Stupidity and carelessness win again
This blog is about the Wego kite tube. For those of you who don’t know what that is, go here: http://www.sportsstuff.com/
On that page, you’ll also notice that this product has been withdrawn from the market. Thanks to other peoples carelessness, I can’t ride one of these. I’ll elaborate on that.
So my buddy messages me about how there’s a recall on these because people died on it and there have been many injuries. I looked them up on the internet… sure enough, plenty of injuries. 2 people died, there were multiple broken bones (hips, femurs, ribs, necks), concussions, coughing up blood, bruised aorta, collapsed lungs, etc. I was thinking “Holy shit, these things are death traps.” Then I went and looked up some comments on the tubes and some videos. Turns out, these things aren’t death traps… when you aren’t stupid and careless.
So, theres 3 lengths of rope on these, rated beginner, intermediate, and advanced. Fromt he videos of this on the internet that I saw of injuries, people are not using the short beginner rope. Also, the safety video that comes with the tube states to only go “17 – 22 miles per hour at any time.” On the videos and on the comments I saw, people are taking these things up to 60 mph. Do the math… 20 feet in the air… 60 mph… falling off… that’s going to cause some serious harm. Another thing the video states is “Do not use in windy conditions.” At least half of the injurys that I read about were caused by a “sudden gust of wind.” Hmm… sounds like the video may have been right.
Now to the serious part of the recall… the deaths. I read about one of these written by the person who was driving the boat when the guy died. Turns out that he fell off, while in the air, head first and broke his neck instantly. The best part… the water where he fell was 3 feet deep. The stupidest of stupid people should still realize that if you fall from any distance into 3 feet of water, you’re going to hit the bottom. Add 20 mph of forward motion and high altitudes of flying… you’re toast. I couldn’t find the circumstances of the other death, but I doubt it was on the beginner length going 17-22 mph.
Now, you don’t have to be a genius to realize that a tube that flys high in the air behind a boat is dangerous. Despite the many warnings in the video and on the package, and in the instructions… it’s just a dangerous idea, just like skydiving, rock climbing, base jumping, wakeboarding, mountain biking, racecar driving… all of them. If it’s your first time on this tube, you’re not an expert, nor are you intermediate. Don’t use those lenghts until you can control what you are doing. Just like you wouldn’t enter the indy 500 without driving a car first.
Top off what I mean, on that website I provided, you can read about how wakeboarding champion Parks Bonifay took the kite tube out for a spin. he was able to control it, fly high, float, and to top it off, purposefully backflip off of it into a dive. He didn’t get hurt, he didn’t die. Can he do this because he’s jsut got super human traits…. no. He can do it because he’s experience with balance, water sports, and control. You would call that an expert.
People have become so irresponsible for their own actions i this country it’s disgusting. If they get hurt, they jsut blam somebody else, or sue them, or both. “I guess I just didn’t know that a lawnmower wasn’t supposed to be turned over and sat on… it didn’t warn me about it in the manual.” This goes back to my permission to be retarded blog. As evidence of this effect in the US, I invite you to, if you can get your hands on it, look at the manual for a Husqvarna chainsaw. Compare the Swedish manual with the English one. The English one is nearly 10 times thicker than the Swedish one. The English one is so full of disclaimers and so much more detail because if it wasn’t, they’d get sued. I’m tired of having my experiences ruined because dumb, careless people can’t use logic or common sense.
Fuck it, I’m moving to Sweden