This is the follow up letter I sent to Dave Harris today after spreaking to him on the phone..
Dave Harris,
Thank you for your time this morning on the Phone. I hope you understand the danger PFD use will place Utah kiteboarders in, I pray there are no injuries to my fellow kiters while this matter is resolved.
As I mentioned on the Phone, Utah would be setting a very dangerous precedent by enforcing PFD use among kiteboarders. The world wide kiting community concludes PFD use provides a intense hazard that leads to life threatening incidents when used. There is not a PFD yet manufactured to meet the needs of kiteboarders this is becuase there is no need or market for one because PFD use doesn't exist in kiteboarding, due to the dangers a pfd creates, currently all PFDs provide massive hindrance to the harness and rigging systems, causing confusion and forcing the user to cover manufactures safety systems, making them unusable and placing the sailor in mortal danger. There are many places for our kite lines or kite control bar (sail Boom) to become entangled and create a uncontrollable kite that will harm or kill its user and anyone down wind of them.
I understand that the Sailboard exception that is currently in place could be very easily be adjusted or interpreted to include kiteboarders. The sailboard has a mast that attaches to the board allowing the Sailor to stay within reach, or easily reach to his board and maintain contact with it. Our vessel do not have a mast but instead lines that connect us to the sail, we are harnessed to our sail, via 800lbs lines which is filled with 6psi in 4-8 separate chambers based on the kites manufacture and model. I single inflated kite can support three to four people floating on it. The conection to the Inflated sail provide massive floatation when the kite is not flying, and when the kite is flying the kiter remains bouyant becuase the kite is providing lift the entire time it is in the air. The lift is so powerful it can be used to not only propel the sailor on their boards but lift them of the water as high as 10m. When reentering the water from that high the Pfd also creates lifting forces that manipulate our control and creating a out of control vessel.
We meet all the same criteria that the sailboard law states only with newer sails, and technology that was not considered when the law was written. Our lines take the place of a mast and our sail fly's and floats, Kite boarding is the newest form of sailing and should be treated the same as sailboarding in the state, regardless of the verbiage of the law based on the unforeseen technology that progressed Sailboarding into its current form of Kiteboarding. Many of us are former sailboarders that progress to Kiteboarding because of its massive range and ability to sail in much less wind making Utah a prime spot to kiteboard.
As riders progress in Kiteboarding and become Intermediates, the PFD creates more of a entanglement risk as the rider starts to Jump and spin as the rider progresses and learns more challenging tricks and becomes a expert the chance of entanglement grows even greater.
The PFD also hinders the ability of the rider to retrieve the board when the become separated from it. Kiters use a technigue called "body dragging" to retrieve there board when they fall or crash. Body dragging is when the sailor uses their submerged body as a keel to drag up wind to their board while attached to the kite. A PFD not only makes massive drag but hinders the kiter from using a submerged body by forcing them to float on the surface, the decrease the upwind angle then prolongs the retrieval process by up to ten to twenty minutes, this increases the possibility of losing ones board and creates a vessel in distress and a kiter in danger because their vessel is incomplete and unusable to make way with out the board.
I hope common sense will prevail here and you will see the need for adjustment in the verbiage, and enforcement of the PFD law concerning kiteboarding. The longer this issue goes as is, the longer people will be placed in danger on Utah water ways while kiteboarding..
As a community we strive to provide the safest conditions for kiteboarding, by enforcing a law that never envisioned a kiteboard vessel when written places all of us in danger and negates all of the proactive steps our community has strived to provide.
Please come and familiarize your self with this progressive form of sailboarding, I am sure after just a short introduction to our gear and rigging it will become obvious to yourself what a dangerous mistake is being made by deciding to enforce a law that has never been infoarced in the 15 plus year history of kiteboarding in UT.
We as a community would like to remain in compliance of the law, but complying to a law that increase the mortal danger of a fun recreational sport that is very safe with out a PFD, a sport that includes a rigging system that keeps the sailor attached to the inflatable sail at all times... the sailor becomes the part or the vessel. And has the ability to remain afloat at all time with out a PFD. Just flying the kite (a necessity to go sailing) provides upward pull keeping the sailor afloat, and when crashed the kite floats for years, there have been kites that have blown off the beach and remained inflated while navigating the globe adrift only to come aground months later fully intact and usable, These are several thousand dollar kite and sail boards that are the newest, safest technology made to work and provide the sailor the safest experience without a PFD and the Hazard a PFD provides.
Placing Kiters/boaters in mortal danger because of a lack of understanding and out date legislator seems like the opposite of what the DNR and Utah parks department mission statement is.
I and the Kiting/sailboard community are at your disposal to rectify this dangerous situation quickly to decrease the chance of injury or death to a kiteboarder, becuase of outdated legislator that may take years to process....
Thank you, for your time.
William Bordy
utahbordys@msn.com435-602-2935
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