Rick and Mary: Have you dried out yet? Wet and blustery here, can't imagine there will be any damage to speak of.

Maybe some damage from this guy.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5qVH5cZSkY

The guy is in critical condition, can't imagine what he's thinking, hey BK are you getting the lasers ready?
How bout you Tiki? Looks like your area got it more than the Keys.
We have rain and kids have a few extra days off.
A tornado hit a horse barn here so the news will have something to cover.
Hope our luck holds out for the rest of the season!

Simply more proof that kiteboards are well-marketted suicide machines.

Am I the only one to notice that the mast of that hobie was flopping around? <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Wait, you mean he didnt plan to fly into that wall at 50mph?

LOL!

I also saw the mast, and was glad to see that it was still standing, and even more glad that it wasnt my cat

No damage in the area that I know of. Light debris i.e. leaves & twigs. Lots of much needed rain.

Was he tethered to the kite? Why didn't he let go?

Clayton

Yes, the local news said he couldn't get his harness unsnapped. I thought all these things had bailout lines? I guess he couldn't get a hold of his. If you look closely in the background you will see there are other kites out sailing.

last summer we had a very windy day (15-20) and then had a squall come through (20-30).

There were many people sailing and also lots of kite boarders out.

There was a young guy (i think 16) that was lifted up into the power lines when the squall came through. The sparks were visible and audible for a great distance. The power lines melted his harness off... he then dropped 30' onto the metal rail that was below him (divides a trail with the roadway).

I was actually sailing (trying to get to shore) when the squall line came in. I heard the electric shock, but didn’t see him.

What i did see about 1 minute later was his Kite fly into my boat. After it melted away from him, it flew across the causeway and into me!

The kite and all the lines got wrapped up around my mast and forestay. I had to pull out my knife and pop the kite (they are inflatable) and cut off all the lines.. it almost capsized me. It took over 10 minutes to free myself from it. I felt bad slashing a $1000.00 kite, but would have felt worse if I cracked my mast in ½ as this “NEW SAIL” took me out.

It is my understanding the young man recovered... with severe burns... broken ribs and other bones and months in the hospital. It was later noted (on a kite board website blog) that he had no business being out that day (he was not very experienced) in those winds, had the wrong type of kite for heavy air, was on the wrong side of the causeway (windward of the power lines) …

and I would bet he has probably decided not to kite board again.

Well, the two of them should get together and compare stories, I just hope they don't reproduce...Darwin awards and all that...

Hey, the eye of Fay is just outside Sebring now, we are getting some good gusts, maybe 40 knots, lots of rain all day of course. Coming over to the East Coast now! Enjoy!

Looks like Fay is coming our way as a cane! Hopefully there will be no major damage and the weather will be fine for Labor Day.
RMurph

They have bailouts if you can get to them fast enough, which looks like he didnt even have a chance to raise his arms.

Raining non-stop here. Looks like the storm has stopped for now and a rainban is parked over Cocoa. Good thing we cleaned out the gutters yesterday.

did you guys notice the architectural features on that wall ... yikes....that was vicious.

awwwwww....the newschannel snagged the video from youtube.

Straight from the source:

http://cbs4.com/local/Kite.Surfer.las.2.798049.html

or

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/weather/2008/08/19/florida.kite.boarder.wfor

BK, I just looked at the Orlando news, looked like the "eye" is parked right over Rockledge right now! I hope all is well up there, you guys up in Jax at the Rudder Club had better think about taking your masts down, they are saying it will strengthen from 40mph winds to 60 then turn back inland up by you. Good luck.

No real damage to report here in Sebring, only blew about 30mph with 24 hours of rain, but at least the lake came up about a foot. Only need about 5 more storms like that to get it back up to where it should be... <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

Mostly a lot of rain.

Heres a link to the Florida Kite Assoc Forum, they have a detailed discussion of the accident. Damn that must have hurt something fierce.

http://www.fksa.org/showthread.php?t=7046

hey, at least that kite surfer isn't like this dude:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8zTftLV0NQ

I like this one better

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvsT_6P_ovY&feature=related

So how do you reef in a kite?