sobering reading below from the 'there but for the grace of god goes us' file.

does anyone know who this guy is and how he is doing?


www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/11/18/1069027081564.html

The guy's name is Marsden - the trusty nelson mail had the scoop.

www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/nelsonmail/0,2106,2730816a6007,00.html

i can only hope all nelson / golden bay riders who know marsden have been visiting him in hospital and showing they care, and asking if there's anything they can do for their mate.

these things are very important when you are lying mangled on a hospital bed as some of us are well aware.

best wishes to marsden from all @ kiteforum.co.nz!

please keep us posted on the progress of his recovery and any more details of the circumstances surrounding his accident, so we can all make further mental notes to avoid the same fate.

admittedly, not many of us kiwis can afford coastal property so the chances of slamming into your own house are remote but it could be even nastier dropping in on someone else's pad.

next time you pump your kite - think about marsden!

Marsden...Nigel Marsden, good bloke, been doing it a long time.

dosent matter how much experaince you got,if your in the wrong place at the wrong time,wammo your toast.all we can do is try to limit the damage by having systems in place that work,and that we know how to make them work, how many of us have deployed their kite just for practise lattley,just to make sure alls still working ?,to remind us how many mili seconde it takes to. last monday arvo while having lunch at mission bay i watched as this guy set up a kite,12 to 14 i think,and maybe18 to 20 kts westerly,not a good direction,i do it and some others do it there but not at high tide, not for the learner well he tried to launch ,with the aid of a friend,him waist deep in the water,his mate against the wall,nigh tide u c,wrong big time,so i went and had a word to him,french visitor,about 18 a novice ,his words.told him not good bla bla bla, no idea for christsake.this is going to happen and we will suffer for it,tell me did i do the right thing,i was nice to him ,but would anyone else do that or should i leave it in future.

yes, of course you've got to point out the error of people's ways if you see them setting themselves up for a public lynching - never a nice sight for the picnickers at misery bay - and usually a hell of a mess that the council has to clean up.

if they start abusing you and calling you a moron and asking who died and made you chief beach warden, you generally have no option but to deliver a swift kick to the groin and maybe a chinese burn if they still don't get the message.

i've only ever had one stubborn one that i had to tie up with his kite lines and drag him round the carpark behind my car for an hour or so. i don't recommend this method except in extreme cases of belligerence as it tends to traumatise other beach-users.

I think you did the right thing for two reasons. The first is that it's just a fact of life that the majority of the information you need to become a safe kiteboarder in a particular location comes from other people. That guy was probably thinking (in french) 'this might be incredibly dodgy - but how to know? Maybe I should wander up to one of those cafes over there and see if any of those munching people knows anything about kiteboarding here.' If people tell you to fuck off then I guess there's nothing else for it, you'll just have to not care.

If you are offering advice in a genuine manner, which it sounds as though you were, (unlike some people who get a kick out of telling girls not to go out in certain places cos it's just too damn manly for them), and they take it badly, and ignore you or tell you to fuck off, then chances are their ego is going to cause them more pain and injury in the long run, and there's nothing to be done about it. But more often than not I would suspect they'd appreciate it.

The second reason to encourage safe riding in your local is obvious - we'll get banned. Just from your few short words I now have an image of nasty kite mishap scattering the latte supping set asunder. As entertaining as this might be, the end result could be negative for Auckland boarding. You definatley did the right thing.

This will no doubt become more of an issue as new punters come increase in number, and I'm really not sure how well reliance on experienced local people is going to work in preventing untidy displays of bodily flingage. (just cos it's not a word does not mean it doesn't happen) In some places there is enough room to accomodate learners, but in others there isn't. And in some places in Europe there is lots of room, but everyone clusters in one area (the closest to the shore) in order to show off to the spectators. This wouldn't be a problem, except the learners all do it too, and it causes untold havoc.

And one last thing - when I was hauling kites out of the car at Kirra beach a while ago, a guy (kiteboarder) came in to change boards, came up to me and told me about the current, wind direction etc. He had no idea if i was a beginner or not, just that he had not seen me around before, and thought a couple of words of advice could be useful. I really appreciated it. Actually all the aussie kiteboarders I met were really helpful - give them all a rugby ball each I say! Put an end to all that squabbling in the mud.

www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2747167a10,00.html

"Wind and Kite Magazine has awarded Mr Marsden a new helmet for the craziest kitesurfing crash this year. "

WTF?? Is this some sort of competition or something?? Bad form Wind & Kite!!

great to see the guy is still alive and kicking!

i note he was already wearing a helmet and despite being knocked unconscious by his first impact, believes a 'quick release system' could have saved him, according to the nelson mail. from my reading of the available reports only, i believe there are many things that could have saved him - pulling a safety pin is one of them but only if it was done well before the incident had begun, not during it.

don't get me started on helmets!

WHY NOT (get you started on helmets)
the fact that he was KO'd with a helmet on might suggest that he would be dead had he not been wearing one.
the facts are that most if not all kiteboarding deaths have been from head injuries.
Bit of a no brainer really

Yeah helmets are good.
Still haven't heard a good agruement against wearing one, that doesn't sound like "I love the feeling of wind in my hair"
Remember this is real life he (possibly yours) not a shampoo comercial.

P.S. Helmets with ear protection can impede your hearing
And yes I know you can still get hurt with them on, thats why you also have to kite safely.

Stu

a lot of these morons are giving kiting a bad name

Good on you guys who wear skid lids - I will never put a person down for wearing one - even though I choose to be an old school idiot!

I just read Wind and Kites "When good times go bad" comp. It say's he was wearing a helmet and it reduced his injuries! They are sending him a new helmet as his old one took a masive battering. Good on ya Wind and Kite and Gath for sponsoring it!!!!......lets all learn from it ay.

Happy kiting for 2004

Shaan, whats your thing on helmets?

Bob