Just a quick follow up for those with pulleys on bridals.. I've lost 3 pulleys in the last few sessions. All of them went under normal flying without any indication that they were about to fail. I'm now replacing all 8 of them. On closer inspection the pin holding the wheel has snapped as the end of the stainless pin can still be seen in the housing. It seems they have reached the end of their design life which is 2 to 3 years. One of these snapping an be a major headache as I have found. In the surf zone it could be particularly nasty - the kite drops out of the sky and you have a loose line all around you in the water. If you have a kite a couple of years old and go out in the surf I'd definitely recommend you replace the pulleys!

POP.

Spend the extra and get Harken Carbo Blocks. These will not fail. Plenty of testing done over the years on my sailing boat. trying to use the smallest and lightest block possible.

No worries POP. You were a long way out and looked like you could do with a hand. People have helped me before so I know what its like.

I suspect POP's theory of a bad batch of pulleys circa 2009 might not be unreasonable. We had a pulley failure on a 2009 Cab and it didn't have excessive use (i'd classify the pulley failure as premature). Lucky it wasn't a long swim back!

Make a small loop with line that goes around the pulley. If the pulley fails, the line will catch the bridle and you will be able to get back in. I'll get a pic to show you how to tie the loop so it doesn't foul/get in the way (basically a larks head up over the pulley and back through the hole). 20c insurance!

Yep that looks like it will work! thanks for the link,

Pop