Contact   Imprint   Advertising   Guidelines

The Safety Topic: please post your experience and advice!

Forum with lots of safety info - a must for newbees
Candleflame
Rare Poster
Posts: 25
Joined: Mon Mar 16, 2015 1:56 pm
Local Beach: Southeast England
Gear: Cab. Switchblade
Brand Affiliation: None
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Re: The Safety Topic: please post your experience and advice

Postby Candleflame » Sun Dec 20, 2015 6:21 pm

just heard about another incident:

a girl did an unhooked kiteloop. She hold the bar like a laser sword, meaning one side come close to the body. At that point that bar end got stuck under the harness hook and the kite kept looping many times, and also with power, so she was dragged under water. She had no idea what to do, and felt she was going to drown. Luckily someone got her kite so it stopped looping. If not, she might have been died. I'm very happy she is ok.

Are there any tips on what to do best in a situation like that?

She said, she had no chance to grab one of the O'Shit handles, too far away.
It was a four line kite.

Would it help to pull on the 5th line if you ave one? I think it should get some power out of the kite. The question is, if you are able to pull. But maybe keep this in mind as one solution, better than having nothing.

Just coming into my mind: you could pull the other bar end full power? Would you realize this in a situation like this?
If it's a bowkite and the bar is close to you (i.e. coz somehow stuck to harness) if your head is above the water and you can clearly see the two cenre lines you can pull those hard towards you which will instantly depower the kite. Pulling the 5th line has AFAIK a similar effect.

If you are dragged underwater and you cant breathe and are panicking the only way is to physically touch your bar, try to find the ends of the bar and pull as hard as you can on either steer line. This will hopefully crash the kite into the water and it can't loop anymore.

If your bar is gone and you get pulled like mad then your bar has become wrapped either around the centre lines or the steering lines or both. In this case you can pull the leash safty release and collect your kite from a tree at the beach later ^^. Fortunatley lots of kite companies put tubing on their centre lines and I hope they will soon add some tubing to the steering lines too, so this stuff can't really happen.

NHKitesurfer
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 508
Joined: Fri Apr 04, 2014 4:01 pm
Local Beach: MA/NH
Gear: Switch & Cabrinha
Brand Affiliation: None
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Re: The Safety Topic: please post your experience and advice

Postby NHKitesurfer » Mon Dec 21, 2015 6:29 pm

What do you do when you kite crashes and inverts but then launches, leaving you with both steering lines crossed with both center lines? In the past I would put kite down and drift to shore then re-do my lines but this is not always an option. The other day it happened and I decided to fly the kite and make a run for shore but as you can imagine the kite flew awkwardly but I made it in. Is there a way to undo the crossed lines on the water?

smurphd
Rare Poster
Posts: 50
Joined: Wed Aug 26, 2009 9:35 am
Brand Affiliation: None
Location: denmark
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Re: The Safety Topic: please post your experience and advice

Postby smurphd » Mon Dec 21, 2015 7:35 pm

NHKitesurfer wrote:What do you do when you kite crashes and inverts but then launches, leaving you with both steering lines crossed with both center lines? In the past I would put kite down and drift to shore then re-do my lines but this is not always an option. The other day it happened and I decided to fly the kite and make a run for shore but as you can imagine the kite flew awkwardly but I made it in. Is there a way to undo the crossed lines on the water?
just go to shore and fix it. its no problem to fly with crossed lines, but better fix so your not wearing them more than necessary. I've never figured out how to untwist on the water though im sure I've seen it done, but i would think it can get sketchy if your not exactly sure what you're doing, and i dont think its possible in high wind.

User avatar
jeromeL
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 1114
Joined: Thu Sep 04, 2014 6:22 pm
Local Beach: Longisland NY
Style: freestyle
Gear: Fone Bandit 2014 12m^2, 2015 9, 2015 7, 2015 14
Best GP 2015 9m
Star Sirius V2 12m
Nobile Fity/50 138cm
Naish Apex bindings.
Zeeko Green and White + Shinn El Stubbo
Brand Affiliation: None
Location: Longisland, NY, USA
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 2 times
Contact:

Re: The Safety Topic: please post your experience and advice

Postby jeromeL » Sat Jan 30, 2016 3:36 pm

smurphd wrote:
NHKitesurfer wrote:What do you do when you kite crashes and inverts but then launches, leaving you with both steering lines crossed with both center lines? In the past I would put kite down and drift to shore then re-do my lines but this is not always an option. The other day it happened and I decided to fly the kite and make a run for shore but as you can imagine the kite flew awkwardly but I made it in. Is there a way to undo the crossed lines on the water?
just go to shore and fix it. its no problem to fly with crossed lines, but better fix so your not wearing them more than necessary. I've never figured out how to untwist on the water though im sure I've seen it done, but i would think it can get sketchy if your not exactly sure what you're doing, and i dont think its possible in high wind.
I would go back to beach, if you depower a bit the kite will behave almost normally unless you are overpowered.
If you don't have a high y setup and wind is light meaning you can hold the kite by the center line with one hand easily then it's pretty easy to fix. There is a YouTube video out there. In the video guy out kite at 12 grab center line high, unhook then grab chicken loop through center line to invert line back.

User avatar
jeromeL
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 1114
Joined: Thu Sep 04, 2014 6:22 pm
Local Beach: Longisland NY
Style: freestyle
Gear: Fone Bandit 2014 12m^2, 2015 9, 2015 7, 2015 14
Best GP 2015 9m
Star Sirius V2 12m
Nobile Fity/50 138cm
Naish Apex bindings.
Zeeko Green and White + Shinn El Stubbo
Brand Affiliation: None
Location: Longisland, NY, USA
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 2 times
Contact:

Re: The Safety Topic: please post your experience and advice

Postby jeromeL » Sat Jan 30, 2016 3:59 pm

Wiped out in a reef break half a km from shore with kind of offshore wind pushing me toward the other side of island. Overhead wave with a couple of feet of water over reef.
I don't remember how I fell but when got back up my kite had rolled over and couldn't be relaunched. Didn't have booties so couldn't really stand on reef.
I quick released and got washed away by 3 set of waves, I put my hand over my head to protect it while rolling around and luckily didn't hit bottom. Self rescued to kite, getting light cuts on feet.
The kite was folded over the leading edge upside down. I deflated it a bit to get the shape back to normal. (Luckily that day I closed strut). Started to drift downwind. I wasnt far from a rocky island. After swimming a while I was in a wind shadow area and win help of waves got closer to a unfamiliar beach. It had shore breaks, I realized later that there were reef/rocks on shore break then sand. There were sea urchin everywhere I looked. At this point the waves were pushing me on it with kite and board....
After stepping on a few sea urchin I put my board down and stepped on it while trying to fight coming waves. I somehow was able to grab kite and jump over reef, sea urchin and made it back to sand...
Kite had a couple of small pin hole. So not to bad.
I heard people lost their kite at that spot and next day someone was reached with jet ski.
Next few days I hit same spot with even more offshore wind but waves were smaller. I was a lot more careful when getting over breaking waves...

Anyway next time I will ask locals not only about the spot but also options for self rescue because I could have self rescued a bit further were there was no sea urchin...
Attachments
image.jpeg
image.jpeg

jfo14
Rare Poster
Posts: 12
Joined: Sun May 01, 2016 1:31 am
Gear: Best
Brand Affiliation: None
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Re: The Safety Topic: please post your experience and advice

Postby jfo14 » Fri May 06, 2016 12:45 am

NHKitesurfer wrote:What do you do when you kite crashes and inverts but then launches, leaving you with both steering lines crossed with both center lines? In the past I would put kite down and drift to shore then re-do my lines but this is not always an option. The other day it happened and I decided to fly the kite and make a run for shore but as you can imagine the kite flew awkwardly but I made it in. Is there a way to undo the crossed lines on the water?
Had this happen yesterday and even when I pulled my release the kite was still powered but wouldn't relaunch. I attempted to go in but what's the best route if you can't relaunch?

kitesurfvoilier
Medium Poster
Posts: 88
Joined: Tue Dec 08, 2015 12:01 pm
Local Beach: Leucate - France
Style: Freeride
Gear: Liquid Force - North
Brand Affiliation: Owner of KSV little brand
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Re: The Safety Topic: please post your experience and advice!

Postby kitesurfvoilier » Fri May 06, 2016 9:49 am

Hi to all,
What do you think of such a line cutting tool ?:
http://www.wetestkites.com/2016/04/26/k ... rage-tool/

User avatar
rynhardt
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 977
Joined: Wed Sep 11, 2013 3:51 pm
Local Beach: Langebaan
Favorite Beaches: Langebaan
Style: Freeride
Gear: Cloud C2 17
Hoff Twinwave
Brand Affiliation: None
Location: Johannesburg, South Africa
Has thanked: 24 times
Been thanked: 29 times

Re: The Safety Topic: please post your experience and advice!

Postby rynhardt » Fri May 06, 2016 2:53 pm

I'm sure this has been mentioned before, but can't the industry start getting rid of the hook and chicken loop and move to the BRM style connection.

User avatar
downunder
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 2811
Joined: Mon Jul 01, 2013 7:16 am
Gear: building my own
Brand Affiliation: None
Location: Perth, Australia
Has thanked: 153 times
Been thanked: 160 times

Re: The Safety Topic: please post your experience and advice!

Postby downunder » Fri Jun 10, 2016 6:13 am

rynhardt wrote:I'm sure this has been mentioned before, but can't the industry start getting rid of the hook and chicken loop and move to the BRM style connection.
Nope, coz even I unhook sometimes :)

User avatar
rynhardt
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 977
Joined: Wed Sep 11, 2013 3:51 pm
Local Beach: Langebaan
Favorite Beaches: Langebaan
Style: Freeride
Gear: Cloud C2 17
Hoff Twinwave
Brand Affiliation: None
Location: Johannesburg, South Africa
Has thanked: 24 times
Been thanked: 29 times

Re: The Safety Topic: please post your experience and advice!

Postby rynhardt » Sun Jun 12, 2016 12:55 pm

downunder wrote: Nope, coz even I unhook sometimes :)
Or at least make it available as an option.. then later on you can progress to a hook and loop setup if you feel the need to unhook.

And then think of all the extra street (water?) cred the guys with hooks and loops will have on the beach.

Throw in some boots with the hook and loop, and some boardies over your wetsuit and you're like totally legit. :lol:

Wanna be real extreme, boots, hook and loop and a hydrofoil, maybe a gopro on your lines for extra sauce. :o


Return to “Safety”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 47 guests