Prendo dal forum gaastra.com un episodio triste, che ci deve far riflettere. Come ho sempre detto il kite è uno dei nostri sport con la tavola, e solo per questo fatto merita la massima considerazione. Ma è sbagliatissimo farne la moda del momento e far passare il suo fratello più vecchio, il windsurf come “out” e sostituibile. Il kite può essere bello, ma è davvero il più estremo dei boardsports, per cui fate attenzione davvero…

Per il resto non posso che trascrivere il racconto, notando che il fatto non è accaduto ad un giovane inesperto, ma ad un veterano del windsurf che praticava anche ed assieme il kite. Una persona che appariva razionale ed esperta, ma che è stata colpita dalla più pericolosa delle evenienze nel kite, la raffica improvvisa onshore.

ALEX CAVIGLIA
Sailor, sports champ
BY REBECCA DELLAGLORIA

Alex Caviglia, a sailing champion, extreme water sports enthusiast and head of Miami-based company Adventure Sports, died Saturday of complications from a kite-surfing accident last year. He was 48.

Caviglia remained at Jackson Memorial Hospital following the November 2003 accident. He suffered a severe head injury when a gust of wind snagged the kiteboard he was attempting to launch on the shore of Matheson Hammock Park, propelling him to the pavement of a nearby parking lot.

Before my husbands accident, there was not a general awareness of the dangers that might be involved in the practice of this sport, said his wife, Silvia. “If something could be learned from all of this, its that people understand today its not a game.

After spending nearly eight months in a coma, Caviglia was beginning to make progress, friends and family members said.

He was able to communicate and express his feelings of love for his friends and family, said Silvia Caviglia.

Caviglia was the son of a yachting family in Argentina.

He began competing in sailing competitions as a child in Buenos Aires. Caviglia went on to win numerous competitions as an adult sailor and later earned the crown for the 1988 South American Windsurfing Championship in Argentina.

He moved to Miami in 1978, and the couple married in 1979.

They started the Blue Water Marine supply store, but closed that when Caviglia founded Adventure Sports — an extreme sports gear distributor.

After helping to establish the Windsurfing Caribbean Tour in the early 1990s, Caviglia won a number of races on the Caribbean circuit, said friend and business associate Eduardo Owen.

He was always a step or two ahead of the thinking process, said Owen, who admired his friends business mind as much as his athletic ability.

Caviglia, who practiced a regimented and healthy lifestyle, instilled the same sense of discipline in his two children, who also excelled in athletics. His son, Michael, was an all-state middle linebacker at Gulliver Prep and daughter Bianca, 20, was an all-state soccer player. She inspired her father to co-found the Miami Premier Soccer club for girls — which enabled many young women to receive college sports scholarships.

His will to survive and fight and be the best is the example hes set for all of us to live by, said Michael Caviglia, 22.

In addition to his wife Silvia, son Michael and daughter Bianca, Caviglia is survived by father Antonio Caviglia; stepmother Gigi; and brother Ezequiel Caviglia.

A viewing will be held at 4 p.m. Thursday, followed by a service at 5 at St. Louis Catholic Church, 7270 SW 120th St., Pinecrest.

On Saturday, Caviglia will be buried at sea.