Hi All,

So I had a session this afternoon at Shearwater (Gold Coast). Can't say I've had so many new experiences in one session and just have a few questions regarding them and the best ways to deal with them.

1. Flipped the kite - Ok so I was riding along in toe side and because I'm concentrating more on not stacking on the board while toeside I didn't notice my kite about to hit the water. Anyway it hit the water but I kept going which made the lines slack. The wind took the kite and flipped it around so that some of the lines were going over the top of the kite. Needless to say the kite flailed around in its rather messed up state while I flailed around wondering wtf to do to get it back (meanwhile I'm in the middle of the broadwater). After about 5 minutes of flailing around I managed to get all the lines going under the kite again. However, the outer lines went around the inner lines now before going to the wing tips (so it was flipped over basically) I managed to relaunch it and make it to the beach but of course the kite wasn't very happy in that state. So my question is, what do you guys do when / if this happens.

2. Riding Unhooked - So I also tried my first unhooked riding today. The experience was rather good. Though, as I imagined, the kite was highly powered in this state (duh), and the one time I got pulled onto the beach. Is there some way that you are supposed to trim the kite before unhooking? Should I depower it a little before un-hooking?

3. The Laugh - This one is more of a laugh than asking for advice though here goes. After doing a big jump I lost my board and crashed a fair way downwind of my board. Now as I've done many times I started dragging upwind to zig zag back to my board when I felt a big bump on my leg... The first thing I though was shark... as you do when you are being reeled around like a piece of bait while body dragging. However, it was my first session on my new Cab Custom and there was no way I was going to lose it... hesitantly I kept on body dragging and along comes about 20 sailing yachts and Cats coming zooming past right where I was. Meanwhile I can't see my board and I start yelling out to the yacht people asking if they've seen it but to no avail. Anyway I keep going and I get another bump... At this point I'm ****ting myself because the wind is dieing and my kite is barely flying anymore and I have know idea what is bumping me... After a while I find my board and get to it and ride back to shore...When I get back to the shore I realize that what was bumping me the whole time was my kite leash..... or at least I'm pretty sure it was.

1) im not sure if this is a good idea, but if its shallow i pull in a couple of meters of center lines, loop them around my harness somehow to secure the kite in a depowered position and then unhook from the chicken loop and feed my bar through my center lines. It's a bit of a mind **** and 50% of the time i make it worse (especially with my 5 line kite), but the other 50% im up and riding again without having to re-rig my kite. I'm hoping I'll get better at it as it happens every now and then.

2) I've only unhooked a couple of times before, but depending on your kite there should be a way to sheet in your center lines and lock them in a less powered position. When you can ride comfortably hooked in with the bar all the way in, then you can unhook. I'm pretty sure all newer kites have a way to trim the lines but how you'd do it depends on your kite.

I tried unhooking and can't hold the power?.
90% of the people we have come across don't have their kite trimmed correctly to unhook.

What you need to do is have your kite in its optimal position when the bar is pulled down against chicken loop. That way when you unhook the kite keeps flying perfectly.

If you unhook and kite begins to stall or fly backwards it means it is oversheeted - Pull on the depower strap until you achieve optimal kite position with the bar sheeted fully in.

from ben wilson himself www.seabreeze.com.au/Articles/Kitesurfing/Wave-Riding-Tips-by-Ben-Wilson--Part-1_1500204.aspx

I'll add to the first one.

Avoidance is always better than recovery.
Keep one eye on your kite and the other on where you're going.
If your kite does hit the water keep as much tension on your lines as possible and try to get the thing back up again. If that's not possible the line tension should stop a roll over.

My experience with the load and pop was quite good, i found once you have the kite powered up and at the right angle you can create quite a bit of load to pop with. also helps for practicing landings so when you do start going big it becomes a lot easier to spot landings
Enjoy

Magenta, it appears that I've found someone that's crazier than I am....Pheewww, I am not alone :)))