Everyone that kites has the common experience of losing control, falling, crashing into the water (some on a more frequent basis than others) - for reasons of their position on the learning curve or because of how hard they are pushing the limits of their riding, or whatever.....

my question to the collective experience of the forum is:

what is the best way to fall such that stress on body and gear are minimised, and recovery of control and board can take place with a minimum of loss of ground downwind?

stay lose in the drag, but try and get the hands into the middle of the bar and move the kite back up to a stable 12 o'clock position?

ps. for those interested in the marine biology, we just had a great friday night snorkel over the reef here to see the coral spawning. No tiger sharks, or any sort of sharks, to report to all those that have been glued to the "shark stories" thread......not that we saw in our torch beams, anyway...... ...and 2 hours of late afternoon kiting yesterday, in an unexpected but gratefully recieved 18-25knots.....the island turns it on!

A.

Good question

Firstly, whenever loosing control, I choose to get my center of gravity low ....... err, Sit on your bum. Never hurt it yet. Try very very hard not to land hard on your chest, ribs break as I and other forum members can attest.

In the waves, if you come to grief, kite down in the wave zone, i suggest unhooking. I had 3 lines broken last w/e when the kite was taken in a big wave and I was anchored in the water. Something had to give. Next day, I was out with "repaired lines" which eventually gave away under extreme duress, again in a major wave zone. This time I pulled my safety release, watched as the kite surfed past me on a big set, and collected the whole lot on the inside INTACT (except for the rebroken line)

I'd be very interested to see the approach of others who have had kites down in the waves.

Surviving crashes comes with experience i'm affraid... As your level of experience grows you know where and what your kite's doing without looking at it, you can feel it in the bar pressure. I dont think there's a right or wrong way to crash, it's gona hurt if you phuck it no matter wat !. What you should be practicing is releasing from your kite when you've recongnised your in trouble.

To the not losing too much ground downwind part:

When I know I'me going to crash I make sure I land so that my body is already in the body-dragging position and the kite already at the edge of the window. This means the second you hit the water you start 'edging' upwind again. This means I usually always re-enter the water from stuffed up moves on my side. Takes a bit of experience for this to become natural, but also means you learn the feel better so as to prevent yourself getting hurt by being at the mercy of fate how you land. Don't do it it shallow water though, you can end up winding yourself pretty badly.

Jess (too lazy to sign Paul out and sign myself in)