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PRO RIDER LOFTED!

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Toby
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Postby Toby » Tue Jun 15, 2004 10:47 pm

that's the point: avoid it in the first time!
when comming close to shore, keep the kite low, have someone catch it while you ride in.
If no one around to catch, and you know gusts/squalls are hitting, release for safety.
Before getting on shore, watch the water, and if white caps are comming towards you, you better release immediately!
It is about anticipation and watching everything!

Greets
Toby

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Postby alexrh » Tue Jun 15, 2004 11:07 pm

Why dont more manufactures produce security systems like Cabrinha Recon. Pull the ball and the frontlines becomes 3 meters longer, removing most of the pull without having to unhook. Even if you pull it 10 meters up I think it would brake a loot of the speed on the way down to earth.

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RickI
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Postby RickI » Tue Jun 15, 2004 11:15 pm

alexrh wrote:Why dont more manufactures produce security systems like Cabrinha Recon. Pull the ball and the frontlines becomes 3 meters longer, removing most of the pull without having to unhook. Even if you pull it 10 meters up I think it would brake a loot of the speed on the way down to earth.
I have used RECONs a fair amount, thank god not in a free fall context. They will not parachute you to earth much better than a normal kite depowering system ONCE the emergency depower has been activated. Up to that point they will glide very nicely. I think I did pop it once by accident in mid-jump and fell like a rock, as I should all things considered. They were never intended to perform in that fashion, NO depower has. The goal is to eliminate as much kite drag/thrust as possible as reliably and quickly as possible. The RECON has merits in other applications but reducing the hazards of free fall once the emergency depower has been activated is not among them in my opinion.

Lofting Avoidance Is the Key.

Safety gear may help, maybe. The only assurance is that conveyed by NEVER being lofted in the first place. Otherwise you have thrown everything up for grabs, including yourself. Have a care out there.

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Postby R1ck » Wed Jun 16, 2004 12:41 am

ok what fo said got my attention big time....when u are lofted u cant steer ur kite at all?

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RickI
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Postby RickI » Wed Jun 16, 2004 1:46 am

R1ck wrote:ok what fo said got my attention big time....when u are lofted u cant steer ur kite at all?
Well, here is what happened over two years ago in one instance. You decide if you have any control over direction of travel while aloft during an extended lofting (or jump). A more critical question might be, will you have the presence of mind or stall the kite by accident or time to act? In many cases, I suspect not, even less likely without some regular mental preparation and limited practice. So, effectively you may not be able to steer unless you are prepared and have the time to act. The guy in Cabarete had both in place I would guess, see for yourself below.

From the KSI, 2002 Volume at:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kitesurf/ ... EFERENCES/


32. Incident# 3 3 02 "Record Lofting" Location: Cabarete, Dominican Republic
Date of Incident March 2002 Participant account included: Yes Number of independent accounts: 4
For more information see: http://216.92.244.20/pictures/patoKingO ... /index.htm

Summary

A 155 lb. (70 kg) kiteboarding instructor of about 2 1/2 years experience on a four-month holiday in Cabarete was rigged with an RRD 11.9 m kite. The wind had been consistently side shore 10 to 15 kts. He noticed a black line of clouds or squall moving in to shore. He came into shore at the west section of Cabarete Bay at Bozo Beach. He lowered his kite to within 3 to 5 m (10 to 16 ft.), off the ground for an assisted landing. He was then hit by a violent wind gust, that he described as an “explosion.â€

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Postby Flyboy » Wed Jun 16, 2004 4:56 am

Just survived my own lofting incident in Caberete last week:

I was kiting offshore well outside the reef at Bozo's in winds around 20 knots with a 12m kite. I noticed the wind picking up & looked upwind to see storm clouds gathering. I immediately started heading for shore. At first I took the opportunity of stronger winds to point higher & head back upwind, however, as the wind further strengthened & I became overpowered, I abandoned this tactic & headed as directly as possible to shore flying the kite high & as depowered as possible.

After a few more minutes I was no longer able to effectively hold an edge in the water & continued basically just side-slipping towards shore. At this point I was not particularly concerned even though I was significantly overpowered, because I was still controlling the kite & I was 300 or 400 metres from shore. However, I began to realise that safely landing the kite when I got there, even with assistance, was going to be a bit iffy. I took the precaution of flipping open the plastic tubing on my CL so I was no longer "shackled" to the kite.

Shortly after this, the wind further intensified & a gust picked me up & lofted me towards shore. When I landed I was perhaps 200 metres from shore & closing quickly & began to appreciate that I had a serious problem & had to try & release the kite before I got any closer to shore. I pulled on the CL briefly with both hands to disengage it from the spreader bar hook, but the load was too great. In spite of the fact that I had a QR on the CL, I did not attempt to pull it (I think I was influenced by what I have heard about these pin QR's not opening reliably under high load). Instead, I brought the kite down at the edge of the window into the water, hoping that I would have a second during which the kite would deload for long enough for me to disengage the CL from the hook.

Unfortunately, in the gusting wind, the kite immediately bounced off the water & shot through the power zone hurtling me through the air. The kite crashed into the water & again immediately took off through the power zone flinging me wildly through the air again. At this point, I was only about 50 metres from shore (lined with palm trees & a field-stone retaining wall), upside down in the water, no longer holding the bar & expecting the worst.

As the kite bounced back off the water again there was a violent wrenching & suddenly I came to a stop. I looked over my shoulder to see the kite billowing off into the distance, where it eventually came to rest at the base of some palm trees.

I staggered onto the beach & looking down I realised that my harness spreader bar had sheared in two from the load & had allowed the CL to release. (The leash just ripped right off). The fact that I was using an aluminum windsurfing bar rather than a steel kiting bar, may have saved me from serious injury or death.

Lessons:

1) Keep an eye on the weather at all times.

2) Be safe rather than cool (ie. be prepared to ditch the kite earlier rather than later).

3) When the shit hits the fan it happens real fast (don't assume you're going to have any control over what's happening - that's why they call it shit-hitting-the-fan).

4) Don't think you can unhook in an extreme loading situation.

5) Use the QR - & it had better work!

6) My helmet didn't make me feel very safe! (Better than nothing, but the problem is it's not like falling off a bike onto the tarmac, it's more like riding your bike straight into a wall - chances are, you're going to break your neck).

7) Being lucky may be better than being smart.

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Postby MadMick » Wed Jun 16, 2004 5:35 am

On a more serious note though,I just read the description of Shannon Best being lofted,and lucky to escape serious injury,by the sound of it.

Interesting that he was last on the water,with a large kite when caught by a squall. Everyone else had apparantly gone in.
Shannon is of course,for those of you that have just returned from the International Space Station,a wakeboarder.

I got to wondering if there is any co relation to kite loftings etc and the background of the victims.

I feel that ,in fact I KNOW that being a windsurfer for many years has given me a great understanding of the wind and weather.Plus a healthy respect for the power and moods of Nature.

Surely a great advantage.

Just a thought.

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Mr Jo Macdonald
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Postby Mr Jo Macdonald » Wed Jun 16, 2004 7:33 am

Thanks for the tale Shannon and Rick, glad to hear you're ok.
Imo jumpin the gusts out can be a good way to survive (and fun too) but only if you've got a lot of space downwind, like with sideshore winds, if it's side-on or onshore you're going to get very near the beach, or anything else dowwind, very fast and have very little control over how far each jump is going to take you, personally I would have maybe gone for 1 then if that took me far towards the beach I'd have stuck the kite at the edge of the window, board in hand and bodydragged upwind back in, letting the kite go to the leash before hitting land.


None of you guys heard about the rider lofted into the judges tower at the PKRA in Belgium??
J

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Postby Robsw6 » Wed Jun 16, 2004 8:37 am

well done to Shannon, Rick & all who have contributed to this thread, it is a salutary reminder that may save someone.

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Postby BLOWN AWAY » Wed Jun 16, 2004 9:39 am

Loftings are scary and happen so fast that by the time you realise what's happening, the ground is lookin small. I got lofted a few months ago and ended up high over 3in of water. The trip was short, releasing would have meant certain injury so i hung in there and hoped for the best, i came down the landing was very soft (a 20m kite makes a handy parachute) .... then i ejected.


Hanging on doesn't allways mean another trophy for the grim repa.


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