Tips for Untanging Kite Bars and Lines

Tangled kite lines? No worries!
It happens to the best of us, whether you're a beginner on your first day kiteboarding solo, or a seasoned professional on a photoshoot in the tropics, tangled lines are part of kiteboarding. While there's plenty of ways to prevent them from happening in the first place, those tips aren't going to help you once your bar resembles a bowl of spaghetti.

Rest easy impatient kiter friends, the team here at Seabreeze.com.au have raided the cookie jar of useful tips and collected five of the best to get you back on the water in no time.

Tangled kite lines? No worries!

1: The golden rule of kite line untangling - NEVER take your lines off the kite. As soon at those pigtails hit the beach, you've probably just doubled your workload. Leave your lines connected to the kite and untangle your lines by pulling out the loops. Once your lines are all straight, then fix the inversions/twists with the bar, or disconnect them as a last resort.

2: Slow and steady wins the kite line untangling race. A hurried pull on the wrong line can tighten everything up, create tension knots or worse, tie actual knots in your lines. Keep your cool, crack a beer and take your time. If everything stays loose, it's just a matter of pulling out the loops.

3: Sometimes it's better to go it alone. Two hands are all that's required to untangle lines, and although the company is nice, four hands are too many. They'll mess up your mojo, tighten your bunch and yank on the wrong line - making things worse.

4: You've gotta keep 'em separated. Keep each line well away from each other once you're done. If you can, run each line out in a completely different direction to prevent further tangles. You can do this while the lines are still connected too, just run them out in a big curved line.

5: No matter how bad. Never cut a line. There's always another way, so don't give up. Sure, that buying a new set of lines might seem worth it at the time, but those lines weren't tangled an hour ago! Enlist a few friends for moral support, crack another beer, chew on that knot a little (no really, it helps!) You'll get the tangles out of your kite bar, and it won't cost a cent.

Have you ever had a tangle as bad as the one above? How did it get there?! Share your kite line untangling experiences and tips with the Seabreeze.com.au Community right here in the kiteboarding forums.