Greetings all,

Yesterday afternoon around 3.30pm. Wind was up to about 17-18 knots at Fawkner and picking up at St. Kilda. When I went out it was, I guess about 14 or 15 knots on the beach. Plenty to get going on my 12 (70kg).

There I was thinking to myself, this will be a lovely session as the sea breeze builds. The chop wasn't really up, it was early in the afternoon and all was looking lovely.

I'm working on my boosting technique. Every session I'm getting more air. Loving it... Anyway, long story short. The wind dropped 2 or 3 knots quite suddenly. I dropped my kite by accident after a loose boost just before it did so.... There was definitely enough wind for a regular relaunch but my kite had become inverted (leading edge still windward, kite in the water).... After a bit of not very methodical pulling of lines my kite flipped over and relaunched.... But one of my steering lines had wrapped over one of my centre lines (4 line kite - Ozone)....

Kite was in the air but it was obviously pretty unstable and I thought there must be a way to undo this... I has lost my board at this stage... Kite crashed again... I couldn't figure it out and so I self rescued as I was been blown towards one of the piers. Ended up on the beach. Lines in a mess but no harm done. Got the board with the help of another kiter.

As I said, a minor kitemare in the scheme of things but could have been worse.

Has anyone got some advise on 1: How best to relaunch an inverted kite and 2: How to unwrap a steering line that has become wrapped around a centre line. Is it possible to do it without disconnecting the steering line?

Kitemare lesson thus far = sea breeze kicking in at Fawkner will not necessarily come ashore.

Thanks Dudes!

The kite was not inverted. Inverted means it relaunches with the struts on the outside. All the happened to your kite was that it rolled through its lines on one side. This can make it a little weird to steer, but not much, and its not dangerous to simply fly it back to the beach, self land using the unhook and flag using the leash method, then drag your lines down wind behind the kite, bar red on the right, walk your rear lines to the kite, undo that twisted rear and reconnect, then self launch and off you go.

Any questions PM or ask away.

If thats a minor kitemare, ur gonna really **** bricks and have something to post about when things really go down.

Thanks Dudes, appreciate the positive responses.

Glad to hear is actually quite a common occurrence, and next time it happens I'll be expecting to be able to fly the kite with limited responsiveness.

It was a minor kitemare in that I was ****in spewin it didn't turn into the awesome session it should have. I never feared for my safety but had there not been a long sandy beach along the length of the kiting area the same "minor" problem may have been... less minor.

It's a 2013 Catalyst. Never happened before, but I assume it's much more prone to do so in light wind.

Is there a method to relaunching it when it's like that? Or is pulling hard on a steering line the thing to do? Again... I assume more wind would make it easier to relaunch...

I won't dignify the "hows the foot" comment with a response for fear of a minor-ly funny retort along the lines "because the high heels must have been killing you"

I shop trialed the first naish PARK when I inverted it and looked up it said KRAP, didn't buy one after that

tomasjoad said..

Thanks Dudes, appreciate the positive responses.

Glad to hear is actually quite a common occurrence, and next time it happens I'll be expecting to be able to fly the kite with limited responsiveness.

It was a minor kitemare in that I was ****in spewin it didn't turn into the awesome session it should have. I never feared for my safety but had there not been a long sandy beach along the length of the kiting area the same "minor" problem may have been... less minor.

It's a 2013 Catalyst. Never happened before, but I assume it's much more prone to do so in light wind.

Is there a method to relaunching it when it's like that? Or is pulling hard on a steering line the thing to do? Again... I assume more wind would make it easier to relaunch...

I won't dignify the "hows the foot" comment with a response for fear of a minor-ly funny retort along the lines "because the high heels must have been killing you"

It will relaunch the same way as it usually does. The kite will fly fine and control will be almost normal, just avoid doing moves/tricks that will twist the lines, just fly it as normal back to the beach, land it and sort it. If you use the method of taking the bar and lines downwin behind the kite you can sort it out in a couple of minutes and be back on the water to finish that epic session!!

Light wind relauch
First haul in a couple armfuls on one rear line, kite should move to one side, as soon as it begins to move across the surface of the water, quickly release that line and haul in quickly on the opposite steering line, your kite should lift and begin to launch. Don't pull in on the bar any more than you need to in order to steer. If you pull in too much the kite will fall back into the water trailing edge first.
If this method does not work the first time - repeat.
In really light wind, grabbing some opposite front line and pulling and releasing the opposite front and rear alternately, is the best method to coax a kite out of the water - takes some practice.

To avoid kite roll-overs try to minimise the chance of slack lines. Jumping without first edging can send you under the kite resulting slack lines and the kite falling out of the sky.

Nicko82 said..
A correctly pumped up kite will fix this issue my friend.

Pump up it rock hard for best results. It wont happen again.

A well pumped kite is hard to get inverted but still won't stop the problem of it rolling over it's lines that can happen in gusty conditions.

Beach: town beach at low, mackay
Launch: east point, 06:30
Wind: 17-20 steady
Weather: perfect
Today: 09:30 - 10:00
River: Pioneer, tide running in at 8 knots
Kitemares: wind is dying, I am pretty keen to get back to the car, but can't get upwind enough to get past the point
Executive decision: land on break wall, short walk to car.
Yeh, self landed , packed up and drove home from a river running 8 knots
Got a few scratches and won' ever do that again!

Happened to me today, so was useful reading this yesterday. I can vouch for the kitepower method!