Sorry, couldn't embed it but here's the link - enjoy.



Oh great, it worked

Cbulota is going to love this one!

Shows winding up lines onto bar pretty risky

Geez that kite really whooped his ass twice

Thats an awesome example of a 'how not to do it' video - John Cleese wold be laughing out aloud !!

dyyylan said..

How much of the safety line do you wrap before starting on the other lines?

You should secure a length that is at least equivalent or more than the length of your kite's wing span (distance from one wing tip to the other)

Too much weights, not enough speed work bro

dyyylan said..

This is probably a good time to ask: How much of the safety line do you wrap before starting on the other lines? Whenever I've had to self rescue my kite has been ****ed enough that this has never been an issue, but good to know!

Ideal would be the exact minimum line length that promises kite will stay flagged + few more wraps just to be sure. The more the better.
I used to pull (and wrap) like 10 meters of centerlines (IDS) with my 1st encounters with the kite in water :D I didnt trust kite designers ;D
Big mess on the bar but safe!

God that was painful to watch!

cbulota said...

Dave Whettingsteel said..
Cbulota is going to love this one!

Shows winding up lines onto bar pretty risky

Yep, can be risky if you don't do it right.

First thing is the terminology is a bit confusing since we usually refer to a packdown when you are deep waters and you want to deflate your kite and pack it down to get rescued by a boat for example: www.surfertoday.com/kiteboarding/the-self-rescue-and-pack-down-kiteboarding-guide

Second thing is it's definitely far from a ''textbook'' performance as he forgot the most important part of all rescue scenarios: activate the quick release to allow the kite to flag out! Another common mistake with people wrapping lines is they often forget to wrap and secure the safety line around the bar first (once the kite is flagged out), which would prevent the kite from powering up...

I rescued a guy in Coronation in 35 knots who was getting dragged violently on the beach in a death loop after attempting to wrap his lines around the bar in the water after a kite inversion...Even if he activated the chicken loop quick release, he forgot to wrap and secure his safety line before wrapping, so his back lines eventually regained tension and the kite powered up and started death looping.

If you attempt any self-rescue by wrapping your lines and you have tension in one or both of your back lines while wrapping, that's bad news! You can clearly see the tension in all three lines while he's wrapping the bar in the video (looks like his left back line broke off)...

I said it before, the process of wrapping lines is complex, challenging and you can't afford any mistakes while doing this. The windier is it, the more difficult this is and the higher the price you will likely pay for even the smallest mistake. If you don't have the correct instruction along with some real practice and repetition, it can be a dangerous way to rescue yourself...

Christian

Christian that me...five years massive waves those weeks and first ever death loop as coming in by the shore thanx for that

All you need is one line to be shorter then all the otherd by one wingspan length (10 meters) thats it.

That is all a safety system is doing.

Very very simple.

I was watching this in an airport with the volume up loud so everyone could hear it

Bronnieren said..
So if a line breaks you flag out the kite, and self rescue by either: a) dont wrap lines, and pull yourself to kite asap via the safety line, or b) wrap the lines, making sure you wrap the safety line around the bar one at least one wingspan worth, before wrapping the other lines. However, what if the line that breaks is the safety line? I guess you might not realise until you flag the kite out and it blows away?

The main key here is to know your gear well, you should be able to see which line is broken prior to pulling your safety and you should know which line your kite will flag to. If it IS your safety that is broken (one of the front lines) then you should wrap the other front line around the bar (to the length of the kite's wingspan) so that it flags to this line and there will be no tension left in the back lines for the kite to power up.

Thanks guys, I am pretty trigger happy on the safety release, as I am pretty keen to avoid starring in my own deathloops movie . So if a line breaks in big wind I will just pull safety immediately, hoping it wasn't the safety line that broke. However, if a line breaks in very light wind, and the kite is not going anywhere, I might check which line it is before pulling the safety. Then if it was the safety line that broke , I could wrap one of the other lines a full wingspans worth, then wrap the others lines, and then self rescue from there. Good plan?

Bronnieren said..
Thanks guys, I am pretty trigger happy on the safety release, as I am pretty keen to avoid starring in my own deathloops movie . So if a line breaks in big wind I will just pull safety immediately, hoping it wasn't the safety line that broke. However, if a line breaks in very light wind, and the kite is not going anywhere, I might check which line it is before pulling the safety. Then if it was the safety line that broke , I could wrap one of the other lines a full wingspans worth, then wrap the others lines, and then self rescue from there. Good plan?

Hi Bronwyn,

Quality kite lines don't break for any reasons. every time I had line breaks I knew it was only a matter of time just by looking at the condition of the lines and I chose to accept that risk instead of replacing them, which of course would've been the wiser thing to do... These last few years when I go kiting in more than 25 knots I will always choose my bar/lines that are in the best condition and put in that extra 2 minutes of time during the setup to thoroughly inspect everything.

As usual, prevention is better than cure, so if you simply inspect your lines while you setup the kite and make sure there is no fraying or knots in your lines and you double check your connections at the kite, there are no reason for them to break or come undone. I regularly find knots in lines of other people's kites...which over time will create a weakness in the line and break the line.

A common sight when kiters go in deathloops is that they have a great deal of hesitation to release the kite completely, probably out of fear of damaging/losing the gear. The truth is you are much more likely to damage the gear if tight lines are wrapped around a looping kite and if the kite is smashing repetitively to the ground/water as opposed to an ejected kite drifting away without any tension in the lines.

Of all kites I've seen being released from their pilot, none of them have had any damage whatsoever. Ejecting the kite completely is a difficult reflex to develop but probably the one that can make the most difference in a life or death scenario.

Also don't worry about calculating the wingspan length when wrapping the safety line, on modern safety systems like the one you have, you just have to make sure the bar had slid out to the stopper ball after activating the chicken loop release, which is plenty of length.

Christian

Thanks Christian , you are a sage of kitesurfing, I often find myself quoting you :) One of my lines (the safety one) has a knot in it, which I need to get fixed. Its good to hear that you have never seen any kites damaged when the kite has been fully released. I am trigger happy with flagging my kite it out, but admit that I would have been very hesitant to release the kite fully until now .