Déjà vu
10 months ago I was on the outside of main break at Lancelin on a big ole day like today on my '08 10m Rebel. Chicken loop snapped and I was very sad. Kite crashed. As soon as a wave broke on it I went like a torpedo under the water until my near death leash popped. Swam back through the impact zone and that sucked a lot. Actually caught up with my kite a few hundred meters from shore with lines tangled in some reef. As I was slogging the final bit I stepped on a sting ray (actually though it was a bronze whaler on my calf). Christ. Two things from this incident which are memorable... (1) As I was launching I said to myself this chicken looped needs changed out after this session. (2) Key treatment for the sting ray (clinic in Lano) was a bucket of piping hot water (took about 2/3 of the pain away almost immediately). Never recovered the board.

I saw you at Leighton today on the black/red Rebel.... I was on the outside on the '09 Pink/Gray Rebel. I wondered what happened as I saw your kite flying on it's back just moments after you entered.

Yep it can happen at any time, I snapped a front line yesterday and although I was able to pull the safety and swim in no worries, it highlighted the fact you should thoroughly check your lines when you are heading out in gusty wintery conditions. I have been flying a different (better ) brand of kite lately but yesterday I dragged out my 5.5 DOS and because I had sold my DOS bar and lines with a 10 DOS recently I used a set of lines off an 08 7.5 Bandit, I had several bandit B&L's and thought I had replaced all the front lines but obviously not.

I have quoted a reply I made to a post on the gear review forum recently that came back to bite me on the bum.

It was actually the front line where it meets the splice that broke and the fifth lines was still ok.

Check your gear!!!!!

tightlines said...

terryzarmzof said...

the 5th line breaks on the splice, weak point of the bandit

I had 7, 9, and 13 Bandits and broke several of 5th lines at the splice, so yes I agree it was a weak point, but the DOS's are larked not spliced where the mini 5th joins the front line and are much stronger.
I replaced the original Bandit front lines with the new stronger ones of the DOS and had no further trouble.

poor relative said...

tightlines said...
I have been flying a different (better ) brand of kite lately

So you got rid of those eclipse sh!te then eh?

hahahahahaha
IT WAS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME

It's not only kite hardware that can give you grief this time of year.

I went for what was supposed to be a short cruisie session last Sat at Leighton. Didn't stretch or do any warm up at all in the cold conditions. Hadn't kited in about 3 or 4 months either.

Stepped on my strapped surfboard with the front foot in and the back foot out of the straps. First wave I hit the back foot slipped off and I do the splits and feel the horrible tearing sensation in my hamstring. Session over in 30 seconds

To make matters worse I'm off to Indo for 3 weeks surfing so now madly trying to rehab my hammy in time

phrase said...

On the subject of safety. This time of year you get alot of seaweed on the shore line. Went out yesterday, tried to do some kind of jump, back roll thingy unsuccessfully. Crash landed in a big patch of floating seaweed. Kite crashed as well. When I surfaced there was nothing but seaweed clogged everywhere over my lines and bar. Because the seaweed weighs down the lines it kind of pulls you under as the kite gets pulled by the waves. Lucky it wasn`t that deep and the kite wasn`t really going anywhere. But I`m sure I would of had problem trying to release my safety quickly if I needed to, there was that much seaweed clogged around my bar and chicken loop etc. Just be careful.

Yeap had my safety release jammed by seaweed in the past. It was just a single strand of weed on the centre line after a winter relaunch at Dutchies.

When attempting to relaunch, the kite rolled through my lines so that when I got it back up the centre lines were twisted around the rear lines. No drama I think to myself, kite is still in control I'll just self land, reset the lines and get back to it.

Before trying to land it I try and shake loose the offending piece of weed. No one around to lend a hand and it resists all attempt to fling it off so I pull the safety and let go of the bar. Bar slides just out of reach and the centre line jams on the piece of seaweed. Luckly the wind was pretty light and I managed to haul in some line by hand and bring the looping nightmare to an end.

Ioz,

Here are a couple of pics of you (or the person out on a red Rebel at 17:00) at Leighton yesterday. Hope the sunset made up for the previous pain.

Cheers,
Gorilla

Cheers Gorilla,

That was indeed me on the Red Rebel, It was a classic session in the end and I thougerly enjoyed it.

Decided not to put it down when the rain squall came through - and got away with it this time, though I was lucky it was not the main part of the front that hit when I was out there.

I had practiced using my safety before I went out for the 2 nd time though so I would like to think I would have been ready to deal with a lofting if it had happened, but who knows.