April 13, 2009


A 49-year-old Canadian man was killed on Saturday, April 11, in an accident while he was kiteboarding off north Avon during a hard wind shift.

Twiford’s Funeral Home in Manteo identified the man as Timothy Holman of Sarnia, Ontario, Canada.

Local kiters say the death is the first known kiteboarding fatality on Hatteras Island.

“Everyone who has been here longer than I have say that it’s the first-ever death of a kiter in the seashore,” said Carl Giordano, marketing director at REAL Watersports in Salvo.

The accident was called in to Dare County Communications about 5:40 p.m. on Saturday, according to Bob Helle, the Hatteras Island Rescue Squad’s incident commander on the scene.

It happened, he said, off Island Creek in northern Avon village.

Helle said the victim was kiteboarding when a strong front moved across the Pamlico Sound and the wind shifted from the west at about 25 mph to the north at 40 in just a few minutes’ time.

Helle said the victim was apparently about 40 feet in the air during the wind shift, was thrown down into the water, and then dragged face down by the kite for six to 10 minutes, according to the reports of witnesses.

Other kiteboarders were able to grab onto his kite and bring the victim to shore on Big Island.

The rescue squad responded, along with Dare County Emergency Medical Services, the Dare County Sheriff’s Office, and the Avon Volunteer Fire Department.

Hatteras Island Rescue Squad responded with a 21-foot skiff, a personal watercraft, and about 12 rescuers.

Helle said that the other kiteboarders who brought the victim to shore on the island were performing CPR when the rescue squad arrived on the scene.  Members of the squad transported the victim by boat to Dare County EMS.

“I knew it was coming,” Helle said about the passage of the front and the wind shift, “but it was very abrupt and very strong.”

Giordano of REAL Watersports said the death has been the major topic of discussion in the kiteboarding community and on online forums.

REAL, he said, had cancelled its lessons for the afternoon, based on the weather forecast.

“You should have seen the front coming and gotten out of the water,” he said.

When the wind shifts and increases as quickly as it did, a kiter may have “way too much power” in his kite.  The winds, he speculated, may have been too strong for the size of the kite the victim was sailing with.

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