Off topic> tow fun to come!

[nils]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=HBa9wdOANHw

i imagine the crashes! :)

Nils

[tex1230]

that is very cool

[Tommy D]

That's wicked! Where do I sign up? I'm not much into watersports, but I'd certainly give it a try.

However, I can hear the politicians/bureaucrats/couch-commando-doo-gooders rushing to put the kibosh on such a sport. (You know, all the folks who want to protect everyone else from having fun at something new and unique and dangerous.)

[Pat Donnelly]

Are kite tubes a danger?

A 42-year-old woman knocked unconscious on Union Lake on the Fourth of July was kite tubing, a new form of water sport that is both thrilling and, according to some, dangerous.

<!--#include virtual="/includes/ads/newsinstory.html"-->The woman, who has not been identified publicly, is expected to recover from her serious injuries.

While kite tubes are selling quickly, seemingly a must for extreme water sports enthusiasts, safety concerns have arisen.

In an admittedly unusual move, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission publicly announced an investigation of kite tubing.

On June 30, a public warning was issued by the commission as a precursor to the holiday weekend about kite tubing injuries, when 12 serious injuries had been reported. Two deaths - in Texas and Wisconsin - have been reported in the U.S. and one in Canada.

"We are now up to 28 injuries," said Julie Vallese, commission spokeswoman. "It's very new to us. We started learning about incidents in the late spring. The numbers have just continued to grow."

At the Skiers Pier shop on Dixie Highway, Waterford Township, store manager Mark Roberts said people's interest is primed.

"We can't keep them in," he said of the devices, which cost about $500. "It's a new product for this year. They're very popular. Everybody asks for the kite tube because they've seen them advertised or see them on the lake."

Roberts said there is no confusion about the devices, which come with clear safety warnings.

"Everybody knows that they go up, that's why they buy them," Roberts said.

Kite tubing involves a person riding behind a boat on an inflatable tube that can be more than 10 feet in diameter hooked to the boat with a 45-foot to 65-foot tether. While the tubes generally go about 10 feet in the air, they reportedly can reach 40 feet in height.

"Obviously, it takes a bit of speed to get this thing off the water and up into the air," said Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard, who said Tuesday's crash was the first serious kite tubing injury in the county.

"There is so little direct control you have over those," the sheriff said. "You are a projectile subject to the whims of the water, the air, and the driver. Suddenly, a fun afternoon can have life-altering consequences."

Bouchard pointed out that someone can get hurt doing pretty much anything, evidenced by a 21-year-old University of Michigan student from Plymouth who early Tuesday morning was critically injured after diving off a dock into an area only 29 inches deep and striking the bottom of Sylvan Lake.

Still, he said, users of these lake toys cannot be trained to handle them.

"The reality with this is, you don't have a great deal of piloting control," Bouchard said. "Where are you going to learn this?"

Capt. Joseph Slawek of the West Bloomfield Fire Department, which handled transporting the Waterford Township woman from Union Lake, said a fall from even a short distance into water can injure a person.

"The people riding on the tubes are unprepared for the potential of striking the water," Slawek said. "Striking the water at greater than 5 feet can result in a serious head injury."

Slawek said the woman was knocked unconscious in her fall, which reportedly was from about 10 feet in the air. She regained consciousness and did not appear to have suffered any spinal injuries.

A co-worker at a Commerce Township catering business where she worked could not comment on her recovery.

Nationwide, injuries reported to the safety commission from kite tubing include a broken neck, punctured lung, broken ribs, broken femur, chest and back injuries, and jaw fractures.

"We are seeing reports of people being knocked unconscious," Vallese said. "The agency does have an active investigation into the new water sport of kite tubing. We are trying to determine the conditions and what is contributing to the injuries, for those people who choose to participate in kite tubing.

"To announce we have an open investigation is extremely unusual for this agency."

She said the investigation was announced to allow "people to make an informed decision if they want to participate."

And while the commission typically identifi es particular products for safety issues, this is an investigation of the sport, not specific models of kite tubes.

"At this stage, we're just trying to figure out kite tubing," Vallese said.

While Bouchard does not see laws going after kite tubes, he said, if a flood of litigation occurs over injuries, they could disappear from the market.

But Roberts, of Skiers Pier, said he does not see them overtaking regular tubing or water-skiing. "I think it's more of a fad," Roberts said. "I think it will die down."

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http://www.theoaklandpress.com/stories/070706/loc_2006070703.shtml

[D-Sub]

WRITE MORE LAWS!

[Fleaman]

Cars kill many people everyday and they don't ban them.

I wonder how many of those injuries involved alcohol.

I love the Kite tube Idea, I think it would be cool to be the first one on the lake with one and show up the wakeboarder types.

It does look like they are going about -~40 mph, the water at that speed is like a rock, it would be a good idea to have a helmet, neck brace and some motocross armour on to save your bones.