Looks like fun.
Posted on 07/30/2006 7:26:19 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
DULUTH, MN (AP) -- It's been a month since Travis Kladivo last rode a kite tube. And doctors say the 20-year-old's body has almost healed.
On June 25, Kladivo, whose family owns a resort on Lake Vermilion, joined a growing number of thrill-seekers seriously injured while riding a kite tube, a huge, inflatable toy designed to float in the air with a rider aboard. The day after Kladivo's accident, a 42-year-old man was killed in a kite tube accident on Little St. Germain Lake in Wisconsin.
Since then, the bestselling version of the device, the Sportsstuff Inc.-brand Wego kite tube, has been pulled from the market. But interest in them remains high, according to sports merchandisers, and similar products are still available.
Even Kladivo, who ruptured his aorta and collapsed both his lungs when he was flung from the tube 20 feet in the air, said many of his friends tell him they still want to ride a kite tube.
Bob Rogers, an employee at Marine General Sports Store in Duluth, said he still gets regular requests for the Wego kite tube. He said the store sold about 30 of them this year before the product recall, and many are still in use at lake country resorts.
"One of our customers said it was the most fantastic ride he's had in his life," Rogers said.
Marine General stopped selling kite tubes even before they were recalled, and have offered full refunds to customers who shelled out $500 to $600 for the pleasure of owning one. About a half-dozen had been returned by the end of last week, Rogers said.
"I'm sure the rest of the people are still using them," he said.
Kladivo said he and his brother wanted a kite tube the moment they saw one. "We both said, 'That is awesome,' " Kladivo remembered.
The tube had already been named the 2006 Sports Product of the Year by the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association, and was on back order. When Kladivo finally got his, he put it in the water immediately.
He said he did read the pamphlet full of warnings - don't pull the tube faster than 20 mph, don't pull riders that weigh more than 200 pounds, don't ride higher than you're willing to fall - but he didn't watch an accompanying safety DVD.
Kladivo, an extreme sports fan, admitted it was a fun ride. But nearly everyone in the family who used it - he, his brother and sister, an uncle - were all injured in some way.
Julie Vallese, a spokeswoman for the Consumer Product Safety Commission in Washington, D.C., said pushing for the kite tube recall was difficult, in that it doesn't suffer from a specific defect or hazard like most recalled products.
"But the hazard associated with the kite tube is the unknown of how it's going to react in the environment, and whether or not someone can actually control the product," she said.
Sportsstuff Inc. recalled the kite tubes at the urging of the safety commission, though company officials continue to maintain kite tubes are not "defective or unreasonably dangerous," in the words of CEO Leroy Peterson.
Sportsstuff spokesman Michael Beckelman said he didn't know how many of the approximately 19,000 tubes sold had been returned to the company.
Kladivo's final fall should have killed him, according to his doctors. Less than 1 percent of people ruptured aortas survives, but his doctors believe Kladivo's heart stopped beating for a minute or so, long enough for a blood clot to form that stopped him from bleeding to death.
The Kladivos are hanging on to their kite tube and mulling a lawsuit. But even Travis Kladivo hesitated when asked, were it not for the accident, if he would still be riding the kite tube.
"It's hard to say," Kladivo said. "It was a challenge, and the feeling of flying was unbelievable. I wouldn't do it again now."
These people seem, well ... dumb.
I know a member of the Kladivo family that was there when this accident occured. The only reason this kid lived was because one of the people in the boat was a paramedic. His aorta was acutally torn off, they really don't know how he made it to the operating room.
Looks like fun.
I've been seeing people using a kite/sale type thing that's attached to a windboard, not pulled by a boat. Seems a lot safer than this kite tube thingie, but it still looks like a pretty extreme ride.
This would be a heck of a lot more fun behind a car on I-90. At night. In a snowstorm. Naked.
This is safer ---
http://kitesurfingschool.org/
cool!
video of kite tube in action
http://www.sportsstuff.com/towables/wego/rmmovie.shtml
You must bore easily, quickly, all the time. ;)
...and, blindfolded.
I can't believe they pulled this off the market.......
It looks like a blast.....
Remeber, it's all fun until someone get's hurt, then it's hilarious..
For those who may not know what these "Kite tubes" are:
http://www.sportsstuff.com/towables/wego/winmovie.shtml
It actually looks like fun.
And they'll pry my "Johnny Switchblade" doll from my cold, dead fingers.
Of course they are pondering a lawsuit. Even though they didn't follow the safety guidelines provided, and accepted the use of the product....
Young man is lucky to be alive, and will apparently come out of this with no permanent injuries. And yet, his family still is mulling a lawsuit.
Hope that his driver read all the warnings and obeyed the 20 mph speed limit....
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