@IphtashuFitz:

True but this is pending acceptance. It isn't an Honorable Mention, which is where I looked per your original post (which says he already has an Honorable Mention). The only kite surfer from 2008 with an Honorable Mention was in Spain. Now do you understand what I'm talking about?

stlblufan

You don't have to die. You just have to remove yourself from the gene pool. Individuals who have done stupid groin tricks have also made the list, though they weren't killed. So, if he lives but is "unbreedable" he could also still make the list.

Opie

Darwinism at its best.

boarder1971

damn it, you beat me to it, nevermind.

MFlick

Darwin Award Honorable Mention?

MFlick

hope he gets a darwin for this........although if he survives i guess it'll only be honorary mention, but i guess he was already brain impaired before the accident

vinnieg

I smell a Slim-Jim sponsorship.

Jimbuck

Seriously, what a dumbass. At least it was cool to watch.

Simpsons-Movie-ruled

@takeshi: There's still a chance. He's apparently in critical condition at the hospital. Even if he does survive he's likely to get an honorable mention.

IphtashuFitz

@dylanwho: The other kiters probably:

1) had the appropriate sized kite for the winds that day (although on gusty days, it can be impossible to have a kite that can handle big gusts)
2) knew how to set up their lines so that their safety leash / release would work properly and
3) actually let go when the kite gets out of control so that it collapses and doesn't drag them into things.

Terrible for this guy. Kiting is a very exciting, but potentially dangerous sport. Things can go wrong very quickly and it is important to get the right safety training as well as the "how to" training.

Tek Elements

Hope he's on the mend.

e-friend

Ouch

middy

This is a good definition of extreme sports backlash......I like the way my local news is reporting this as an "accident".

Zipthebunny

@lldsandsll: You don't win the award unless you end up dead.

takeshi

saw this on the local news last night (s.fl) and thought, as said a trillion times already, darwin award. it was hilarious to watch in high quality feed.

lldsandsll

I love watching the kids play in the shallow end of the gene pool. They seem to be having so much fun.

Maxxofor

I thought I was going to see him get struck by lightning too. Didn't anyone study Benjamin Franklin in school? How dumb do you have to be?

whatnot22

@stlblufan: I don't know what you're talking about, but the link below was posted today and contains the same video footage:

[www.darwinawards.com]

IphtashuFitz

What about all the other kite surfers seen in the video? I feel bad for Kevin, but if those guys didn't pack it up after that, my sympathy ends right there.

dylanwho

Only thing stupider is the dumb reporters who stand in the storm attached to a van with a 20-30 foot metal boom sticking out of the top. If the debris doesn't get them, the lighting will.

Git Em SteveDave displays attention-grabbing vanity

@Andywsea: When kite surfing you strap your wrists to the kite line. He didn't stand a chance.

IphtashuFitz

From what I remember about Kite Surfing Rigs (very cool gizmo's BTW), I believe that once you let go of the control bar (the thing he's clinging onto for dear life), the kite collapses and drops, even in major gusts... though hurricanes might be different.

Tirko™

@IphtashuFitz:

That's actually another intrepid kite surfer on darwinawards.com. Note the location--Spain.

stlblufan

All of us have done something stupid every now and then. Had he made it alive with a killer surf on that day we would be calling him a hero!
lets not diss on the guy..

And Sheesh, that must have hurt!!!

pradster

Look up in the sky..
it's a bird..
it's a plane..
no, no it's just a dumb dude wannab superhero.

iaintgoingthere

I think the gene pool needs some chlorine....

What an idiot.

noznbook

Well... not quite a darwin winner, but definitely a nominee...

knyghtryda

@Andywsea: I was just about to say... WTF...

PS... is there an iPhone friendly view for Gizmodo?

Polybius

EXTREME!!!!

exkon

Dar-wind's more to the point...

Stem_Sell

@Andywsea:

"STRAPPED IN"

RIF.

stlblufan

Darwin award FTW!

Noobs-R-Us

LET GO!!!

Andywsea

Darwin, party of one, your table is ready.

av8thor

He's already gotten an Honorable Mention over at darwinawards.com. If only he'd tried a little harder...

IphtashuFitz

Someone needs to edit in a giant squid monster from the deep tossing him around STAT

WolfDemon

I'm truly a compassionate person who's capable of a great deal of empathy and/or sympathy when I see others in peril.

But, for this dumb-ass I just find the video terribly funny. WTF did he think was going to happen if you try to kite surf in tropical storm grade winds!? Literally, that's like sticking your hand in a garbage disposal that's turned on, and then being surprised when your hand is ground to a pulp...

WTF did he think the outcome was going to be?

DustyButt

@remps: Aren't all award systems made up? There are actual darwin awards, with books.

Xavoc

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~/o/

Greatest American Hero anyone?

SewerShark

He wanted to visit his girlfriend Glinda, the good witch.

hakubak

Leave it up to a bunch of geeks to debate the rules and regulations of a made up award system. I love it!

P.S. "Made up" as in novelty, not made up as in creationism ;)

remps

I don't feel bad for him one bit. I feel bad for the guy who is hurt somewhere by no fault of his own, and isn't getting medical attention because the trauma crews are being tied up by kite surfing morons.

There's a reason it's called a natural disaster. If you're doing anything other than ducking and covering, you're wasting the hospitals time.

bpatten

takeshi: @lldsandsll: You don't win the award unless you end up dead.

Or render yourself incapable of reproducing. IE, losing your balls.

lordargent

That was awesome. It only needed him to ask the news crew to hold his beer and watch this to get any better. Unless he'd taken out the camera crew and drug them with him.

Xavoc

Do the DEW!!!!

Hope he recovers!!

Stabio

I just watched the video for like the one-millionth time...

DustyButt

You aren't strapped at the wrists, you have a harness on that goes around your waist and the kite lines attach to a control bar which is then attached to the harness. That way your arms don't have to do all the work and don't get as tired if you want to kite for an hour or two.

Most harnesses have a release system that allows the kite to "flag out" and lose power- some even have a knife attached somewhere that you can use to cut the lines in a real emergency- but if you get caught off guard you might not be able to use either of these safety features in time to save your ass.

newy

If the video was clear enough, he could've somehow been CGI'd into footage of future Messin' with Sasquatch commercials.

Kaiser-Machead's WALL-E fetish

Anyone out kiting in a tropical storm either didn't pay attention during lessons, never took them, doesn't have any sense, or some combination of the above. Kiting can be dangerous even under the best conditions. Launching a kite with gusts in the 40-50 MPH range is just plain stupid. No, your hands aren't attached to the lines, but the kite is looped into a waist harness and the safety release can be a little hard to find once you've started flying through the air in a panic.

I hope this guy lives but it's morons like him that make the rest of us look bad.

bluespot

@iaintgoingthere: "Look up in the sky..
it's a bird..
it's a plane.."

It's Broken Man!

GadgetPlay

@Tek Elements: Oh. So they have "tropical storm" appropriate kites? If they do... that's just a bad idea.

The sad part is that this guy probably has had 6-7 offspring already.

Rock on, Mr. "I live life to the extreme".

DustyButt

@Opie: Holy shit! That is so awesome and makes so much sense that my nuts popped off. I'm on the list now too. Thanks a bunch, Opie.

ALT

Dumb-da-dumb dumb.

For his next stunt (if he lives), Kevin is going to play with a pool skimmer in a lightening storm.

EBone

Yupp, I live here in miami, thats how the weather has been since sunday. Kinda sucks but this isnt anything new. Everytime either a tropical storm or a hurricane hits, theres always at least one idiot who ends up on the news for something stupid like that.

chizelord

Here's the funny part! IF he had insurance and they discover how he was injured they will not cover him. It's a little known loop-hole in FL that I'm guessing he's not familiar with.

rg

looks like it would be fun without the face in sand part.

roflwaffles

DARWIN 1
KITE SURFER 0

iomatic

When I was in college I went storm chasing with some friends...and quickly realized why most of the time those storm chasers don't get out of the car. I also learned how quickly you can destroy a $800 vid cam.

Capt. Mazda Sisko

This leads me to ask if there is an award for a stupid stunt that kills/sterilizes another person but leaves the perpetrator undamaged and ready to go again.

propertius

My wife used to work in the hospital on Maui... believe me, this isn't the first time this has happened.

bobmarley101

I believe the lesson here is:

stupid hurts

jdw242b

Proof the gene pool needs chlorine!

Mamas don't let your kids grow up to be morons.

Boter

Kevin, you are the wind beneath my wings.....

what a dumbass.

Jrsy

What was on his board? "Natural Selection"??

Mekevorka

George, George, George of the kite-surf.....

infmom

@DustyButt: Agree wholeheartedly!
let's review here.
Hurricane force winds-check
BIG FUCKING KITE!-check
BFK attached to your dumb ass!-check
you not having the brains God gave a rock-check
results?

stupid, dumb ass that gets him self almost killed and may not live to regret it!
check

lunasdude

... and you gotta know that when he hit the sand the first time, he was completely scared for his life. Then the wind picked him up again... Yikes.

zanella

I'd imagine he was pretty short-winded after that flight

Naoki - Photoshop Ninja

Just WOW! thats gota hurt. hope he recovers so he can give up kite surfing during storms.

dohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

GDUB

Ouch.

zanella

It looks like he was holding on.

Joseph

I love the way he kicks and flails there at the end. Hilarious.
Give him an award for bravery and the shoot him for stupidity.

Parker. A

This has been all over the news since early this morning. How many times do I have to watch this stupid guy get smashed? How dumb do you have to be to do something like this in that sort of weather.

HJTravels

One other thing: Do you all really expect him to cut his line or flag-out his kite while he is over solid ground? That maneuver is for when you are able to make a landing in the water. He may have been just simply too panicked/tangled/injured/all 3 to release when he hit the sand.

dylanwho

@Zipthebunny: Extreme sports whiplash, more like.

@DustyButt: Thanks for soaring to my rescue back there.

dylanwho

@yogibimbi: They're obviously kite surfing kites. Don't be dense.

Also, don't be bitter. It's pretty pathetic. People laugh at tragedy sometimes. That's what happens. It's a necessary function of being human. If not, we'd just be terrified our whole lives. So why don't you just calm down and take a breath.

Pope John Peeps II

Kite? I didn't see any kite, the dude is the next Greatest American Hero.

djtripp

@Git Em SteveDave displays attention-grabbing vanity: Vans are terrible conductors. The rubber tires insulate them from the ground. They're certainly not where lightning would hit.

Pope John Peeps II

ok, for starters, those kites don't look like kite-surfing kites to me. They are actually pretty small, like 4 sqm or so, more the kind of kites people fly on the beaches, and none of the supposed surfers is in the water nor are there any boards. Although some of those also use a harness to allow their handler more control (go figure...).
I have a 12 sqm kite-surfing kite (and they go up to 18 or even 20) and you simply have to respect the power. It's like swimming with a big white, if he feels like taking a bite, you're fucked, full stop. And pulling the depower-line (supposing his kite had one) when you are already flying through the air can be a bit trying. He had already made one crash-landing before he was pulled like a yo-yo.

However, I can only wonder at the cynicism of the comments. I mean, yeah, Darwin Award right to the hilt - you are so cool guys. Maybe lots of you feel just a tiny bit of schadenfreude because you go by the axiom that all sports is a waste of time and people who hurt themselves doing so deserve what was coming to them. Actually, there is a world outside your gaming rig in which people, if they miscalculate the situation, get hurt, instead of losing credits or a character or whatever it is people lose in any kind of computer games.
Give the guy a break, he made am mistake and it's not like he needed anybody to point this out to him time and again. Laughing about people on the losing end of a mishap is no achievement, get a life.

yogibimbi

@yogibimbi: You're calling that a mistake? Life is filled with risk vs. reward. How is the risk of kitesurfing in a tropical storm worth the reward. You'd have to be extraordinarily dumb to believe that it is. It's not a matter of just being a thrill seeker, I'm a thrill seeker and I think doing that is plain DUMB and he deserved what he got, the reward is too small for the risk... some folks have to learn the hard way I guess.

DustyButt

Oh, and just for the record: I don't see where this is necessary gadget-related.

Except for the apparent disdain of most gadget lovers for every exercise that is more demanding than getting out of the chair and opening the door for the pizza-guy or hefting a sixpack up the stairs to the appartment...

yogibimbi

@SewerShark: Believe it or not, I'm walking on air...

castrol

Is it bad that the only thought running through my head when he went flying was 'Hancock!'?

SprinklesTDD

@Pope John Peeps II:

I have heard stories about steel belted radial tires that conduct lightning just fine

Stabio

@Pope John Peeps II: hehe, I am actually quite calm, I am calling nobody 'dense' or 'bitter'...

I am just wondering how much information one can get from such a crappy video. I was on the beach here in Carcavelos just yesterday (me windsurfing that time) and the kites looked all a bit bigger to me than the ones on the video. Granted, you can't really see the kite that's dragging Kevin, but the other ones look a) pretty small to me and b) about 90% of the kites for kite-surfing these days are tube-kites and also most of the other ones (I have a Peter Lynn kite, which is a bit between a tube and a foil) have a higher aspect ratio than the ones in the video.
But I don't want to argue based on this video, if you like, go on being an expert on kites and dense people and darwinism. Me I just like to go kiting or windsurfing myself. I'll send you the video if one gust of wind elevates me to stardom;-)

yogibimbi

Um, any press is good press? Go kiteboarding!

avantreese

@castrol: Believe or not, I fell flat on the sand...

SewerShark

for his next trick, he'll boogie board on some lava. Yea dude. Now we have to se this dope on every home video show for the rest of my life...............................Hmm, honey get me 20 kites, 30 rolls of string and a lawnchair.

BiZarRroBALlmeR

@pradster: No, he'd still be a dumbass; he just wouldn't be a wounded dumbass.

I was hoping he'd gotten hit by lightning...

StarChaser Tyger

"Redbull gives you wiiiiings." He might as well cash in.

BiZarRroBALlmeR

Also, yogibimbi, I'm not calling you dumb. I just read my last post and seemed to pointed at you for my taste. Sorry if it reads that way.

DustyButt

Rule:
Do not wind surf during a tropical storm.

noted.

soonerloud

@kaffeen: ok, let's talk shop then: do those look like kitesurfing foils to you? Methinks they are pretty small, rather the beach variety, and although one of the other guys on the beach seems to be wearing a white harness, I can't see any boards. I wouldn't necessarily say that they were kitesurfing at all, just flying their (non-kitesurfing-)kites on the beach. Or trying to, rather.

And, as for mother nature: amen - respect and awe, and sometimes a healthy dose of fear;-)

yogibimbi

@Pope John Peeps II: Well, if we assume that vans are terrible conductress, how about the reporters and camera man hooked INTO the electrician system of the van. They are almost certainly grounded, especially if it's raining. So the lighting would connect to a positron streamer emitted from the tower, shoot down the line to the transmitter, through the equipment, through the camera, into the dumb weatherperson holding the mike, and then to ground. This would then be repeated in reverse. Ouch.

Git Em SteveDave displays attention-grabbing vanity

@DustyButt: no worries mate;-)

Making mistakes and being dumb usually are close relations.
However, as I have pointed out before, I won't necessarily judge the action from a crappy video that leaves me (as a kite-surfer and windsurfer - windsurfer since more than 25 years, I might add) wondering about what kind of equipment he was actually using. Maybe the only dumb part of it was the dumb luck. Shit happens. And I went windsurfing in winds that uprooted trees on the camping grounds I was staying at, which was probably also quite dumb, not so much for the wind part (where windsurfing is rather safe, compared to kiting) but for the thunderbolt and lightning - very very frigthening - part.
Maybe the conditions looked pretty safe to them. Maybe they wanted to make another jackass-movie. Who knows. I just think he got whatever punishment he might or might not have deserved and quite a bit as a bonus, so I think, now is the time to wish him well and present him with the award when and if he can make his own acceptance speech.

yogibimbi

@DustyButt: I was having the same feelings about this- poor guy, serious injury, etc... but then I realized I was laughing out loud....

tazm0n

These things have a depower line when set up correctly - without one they're hard to fly with any fine control. It's possible he didn't have one. All it would have taken is a rotation of his bar or whatever mechanism he had and the kite should have fallen out the sky like a scrap of fabric. I say should, because I've never flown one in a fucking hurricane and for all I know the massive windspeed inflates your kite no matter what you do.

You can make excuses for him if you like but he was being stupid. A child could tell you you don't fly kites in storms. Basic instinct, even.

Incidentally, the video doesn't really illustrate that his final act after the sand-bounce and dragging through a carpark is he slammed into the side of a building. I would expect him to die or be brain damaged.

Cultivar

I do extreme kiting and I have to say that we aren't all mindless and most of us realize it is very dangerous (even in less tropical storm winds). It is likely that this person was young/naive and/or just inexperienced with kiting in general (either this or he had a suicide wish). If your an experienced kiting person, you respect mother nature (or she disrespects you). With kitesurfing, you have a body harness with an attachment that connects the bar/line to your harness. This makes it very difficult to release when out of control, although it can be done. It really depends on the type of kite and harness as well. I hope the kid is OK and learned a valuable lesson.

kaffeen

"Is this the land Of Neverland? I'm Peter Pan" he replied while looking at his exposed hip...

VakeroRokero

mmm, the topic seems to have blown itself out a bit. Head on over to another one, where Darwinism is just gathering some more swing.

yogibimbi

That post pic looks like someone took a shot in the men's shower with a bugger on the lens or something.

Anyways... kitesurfing, not wallsurfing

Bokusatsu_Tenshi

First of all these guys were stupid. A big rule is wind that are on shore are a big big no no. Secondly, I know i wasn't there. But he should have let go when he was near the ground to depower the kite and let it fly away. Yes this is a huge lesson to anyone wanting to kite board.

rockman40

That Michael Phelps is everywhere now-a-days!

DustyButt

In fact...

+ Watch video

Xavoc

@Pope John Peeps II: You're talking about high enough voltage to leap a few miles through the air. Do you think the last few inches between a car and the ground will help much?

The reason your mostly safe in a vehicle that is struck by lightning (it happens actually) is because the electricity takes the least path of resistance. Namely, it rides along the outside of the metal vehicle skin.

Xavoc

I'm surprised (but not really) by all the "Darwin" comments. He wasn't being This guy was just enjoying life. Is he any different than someone who pushes the limits of skydiving, auto/motorcycle racing, stunt flying, surfing, skate boarding, SCUBA diving, etc? I'd say accidents within these extreme activities really don't qualify for a Darwin slot.

However, something like this does:

+ Watch video

crapcakes

@pradster: No - he would still be STUPID whether he had hurt himself or not. The fool is playing in a storm that is GOING to have strong, unpredictable gusts and could slow down or speed up, thus making it more or less dangerous.

unspellable

@Xavoc: Well in that case, why would it even hit the van? You're presenting a car riding along a flat plain. In the middle of a city, lightning's not going to just randomly hit a van instead of a tall metallic structure.

Pope John Peeps II

@Git Em SteveDave displays attention-grabbing vanity: what kind of camera or microphone do you have that has to be connected by a giant copper wire to a generator? What is this, 1964? I doubt people are "hooked up" to the van.

Pope John Peeps II

Shenanigans! The video's photoshopped, the storm wasn't that bad.

StopTheLHC

@Pope John Peeps II: Most news crews I have seen are hooked into the vans they broadcast from. They usually have the mic on a cord and the camera as well. If they are reporting close to the van, like during a hurricane, they will usually stay hooked in so they don't have to deal with interference on the equipment. Also, as Xavoc correctly pointed out, the reason you are safe in a vehicle is that the current travels on the exterior of the metal. As for the tires, the large amount of rain/water usually negates the insulating effect in a hurricane. And, we aren't just talking a van. We are talking about a 30 foot extended boom w/a dish on the top. In case you have never seen one, here is an example. Note the cables on spools leading away from the van they are hooked into:

Git Em SteveDave displays attention-grabbing vanity

@yogibimbi, they were definitely trying to kite. You can see the guy's friend flying his kite low near the beach, it looks like he's getting ready to land it (or just trying to keep it low so a gust of wind doesn't pick him up off the beach). It looks like it's about a 6 or 8 meter kite, which is small and what you want for gusty wind around 30 MPH. But still, even the best kites only have so much depower and are fully capable of pulling you up and off your feet, even fully depowered, if you're dumb enough to take them out in these conditions.

For him to 'flag' his kite (assuming he set it up right), he would have needed to pull a safety that is normally located on what's called a chicken loop where it attaches to the waist harness. He had his hands firmly on the bar when he went flying by the camera, which means that he panicked and forgot what he needed to do. And BTW, an unnatural love of gadgets and physical activity are not mutually exclusive. I happen to be an avid kiter, among other things.

bluespot

this is where a switch blade could come in handy

exobite

traumatized

ten10

@pradster: Would one of these stupid things include calling yourself something-ster? Just wondering.
Love, the Speedygonzalaster

SpeedyGonzalas

@bluespot: let's form a club of gadget loving sports fans then.
I don't like the 'extreme' moniker associated with kite- or windsurfing or scubadiving, just because the insurances like to increase your premium when you practise it. Practised responsibly, any sports decreases your risk of being a burden to the health system when you enter the club of cardiovascular casualties of the extreme laziness side of things; so let's just call it 'sports'.

As for kitesurfing aspect of the video: yeah, you might be right, however, I couldn't be as confident in my judgement due to what little I can make out in the video...

yogibimbi

@crapcakes: with that rack she will surely be a winner in Darwin's book...

yogibimbi

another win for my home state!

rjupiter

@bluespot/yogibimbi: It does look like a small kite (it is very bad video, so I can't be sure). It definitely doesn't appear to be the inflated variety. It also looks like he may have tried to depower prior to, or during, the sand bounce, but the gust of wind took it up anyway. I've seen some strange stuff happen, but to be honest, usually it is when you aren't paying attention or not respecting mother nature. There are some instances where you are caught off guard and there is nothing you can do about it (particularly when buggying in the desert). Again, I hope the kid is OK and learned a lesson. He may even keep on kiting if he is lucky, he definitely would have a helluva story to tell at the campfire.

kaffeen

This is Natural Selection at its finest, those beings too stupis to survive, wont survive. It help to thin the herd so a given population doesnt use up all its rescources. Natures system of checks and balances, problem is we get in the way and save the really stupid people a lot of the time, then they breed and the cyles begins anew. This guy doesnt deserve to be in the gene pool, if he lives he should be forcefully sterilized to prevent offspring.

VideoVampire

Normally I hate the guy that comes in and spouts off a bunch of "facts" thats prove how little everyone else knows because he is normally wrong about all of it. But today i must be that guy, but a little more factual, and say that yes there are appropriate sized kites for that much wind, I personally have flown a 5m kite in over 50mph winds. His first mistake was that was about a 5 or 7 meter kite and it was a foil kite from what i could see in the vid, foil kites have alot more power and no, I repeat NO, safety systems. For those two reasons no one uses them anymore, he was ill equipped and had no clue what he was doing.

roflcopterguy

Speaking of newsvans and electricity:

[articles.latimes.com]

bobbogee

People love shouting out "DARWIN AWARD LOL" like it's some kind of clever or funny statement. But it isn't. Darwin's theory of natural selection is based on the idea that organisms adapt to fulfill reproduction. It has nothing to do with intelligence. I suppose dying would cut your chances for progeny short but you just know this guy was getting major tail every day. Hell, this guy had so much balls I wouldn't be surprised if he impregnated every person he passed by as he got gale-force whipped all over town. And that's including the guys.

The_Last_Skunk

@Pope John Peeps II: I realize that this is not exactly the same thing, but electricity and newsvans do have a history:

[articles.latimes.com]

bobbogee

HAHAHAHAHAHHAHA

killermicrobe