiting.

i've got this weird habit with helmets,

i always wear it on the water
i only sometimes wear it buggying
i don't think i've ever worn it kiteskiing

weird and wrong and bad eh?

plummet wrote:

Yeah I learnt that lesson kayaking with crappy plastic helmets when I first started. Cut my forehead in a similar fashion where the plastic inner finished, totally avoidable had I been wearing a decent helmet.