My question is two parts
I had my lines cross front and back in a back stall yesterday, the wind was pretty passive so I passed the bar through to sort it out without drama. If windy I wouldn't be that keen to try it. But first question is, from reading on topic this morning although crossed can you confirm it would be ok to launch and return to the beach for correction? I understand so far wear is the main issue due to friction from the twist.


second incident only the left hand side crossed front with back somehow, how the hell do you fix that on the water?
I released and self rescued on this occasion as just wasn't sure of launch effect. But would it of flown normal if launched and return to the beach.

You are right when lines get twisted out in the water you need to come in and fix them on the beach. I never know if they are twisted till I relaunch out in the water, ....if the kite flies I come in, if it is tangled around weed or the bar it usually crashes pretty quickly and then i swim in with it. Passing the bar through the lines on the beach is only safe in light steady winds, then it's fine to try.

You can fly if you kite rolls "inverts" through your lines. Come to the beach hook your leash to your lines at the y and pass bar through the reconnect your leash. Not the best idea if you have a high Y though.

Passing though the side lines is a little more tricky, can be done but best done with someone holding the kite as its easy to get wraps around the bar and the kite will move around more.

It's absolutely fine to fly the kite with the lines crossed and variously through them. As long as it will relaunch and you can steer then it's fine to ride back to the beach and sort it out. What else are you going to do?

I wouldn't ride too long that way, and if there is a lot of load on the lines that are crossed, then there is increased chance of wear. That is unlikely because it's usually the lightly loaded back lines crossed with the heavily loaded front lines.

Back at the beach it's best to land your kite and fully check the lines before heading out again. It doesn't take long and it's always good to be absolutely certain that things are right. If you always check then the chances of anything going wrong are reduced.

You can fix line crosses out on the water, but that is fraught with difficulty. You have to unhook and work out which lines to pass the bar through and which direction to do the passing. You can end up with the chicken loop wrapped around the bar and locked with a powered up kite, or having your kite get away from you.

If you really want to understand all this, you can simulate it on the beach in no wind. Take your kite down the beach on a *NO WIND* day (say maximum of 5 knots). Rig everything up then pass the kite through the side lines. See what it all looks like and see what you would have to do to fix it. Repeat for the kite through the centre lines.