I would like to say thanks to Eric who saved me, and all my gear at Melville waters today.
I owe you one.

I'm just a beginner and had some great upwind runs out today until my kite inverted and the lines got twisted while I was very far out on the water. After realizing I wasn't gonna be able to relaunch without untwisting my lines, I pulled my release. This however did not seem to do very much at all. Because of the twist in my lines it kept the tension on the kite and kept on trying to launch. Everytime I tried to do a deep water pack down by rolling up my lines my kite would just try to relaunch and refused to sheet out. After a long struggle I finally got it down. By this stage my lines were in a massive tangle but I figured I'll fix that when I'm back on shore. I tried to flip my kite and make it into a sail but my lines were getting in the way of doing so. I would have done this eventually but by then a very nice American guy called Eric came out to me and bodydragged me back to shore.

He saved me and all my gear. Thanks a lot Eric! I owe you one. I have learned couple of things today: Do not go out to far! and after I came back to shore I practiced my 'sail in' technique. I have Paul to thank for that. This will (hopefully) not happen again!

Now let's untangle that massive mess...

Was it eric eck

He's my hero too....

^^^^ + 1

so true! It wasn't til my missus had to do a self-rescue for real that she realize that I wasn't being a pedantic pr!ck for no reason! Practice makes perfect!

A simple practice can make all the difference to remind you, especially when your out wide and sh!tting yourself, you forget basics and make too many simple mistakes.

Sh!t happens and being prepared is a must. Actually, come to think about it, its been ages since I've had my son show me he can self-rescue, I think next session I'm telling him he has to show me,,,, again!

Good on-ya for the props to the dude!

cheers,

Robbie

... ey, what happened, do tell!?!!

ApatheticEnd said...

At least you aren't the knob whos runaway kite landed on a 5 million dollar house yesterday.

wow what happened there? I hope this guy learned from his mistake as well.. At least my mistake didn't cause any havoc!

ApatheticEnd said...

At least you aren't the knob whos runaway kite landed on a 5 million dollar house yesterday.

Awww was the poor little house okay?

... actually you can and its worth while recovering from this position and knowing how to is really worth the effort.

It takes patience and experience and in descent wind a cool head. For warned is for armed!

Actually, getting the kite to invert on purpose is really hard, you may need to get some one to help you, but practice in this situation can be invaluable. Do it in light winds first and when you get it, its fairly easy from then on!

I was shooting my mouth off one day on how I do it and I had to prove myself. We put a kite up and had a practice, I showed the guy what do I do! The guy was new to 5 line kites and we got it in all sorts of positions including inverted and with patience we got it to relaunched every time. Was really light wind at the time too so there was no danger.

Anyway, like anything, practice makes perfect!

cheers,

Robbie

^^^ ok, thx, makes sense.

My bow kite never inverted, but the other SLE or hybrid did many times, even tho it's pumped much harder.

It is actually possible to fly a kite with the lines inverted, although it can be tricky to relunch them. Happened to me in a similar situation out the back at leighton.

Kite hits the water, board still has some momentum, kite rolls on its back and the lines invert. After 2-3 mins of relaunch attempts, up she goes and i gingerly ride back the 200 or so meters.

If your kite inverts (inside out) now thats a different story.

If the kite is inverted and in the water, then swim toward the kite until you release the tension remaining in your steering lines. The kite should now be facing toward you (same position as when you flip the kite over after having inflated it). It's now time to pivot the kite to get back to the normal position.
You have to pull a fair amount of one of your steering lines (It will help if you swim a little bit on the opposite direction). When the kite start to rotate and both wing tips are aligned, grab the other steering line and be ready to release both at the same time as the kite will start to power up.

Kind of difficult to explain through words and a demo being the best way to demonstrate, you can ask a friend to put your kite in this position in the water (in shallow water if you can) and then practice..... Same as relaunching a kite which have fallen on the trailing edge.... You need to know what to do before heading to deep water. Those are common mistakes you may do at the beginning so if you want to avoid finding yourself in a situation where you don't know what to do, the practice before you go.

That's why I believe taking lessons in shallow water is a huge mistake!!!!