Good to see everything worked out well for you, i always carry a spare leash krabed onto my harness, its just a 1 meter length of 1/2inch tubular tape with a karabiner on the end and a loop in the other end, wrapped up in a few rubber bands so its out of the way on my harness, first thing i do after pulling the safety on the kite is grab the line pull it out secure the board then i dont have to worry about it and have both hands free to start winding in those lines and i dont ever disconnect the kite leash, can also use the line to krab onto an injured kiter etc to rescue drag them to shore if needed. as you said, practice makes perfect with instruction, i only used it two days ago for a self rescue, a skill we should all practice every now and then.

have fun untangeling those lines!

Haha! Actually you were right GF. I just freaked when I couldn't get the bridle off!! A new dimension in detangling!

Thanks for the spare leash advice too Agent Smith - great idea lacky banding it up.

Any advice on CHECKING LINES after? I just ran all of them through my fingers slowly and they seemed intact. There were a few small kinks where the insides seem to swell the casing.

How do you know when it's time to replace them or they're going to break??

Mate, i just use an alloy snap gate, climbing type, but just deservice it after being in the water, ie rinse in fresh water and spray at bit of CRC etc on it, been fine for 3 years now, i obvioussly wont use it as a krab for a quick draw anymore but its fine for its use in this sport. hope that helps.

Here's a story

I did the same thing some years ago in 6 foot Margarets. Worse still I had a decided to put a leash on my board and in the tumble in the waves the board must have gone through the lines. I surfaced behind the wave and saw it was about to engulf the downed kite so I pulled the quick release and thought 'phew' only to be dragged deep under water by the board seconds later as the bar had jammed on the board after I released it. The wave dragged the kite which dragged the bar which dragged the board which dragged me ................by the foot.............which meant as i was trying to keep my head up, i was like the bib on a lure forcing me down, down to the bottom in about 12 foot of water. Crap [or something similar] thought I .....I am going to drown here unless I can release the leash .........but the force of water as I got dragged was such that I couldn't get to the velcro on the leash which happened to be one of those extra thick 'Teahupoo style' ones.

In what seemed like an eternity later [probably a few seconds in reality] the leash parted and i swam back to the surface.

The kite and the board all got washed in undamaged.

The lessons I learned were:

1. dont use a safety leash to the kite in serious waves. You and your kite are more likely to survive if you decide to part company for awhile.

2. Never wear a board leash. if youre board disappears....well it was only a board.

3. Beware side onshore winds as that is when you drop the kite in front of the wave and worse still the lip is then quite capable of throwing you on top of your lines then rolling you in them for good measure. In side off the kite uusllay falls in the channel

Also FOOSH it was interesting to hear you talk of deflating the LE and swimming the kite in from this offshore reef. Much better to have a kite pumped hard and use it to self rescue, By grabbing the front bridle rather than the tips you can get enough projected area to tow in at good rate.

Better still if you are accomapnied.....get a buddy to grab the LE of the kite and tow that in and grab another mate by the back of his harness ....put your feet on your surfboard and as he dives the kite stand up....... and you shoulld be able to tandem it back to shore.

This technique proved its worth to me in Manoa, Mauritius which is about 2 ks out and accompanied by an outward sucking reef pass. It saw me back to the beach in 10 minutes thanks to RRD riders Seb Catalan for the tow and Neal Gent for the kite rescue and the stiches in the hand .... I had actually held the kite leash for the tow and the carabiner on the end snagged my thumb / index web when I let go at the end.

Beer Bong said...

Wicked story Niall.

But now another can of worms - no safety leash. Smells like WaveSlave

He is not advocating using no leash at normal populated beachs, but for serious waves, which are usually well offshore.

niall barrett said...


Also FOOSH it was interesting to hear you talk of deflating the LE and swimming the kite in from this offshore reef. Much better to have a kite pumped hard and use it to self rescue, By grabbing the front bridle rather than the tips you can get enough projected area to tow in at good rate.

Thanks for the good story - always keen to learn from others' experiences. Just to clarify, I did 'sail' most of the way in. You can get some decent cross-wind bearing like Niall said. I dumped the valve only nearer shore when I was drifting into some moored boats / going more parallel to shore.

This post was a personal account, in addition to the 'known self-rescue technique' which is available elsewhere, and which I'd encourage everyone to be familiar with / practice.

niall barrett said...

1. dont use a safety leash to the kite in serious waves. You and your kite are more likely to survive if you decide to part company for awhile.

Niall is a seasoned local ripper and he knows the business of wavekiting. ^^^
I've been exposing the myth of kite-leashes on this forum for many years now.
It's gratifying to read Niall's suggestion to not use a kite-leash in waves.
Expressing such an opinion on a kitesurfing forum would have been blasphemy not so long ago.
Death-leashes are not sacred things.....
they are just stupid pieces of rope that you don't want.
Free yourself and ride.