And some people don't die when jumping of a high building.> >

So this all proves that sleeping is dangerous and jumping from a sky> > scraper isn't.>

Berend de Boer wrote:> > > Let me tell you that others die just sleeping! Imagine that!!> > >

I think it's important not to trivialize the risk analysis of doing an> > activity. Using arguments like that can give people a false sense of> > security and cause them to not understand the risks.> >

All activity has some risk associated with it. The risks associated> > with some activities are greater than others. If someone wants to go> > kitesurfing (or windsurfing, or skydiving, or rockclimbing, or> > whatever), that's fine, but they should be able to objectively evalute> > the risks of the activity.> >

I know you were being facetious, but your argument about sleeping and> > jumping from a building was incorrect in a couple of areas. First,> > people who die sleeping don't die from the act of sleeping. They from> > something else while they are sleeping. People who die from jumping> > from buildings do so specifically because of that activity. Second,> > you would need to compare the total amount of time sleeping versus the> > total amount of time jumping from buildings to get an accurate> > comparison of the risks. I can sleep for 8 hours and have a very low> > chance of dying, but if I jumped from buildings for 8 hours I would> > have a very high chance of dying.> >

You hear these types of argument all the time in the rockclimbing> > community when a climber dies. Someone will usually make a statement> > like: since you can also die while riding a bicycle, rockclimbing is> > not any more dangerous than riding a bicycle. There's also a lot of> > trivialization of the cause of how they died. They will blame it on> > inexperience or on improper use of the equipment with the underlying> > theme that it won't happen to them because they are experienced and> > they use the equipment properly. I'm sure that's a self-defense> > mechanism--who wants to think they are voluntarily putting themselves> > in a position to die.> >

A good rule of thumb when considering the risk of an activity is this:> > How likely is something to go wrong, and when it does, what is the> > chance that it will lead to severe injury or death?> >

Consider BASE jumping. Relatively speaking, the chance of something> > going wrong is pretty low. Most jumps go off without a hitch. But> > when something does go wrong, there is an extremely high chance of> > severe injury or death. You literally have a fraction of a second to> > fix things before you end up dead. So going into that sport, you> > should know that most of the time things will go okay, but when they> > don't, you could easily end up dead.> >

Compare that to windsurfing. The chance of something going wrong is> > pretty high. We fall off the board all the time for a variety of> > reasons. But the chance of getting severely injured is low. Even when> > you do fall off, it's not like you really have to do anything special> > to prevent injury.> >

But with kitesurfing, when something goes wrong, you have to be able to> > depower the kite or there's a good chance you'll be severely injured.> > That fact should not be trivialized. Kitesurfing might give you more> > reward, but you take more risk to get it.> >

I think Windsurfing is probably somewhere between swimming and SCUBA>> diving... or if you like, very close to "Living".>>

I have been told that this chart was used in legal proceedings and the>> company that compiled it carried a lot of clout. Here's the chart:>>

COMPARATIVE RISK OF DIFFERENT ACTIVITIES>>

Estimates of Fatal Risk>>

fatalities>> Activity per million hrs>> -------- --------------->> Skydiving 128.71>> General Aviation 15.58>> On-road Motorcycling 8.80>> Scuba Diving 1.98>> Living (all causes of death) 1.53>> Swimming 1.07>> Snowmobiling .88>> Passenger cars .47>> Water skiing .28>> Bicycling .26>> Flying (scheduled domestic airlines) .15>> Hunting .08>> Cosmic Radiation from transcontinental flights .035>> Home Living (active) .027>> Traveling in a School Bus .022>> Passenger Car Post-collision fire .017>> Home Living, active & passive (sleeping) .014>> Residential Fire .003>>