Ha

Are Oh sh1ts still necessary?

Been kiting for three years and have got into some situations but have never once reached for the Oh Sh1ts. I cant think of a reason why I would.

So why bother?

Doing spins may roll the safety line around the trim line, so that the safety line snag and if you release the kite you are there for a ride....that time it is sweet to grab a line that will definitely flag the kite and release (a sigh)...
This thing with snagged safety line may not happen often (hopefully), but when it does...believe me....it's not nice...and it's good to have an alternative....

Sorry to sound dumb but what are oh s**t handles. My sone rides a GT and i am not sure what they are...

If you snap a front line especially the one your saftey leash attaches to and your out to sea or in deep water you will probably be glad to have them. Has happened to me before with and without OSH's on the bar and it makes it tons easier if you have them to self rescue, especially if the wind is strong.

OSH are great for connecting your SAFETY leash to waveslave

except the port and starboard 'red and green'

kite manufacturers seem to think they are tooo cool for school!

StinkyPete said...

Im with NED. Pretty sure they wouldnt sell a bar that is missing something num nuts.

...if you look back just 10 years of evolution of kitesurfing safety, you will see if your statement is true or not...it is little bit like the air-bag in your car: how often do you use it?.....and still there are cars (like mine) without it...

Its painfully obvious that in case of CORE bar OSR are useless and as a matter of fact impossible to incorporate into bar design due to Y shape of the fronts.
As pointed out almost all manuf. gave up on OSR , Best still have them cos they are very slow to copy others, but wait another year or two and theirs bars will be free of them.
.Also if you use CORE bar youll never break any lines, correct me if Im wrong but to my knowledge they are the only lines made not by crap makers- CHINA, but by German manuf. in GERMANY.

Smedg said...

greenleader said...

except the port and starboard 'red and green'

kite manufacturers seem to think they are tooo cool for school!

I never used core kite products before but would be keen to give them a go. They look pretty good to me. I don't especially like all the bar features like that hook in thing isn't something i'd use.

But, as greeny said. seems like it was a good kind of unspoken standard always having red on the left... Better off using completely different colours than putting Red on the 'wrong' side. Maybe it doesn't matter any more.. Its one thing i always check when about to launch though.

I reckon the ‘standard’ red and green for the bar is a great idea, and Core do seem to have the ‘too cool for school’ syndrome by using yellow and white. I’ve had a some of bars with red on the left, but the ‘red’ wasn’t very obvious (like just a bit of red on a black bar), so you’ve really got to pay attention when checking your bar orientation when getting reset in the water . IMO Core got it right by making the colours so obvious that you can see if the bar is around the right way, even when it’s underwater. 'Thumbs up' for the Core bar from me.

Ned said...

The bar in the photo is upside down, hence the hook facing up which given the correct orientation places the red line on the left!!

oh

hahaha. there you go.

jas73 said...

Sorry to sound dumb but what are oh s**t handles. My sone rides a GT and i am not sure what they are...

Oh-sh1ts are grab handles on flagging lines. ^^^
Multiple oh-sh1ts are the norm.
A flagging device is when the bar can freely travel up a single leash-line...
when the chicken-loop has been released from the harness hook.
Oh-sh1ts give the rider 100% depower cause the kite is tensioned to one line only.
For a kite to be 100% powered, it needs traction from 4 lines.

I think the mini 5th line solves that problem
the mini 5th line is a great system imho
wouldnt think twice in flicking the qr if it's all going pear shaped

KIT33R said...

if you release onto a stearing line and there is a snag you're instantly into a spiral. Hence you'll find most flagging lines are now on a centre line.

It's simply incorrect. Steering lines cannot snag, because you always unwind the bar after loops, and even when the impossible happens, and one steering line snag the kite will flag on the other steering line if you have released it from all other lines. Some manufacturers have never had OSH, but that may not make them useless.

The real problem is the long safety leash. If you release the kite and it goes into a death loop on the safety leash, the bar (and any OSH) is about 1.5-2m away from you.

The other real problem is when your limb or body rolls into the lines on the waves. If you find one line that you can just pull and pull freely with an OSH (steering or middle), you will be safe, otherwise...well, not nice

Andrash said...[/

[b]KIT33R said...

if you release onto a stearing line and there is a snag you're instantly into a spiral. Hence you'll find most flagging lines are now on a centre line.

It's simply incorrect. Steering lines cannot snag, because you always unwind the bar after loops, and even when the impossible happens, and one steering line snag the kite will flag on the other steering line if you have released it from all other lines. Some manufacturers have never had OSH, but that may not make them useless.

The real problem is the long safety leash. If you release the kite and it goes into a death loop on the safety leash, the bar (and any OSH) is about 1.5-2m away from you.

The other real problem is when your limb or body rolls into the lines on the waves. If you find one line that you can just pull and pull freely with an OSH (steering or middle), you will be safe, otherwise...well, not nice

What KIT33 said its very true except that no snag is necessary to make a kite deathlooping , its common knowledge that todays bows are prone to spirraling if you hook your safety to one of the rear lines its like asking for it in case of voluntary or unvoluntary unhooking and letting the bar go.
IMHO you should use only the fronts or mini 5th to attach your safety to.