Hi guys,

I had a **** session this afternoon. I crashed my kite about 400m offshore, and the kite managed to turn inside out and the lines wrapped around the kite. The kite started looping so I pulled the quick release on my chicken loop and started doing a self-rescue.

Question 1: Are you supposed to wrap the safety line around the bar when you get to the bar?
For whatever reason I left that line free, and after getting to the kite I discovered that the line was wrapped around my leg about 4 times - not good. If the kite powered up I would have had no way to detach from the kite. If you aren't supposed to wrap it around the bar, how do you stop from getting caught in it?

Question 2: What do you do with your board?
I ended up losing my 140cm twin-tip.

Question 3: Is there a trick to successfully "sailing" back to shore on the kite?
The kite provided sweet **** all propulsion cross-wind and I ended up swimming alongside it to get back to the beach.

Any advice is much appreciated.

True, should have searched first. That thread answered all of the questions. Cheers mate.

No handles, I was holding the lines to fold it over. I will definitely consider that when getting my next kite as my fingers were getting pretty sore towards the end

trick is not to be a silly bugger 400m off shore.

Truth.

Regarding question 2,
I've got a length of rope about 2m long and about 2mm thick and a small carabiner tied to and tucked inside my harness. I haven't used it yet but it's there to clip my board too in an offshore self rescue.
Without it you really feel like you need 3 hands to deal with the kite and not loose your board!
Not looking forward to using it but I'm sure it'll be handy next time things go pear shaped.

There is some more information on self rescue (and a video) here: kitesurfing-handbook.peterskiteboarding.com/progression/self-rescue

For storing a line knife: you can get an accessory pouch (Dakine make a good one) that slips over your harness webbing. It would have room for some smaller items too.

nicksanta said...
Yeah I'm definitely considering getting a knife. Where do most people keep them? My harness doesn't have sheath built in.

Or get a new harness. Mine comes with a knife built in. It is and NPX I think.

The previous poster suggested practice.

I got shown how to self rescue last saturday. Though I would give it a go this arvo. Well I certainly need to practice. Lines tangled. Me floundering. Thank heavens it was at Eaton estuary and I was able to change my mind stand up and walk back to shore.

Practice.

nicksanta said...


GalahOnTheBay: In that first pic has he deflated the leading edge but left the struts up?

well if he lost his board in a gust of wind or fighting of a 10m noah, for whatever reason and the whole kite is deflated, its alot easier to have 9m of fabric sitting on the surface of the water rather than under..all i can picture is someone jumping into a pool with the cover on