a line breaks.....so what happens?

[Morrow]

It could happen to all of us; one of the lines had an unnoticed knot or weak point...it breaks.....
So, what happens, is the kite completely out of control? spinning in the powerzone or straight down? what is the difference in kite behaviour when breaking one of the front or one of the backlines?

And when the shit happens, what is the best thing you can do at that point?

Taco

[Nik_KiteAntigua]

It sounds like you did not take lessons or were tuaght by inexperienced kiteboarding "friends".

In this situation you would let the leash do its work by letting go of the bar and then self rescue. I will not get into the details as you should find this out by taking lessons from a reputable instructor/school.

Any good school will teach you this within the first four hours of instruction. Not by explaining it; by actaully doing it.

Go take some lessons man.

[Morrow]

I did have lessons actually, but they never told me about breaking lines. Can't help it, wrong kiteschool i guess, but .. how could I know.

Anyway, letting go of the bar will not do the trick when hooked in. Besides that, if your line with leash on it breaks, it could have a strange effect.

First of all I wonder what the effect on the kite is when one of the lines breaks, I will try to make an analysis; there might be much more to it then it seems:

situation 1: backline breaks:
probably during turning, or fully powered situation. The effect will be that it will turn to the side with the 'intact' backline. releasing bar/depower will slow the turning of the kite, and it will probably go down in a circle.
(but then again, I never experienced it so please comment)

situation 2: frontline breaks:
now this could be during high speed, or more likely when jumping. Now I cannot figure out what the effect of one frontline is, when the kite is still connected to 2 backlines. Will the power be transferred to the backline, meaking it a stearing powerline or will the kite be completely out of control, spinning in the powerzone? Any comments on this situation?

Other cases:
breaking both front lines...

In all cases breaking the line with the leash connected to could get you into some strange situations. On a breaking backline the leash could lose its function completely. On a breaking front line it could suddenly 'become' the frontline.
I hope to get some comments, ideas or experiences...

Thanks Taco

[hawaiikiter]

i had lessons too and these are some good thughts.

i have my leash on the left frontline(spinning leash with rings-system). what do you do if the leash-line breaks?

how often should you replace your lines so you have a low risk of the lines breaking?

[rb_stretch]

To me there are only 2 situations to consider.

1) When the leashed line breaks
2) When any other line breaks.

For situation 2) you can just deploy the safety like normal and the kite will depower correctly.

Situation 1 means the safety will not work and you either have to hold on for the ride, or let the kite go completely by releasing to the safety leash and then releasing the leash line itself. Sounds a lot to do with an out of control kite! Be interested to know if there is a better way.


RB

[Harald S]

Hi Morrow

I don`t know what will happen when a line breaks; the event is probably gonna be different in each case.

On the other hand I know what happened to my kite when both frontlines snapped on me! The week point was the Takoon nylon leaderlines from last year, just where it connects below the knot. (If you have one - check if the color in this spot is darker than the line, or just change them..)
The lines broke when I passed a wave going out, I fell on my face and the kite went down LE first full speed: rrrrip! down the middle - had to swim for an hour.
My leash was on a backline at the time, so I released the chickenloop and let the bar go.
Then I rolled all loose lines up on the bar to prevent them from getting tangled around my feet while swimming.

Today I have a ringleash on one of the frontlines. This means releasing the chickenloop in this case would result in parting with the kite. If it happens again and if I have the time while the kite is in the water, I would try to get my linecutter and cut one of the backlines. That would leave the kite attached and stretched flat.

There is this one guy who years ago, when experimenting with home-made 4-line bars, had the trimloop come apart from time to time!
He would ride the kite back to shore only connected to the backlines!

Now I always check my lines for weak spots while setting up.

[WildThang]

I think my kite would stall backwards in a spin if my leashed line broke. It is ringleashed to one of the front lines.

Maybe it's safer to leash the back lines in this scenario.

#1 the backlines probably don't wear as easily since they don't encounter the steady high loads the fronts do. (Especially true for front line flying kites)

#2 in the unlikely event you break the back leash line, your kite would only steer one way in a death spiral until you slackened the remaining steering line. Then it would fly to the edge, be that zenith, the water or anywhere in between.

I think you have no choice, but to set the kite leading edge down, roll up one of the lines until it flagged out, and swim.

It's a bummer scenario anyway you slice it, just make sure to check your lines, c-loop and bar regularly and don't take chances.

Eric

[bragnouff]

This kind of gag did happen to me last day, after a landing with the kite still low in the powerzone, I had the Takoon Dreambar 2003 with the leash on the right front line, the line with the red ball, remember topic "stopper ball from hell -- no tangle issues but breakdowns!". This ball clearly make a weakness on the line since the line has broken at this point. And of course I've lost this f* ball, though!
The kite was out of control, spinning, but not with huge power. However I was 100m or more from the shore, so it was ok, but maybe near obstacles it would have been very hot.

Due to my usual reflex in such situations, I've released my kite, being confident in my leash... and I saw my kite flying gently down in the window, straight to the beach, where somebody catched it safely. I was still hooked to 7m of a poor line, and at this time I felt very miserable !

Now my conclusion, is that I prefer have my kiteleash connected to a rear line, because they are usually less under tension, and in most of the cases where you have trouble on your rearlines, it is due to a weak rope or knot on the kite attachement or on the bar, rarely the line itself. And this parts of the gear can (should) be inspected and replaced if needed before every session and this issues would be avoided.

This kind of thing can happen to anyone, anytime, and really, keep your distances from obstacles and people.
and check your gear

----
alex, portnawake.com

[skipfrommichigan]

I have had once experience when my chicken loop broke releasing both front lines. I could not steer the kite and it dropped. I wrapped up the lines and grabbed both ends of the kite to act as a sail. It worked good and allowed me to drag in. I found that after the front lines broke - there was no way I could steer the kite.

Last week at the end of a down wind run - a friend and I were jumping near the beach. We jumped at the same time and he directed his kite right into my kite lines. I tried to control the two combined kites after his bar ran up to my kite. There was no way I was able to steer it - so I let go of the bar and let my kite leash kick in.

[Mr Jo Macdonald]

I bust a back line once, kite crashed straight away