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Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2003 7:23 pm
by luketheloony
but if u ride with one hand on the ''trigger'' when you hit chop it will be pulled

Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2003 7:39 pm
by RickI
luketheloony wrote:id keep kitin and get massive air
As a joke, why not. From the standpoint of reality, there was the guy that flew over 800 ft. and 100 ft. high in Cabarete in such a squall, The fellow in Spain that died after falling into the second story roof of a building after being lofted, multiple people that have slammed into parked cars in Miami, a few guys that have hit walls with some not making it and on an on. Learn from history or be fated to repeat it. Yet another choice ...
luketheloony wrote:but if u ride with one hand on the ''trigger'' when you hit chop it will be pulled
So what if you depower your kite 100 or 200 yards from shore by accident? Kiteboarders should be able to handle that swim and a great deal more. At least you won't suffer serious impact injury or worse. Too many guys have done this already. Some of their stories are in the KSI.

You may have considered what to do if your car skids at speed on wet or icy roads. It would be a good idea for kiteboarders to think over the current scenario as well. Things like this happen, making the wrong decision can cost a great deal.

Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2003 7:43 pm
by luketheloony
my first post was a joke like any1 can hole down a kite if ther powerd in 2o than it pics up to 50 and secondly every 5 min ull b pulling ur release

Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2003 1:20 am
by RickI
Trying to manage a sudden very strong spike in kite power is the problem.

Your quick release may or may not work also you may not have time to react before you are flying high and fast inland or merely being dragged out of control into the beach.

Bottom line, YOU DON'T WANT TO HAVE YOUR KITE UP WHEN A VERY STRONG GUST HITS. Lots of accidents have established this, doubt it at your peril.

Obviously, you depower your kite and hold on to your kite leash tight to try to avoid having it ripped away from you. The question is WHEN?

1. Depowering as soon as you realize the threat, which is relatively rare, for riders that plan kiteboarding properly in many areas, is obviously the safest course. If your leash malfunctions you may still be at risk but hopefully you took pains to try to avoid that with proper testing and maintenance.

2. Unhook and hold you bar while being totally aware and prepared to let go or have it ripped from your grasp if the wind gets too strong. This later approach may save you a bit of time swimming but at the risk of your safety and perhaps your gear. Given that such events SHOULD BE A RARE THING, taking approach #1 seems the best course.

Guys that hesistate, remain hooked in, get too close to shore or hard objects, wait for someone to catch their kite are upping the odds for serious misfortune. Guys that don't use kite leashes are just begging for serious grief from scenarios like this. Hang on or lose your kite and if you are lofted, cut some bystander or cause some other grief downwind, oh well. Lots of riders have proven this already. Some will not have another chance to make a similar error.

Figure out the deepwater emergency depowering technique that you want to use and practice it physically and mentally. You never know when you might have to hit the brakes. It would be good if you know how to do this and have a fair chance of them working.

Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2003 9:30 am
by Youtch
Then what's next??
Once you release your kite on the kite leash, do you try to wrap up your lines, deflate your main bladder, packed your kite and swim to the shore?

But when you got hit by such a squall, in many situations do no expect the wind to blow in the same direction you had before you launched your kite.

The squall may be the results of a stormy weather, making wind direction now completely off-shore. And do not expect to be able to swim back to the shore if you have 10bft off-shore, even if you've been three times swimming world champion.

Then at this point you'll have only to trust on the arrival of rescue forces by air or sea for your survival.

Then again if winds are off shore the probability to land after being loft on the a sharp object is much lower, so you may dare keeping the kite longer in the air to get closer to the shore.

Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2003 3:12 pm
by RickI
What do you do if your car skids out? The basics response options are fixed but the full details of the best reaction are UNIQUE to the setting you are in. Did you skid out in an large open parking lot on water, or was it on a narrow alpine road on ice, is there oncoming traffic, etc.

Avoiding the serious consequences of having a kite up with a strong gust spike is the key in this scenario (i.e. - avoiding the "skid" in the first place). The gust spike and likely spikes are the critical factors with the ability to severely injure or worse.

The rest of your response will be governed by specific local conditions, rocks, currents, boats, bathers, distance from shore, surf, etc. etc. It isn't feasible to prepackage a uniform response to ALL scenarios, at least in brief. A lot of scenario responses are embodied in the "Safe Kiteboarding Guidelines**, but certainly not all.

You are correct, squalls often toss out radical wind velocity and direction changes. If there is any good news, it is that they are often but not always, short lived over a fixed location. As in the case of the skid, weather planning and monitoring during riding goes a LONG way towards dodging the problem in the first place.

Kiteboarding looks easy but in reality it can be fairly complex. Do your homework, stay alert and use good common sense to shred hard and long.

**phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=11310

Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2003 3:30 pm
by gaffer
i think steve t is the best so far, unhook, keep the kite low and head back to shore, use your best judgement in the situation to decide when to let got and let the kite go to the leash. this could be when the squall hits if you have not reached shore or as you approach the shore or when you are on the beach.

Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2003 12:58 am
by theflyingtinman
gaffer wrote:i think steve t is the best so far, unhook, keep the kite low and head back to shore, use your best judgement in the situation to decide when to let got and let the kite go to the leash. this could be when the squall hits if you have not reached shore or as you approach the shore or when you are on the beach.
The only thing I'd change about that is I would NOT wait until reaching the beach to release if I knew there was a squall behind me.
If it catches before you reach shore and you fail to let go the bar immediately you drop into water when you do let go. If that happens close to shore you may drop onto land, or shallow water.
I would release when I'm still a few hundred meters away from shore.

Steve T.

Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2003 1:28 am
by RickI
I had a practical example of this happen a little over a month ago. We had uniform gray skys, there was some activity on the color radar but well to the south and slowly moving north. The winds were around 10 to 13 kts. sideshore. I was out with a Blacktip 17 m kite.

After I had been out for a while, the wind sudden started to build rapidly, still from the same direction. Unlike usual patterns, the appearance of the clouds really didn't change in advance of the sudden increase of winds. Things were still overcast and gray.

I started to be teabagged, rising about 10 ft. and then 15 ft. off the water. I was about 1/4 mile offshore. I estimate that the wind was up to around 30 kts. After the first teabag, after I have been "dunked" back into the water momentarily, I unhooked and prepared to let go of the control bar. I let go of the bar at the top of the second teabag and immediately grabbed my kite leash just above the attachment point to back it up. I free fell about 15 ft. into the water.

I then worked my way up to the kite hand over hand on one line and then used the kite as a sail to pull me into shore. As we have very little boat traffic and a smooth sand bottom, I didn't wind up my kite lines before sailing into shore.

I could have immediately depowered the kite at the base of the first teabag but elected to hang on a bit longer. I have had control bars yanked out of my hands many times in past years and don't seem to be one of those people that hang on like grim death as a rule. As it was the depowering occurred in accordance with my plan. If the wind had suddenly boosted to 50 to 60 mph (which can happen here), during that second teabag, A LOT would have been riding on proper depowering and the kite and perhaps bystanders on not having the kite ripped away from me. I have had fingers damaged inexplicably when the bar would be ripped out of my hands at speed. A lot can happen in a second or so when powerful forces are at work. In such a gust there is a very good chance that the kite would have flown off at high speed into the trees. In hindsight, depowering after the first teabag would be the way to go.

Looking over MANY of the more serious KSI accidents, many of the accident victims allowed the time to react in relative safety pass. They hesistated, were stunned or just didn't take the threat seriously and paid for the mistake.

The point is REACT EARLY OR PERHAPS NOT AT ALL. It all comes down to individual choice but it pays to think about these things carefully and to make plans in advance.

Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2003 8:08 am
by Peter
Sorry, but this is typical. A lot of kiters only see their kite techniqe and their fun, but they have no idea of the weather and are not able to appraise it.

If you are kiting, you also have to watch the weather ALWAYS, and if there is any change, e.g. black clouds from a thunderstorm, you have to leave the water early enough or at least stay near the beach so that you can leave the water within a minute, if the weather becomes worse.

The weather IS a significant component of kiting and you have to watch it.

Always take care -

Greetz Peter