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The Safety Topic: please post your experience and advice!

Forum with lots of safety info - a must for newbees
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jeromeL
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Re: The Safety Topic: please post your experience and advice

Postby jeromeL » Wed Apr 08, 2015 2:59 am

The meters were showing average gusts of 30 knots with a few at 40. Most people had 6 or 7m. I had my 9m on the second knot front line to depower a little more. It was definitly a handful even depowered, usually this is a flat water spot but with that wind there were 2 feet waves, water and sand was spraying non stop.
Look up meters in Jones beach, NY last Saturday.
I have been told that the bandit has pretty big range And i confirm that's the case, I have used the 12 depowered up to 28 knots gusts before I got my 9.

I wish I had smaller kite but it is bar to justify investment in new York, I have heard that there aren't many days where you need 7m.

That was the strongest session I have done so far and the 3rd one on my 9m.

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

Postby Kiteshare » Wed Jun 24, 2015 9:07 pm

jeromeL wrote:The meters were showing average gusts of 30 knots with a few at 40. Most people had 6 or 7m. I had my 9m on the second knot front line to depower a little more. It was definitly a handful even depowered...
awesome, that looks like a lot of fun! 40s on a 9 could be pretty overpowered, as you mentioned it was a handful, am wondering what's your weight for context bro?

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

Postby mbevo » Sat Sep 05, 2015 4:10 am

Had my first kitemare today.

Was self launching...kite went up and started looping (think a bridle caught on the tip of the kite). Started dragging me on sand. Activated safety immediately. Kite kept on dragging me. I was really confused for a moment why is the kite still dragging me? But 2 seconds later I realized what is happening and grabbed my leash release and released the kite. Other kiters on the beach were really great and helped to retrieve my kite for me.

Luckily no injuries, but lessons learned:
1. Always find someone to launch for you if possible.
2. Always check the safety release to make sure its not jammed - I checked it after and looks like some sand got stuck on the hole and made it really difficult for the line to pass through. Only after rinsing it was I able to actually pull the flag line through with force.
3. Having the leash attached to the front really helped. I took the advice from people on attaching it to where I know I'll be able to reach it and luckily the time when I needed it I was able to find it.
4. When in doubt, release the kite. I think I could of done it a bit earlier, took 1-2 seconds for my brain to register what is happening and that could change everything in a more dangerous situation.

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

Postby jeromeL » Mon Oct 12, 2015 2:27 am

deathloop last session.

Passed downwind from another kiter all a sudden my kite starts to loop. It turns out the kiter changed direction thinking I was far enough and dropped his kite between my front line and back line. I still don't really understand how this could happen as i was going fairly fast so not sure how the other kite made it all the way through the wind window between my lines...

the other kite pulled one of my back line and my kite started looping 1, 2 , 3 times. I quick release but the other kite was holding mybar fully sheeted in so kite keeps looping. I grabbed onto the other kite which was near me now. And try to unhook some of the lines while my kite keeps looping. At this point we are getting close to shore where there are a bunch of rocks.
Somehow my kite settles in the water and luckily for my kite a fellow kiter was packing up and ran to us to retrieve my kite before it got to shore.
I still had the option to release my leash and swim to my kite making sure i am not getting hit by it in the process.
Another option was to cut the other kiters line but I wasn't such in distress at that point.
The other kiter just started going upwind and doesn't yet have the reflex to look behind him before turning around.

Not much to learn from this experience except than to leave a lot of space between you and other kiters even when doing normal transition.

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

Postby JBZ » Mon Oct 19, 2015 2:31 pm

had a bit of a hairy one yesterday morning.

I was out in Galveston side/onshore average wind speed was 20 knots gusts up to about 26 lulls down to 18. perfect 12m session and waves were about 8' to 10' face. good session having fun then something happened and I dropped the kite....ooh about half a mile out. there were rollers out there, some cresting but enough to where the kite was still getting a little pummeled.

so when the kite dropped the CL popped off and away goes the bar. I got the bar back 4 times before I finally got the kite back up, every time I got to the bar I was having line wrapping issues and one of the times one of my lines wrapped around my wrist and the kite took off.
SCARED THE SHIT OUT OF ME. needless to say. luckily there is no real damage just a little bruising and some minor burns but it could have been much worse on my left wrist. line wrap...this could have and should have been avoided.

this topic has been beat to death I know. ive been riding for 13 years and have never had a line wrap around a body part...ever. I learned a few things yesterday and one of which is to always be aware of what your doing with the loose lines your spooling off trying to get your bar back. im usually very aware of where my loose lines are, but in the confusion and almost panic I was spooling line off and not paying as much attention to where the lines were. I really needed to be more calm in the situation but the fact that every roller was ripping any free line away I was panic'd about getting the kite relaunched. fortunately I got it relaunched although the left line was wrapped around the bunch I rode it back to shore and re adjusted.

the other thing that I did was forgot to set my donkey stick, all of this could have been avoided if I had set the donkey stick in, the only reason the bar got away from me was that I rolled around underwater and some how it popped out of the spreader bar.

this was a killer session I had but I got a little lesson yesterday about line management and how important it is to keep aware of where they are and how dangerous lines can be. thank god it wasn't worse.

edit: I forgot to add...this is something that every kiter will experience at some point in their life. and from a veteran kiter (albeit not a good rider) please remember to be aware of where your lines are while your retrieving the bar. in my opinion line wraps,death loops, and hot launches are the most dangerous elements of kiting.

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

Postby pistolpete » Fri Oct 23, 2015 4:31 pm

Toby wrote: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 you lucky your harness has knife to cut the lines. might be impossible though if your kite loops like crazy

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

Postby Candleflame » Fri Nov 20, 2015 5:54 pm

jeromeL wrote:The meters were showing average gusts of 30 knots with a few at 40. Most people had 6 or 7m. I had my 9m on the second knot front line to depower a little more. It was definitly a handful even depowered, usually this is a flat water spot but with that wind there were 2 feet waves, water and sand was spraying non stop.
Look up meters in Jones beach, NY last Saturday.
I have been told that the bandit has pretty big range And i confirm that's the case, I have used the 12 depowered up to 28 knots gusts before I got my 9.

I wish I had smaller kite but it is bar to justify investment in new York, I have heard that there aren't many days where you need 7m.

That was the strongest session I have done so far and the 3rd one on my 9m.
I have a 9m switchblade 2014 and can confirm that for cabrinha too. 25-30 knots is all ok + gusting into the mid 30s. If I am on land i do sometimes have to push the bar against the spring during a gust.


I might add though and say that it's not a relaxing setup. You have to work hard on edging the board and the kite starts to become somewhat uncalculable in the air. Definetly more fun going down to a 7m.

I have 12 and a 9 and originally planned to buy a 6 or 7 but I think the real answer with modern bowkites is to just have a 2 kite quiver of 7/11 or 8/12...


edit: was out today on the 9m when everyone else was 5m -7m (one guy was on a 9m actually, not sure what brand). No problemo. Rear lines on last knot, trimstrap on full trim, power would build up pulling the bar about 1/4 of the way towards me.
Wouldn't like to selfland in that wind though.

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

Postby Endurence » Wed Dec 09, 2015 10:16 pm

mbevo wrote:Had my first kitemare today.

Was self launching...kite went up and started looping (think a bridle caught on the tip of the kite). Started dragging me on sand. Activated safety immediately. Kite kept on dragging me. I was really confused for a moment why is the kite still dragging me? But 2 seconds later I realized what is happening and grabbed my leash release and released the kite. Other kiters on the beach were really great and helped to retrieve my kite for me.

Luckily no injuries, but lessons learned:
1. Always find someone to launch for you if possible.
2. Always check the safety release to make sure its not jammed - I checked it after and looks like some sand got stuck on the hole and made it really difficult for the line to pass through. Only after rinsing it was I able to actually pull the flag line through with force.
3. Having the leash attached to the front really helped. I took the advice from people on attaching it to where I know I'll be able to reach it and luckily the time when I needed it I was able to find it.
4. When in doubt, release the kite. I think I could of done it a bit earlier, took 1-2 seconds for my brain to register what is happening and that could change everything in a more dangerous situation.

An old Kiter gave me an advice after an accident that i had, almost lost my ear, crash into mangles trees. To Kite safely you have to put into your mind two things, one is not to jump on shallow waters and the second was never challenge the wind in any situation.

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

Postby skullcandy » Thu Dec 10, 2015 5:07 pm

Endurence wrote:An old Kiter gave me an advice after an accident that i had, almost lost my ear, crash into mangles trees. To Kite safely you have to put into your mind two things, one is not to jump on shallow waters and the second was never challenge the wind in any situation.
Actually, shallow water kiting can be super fun. I think what you mean to say is don't try to learn your first powered kite loops in shallow water. :nono: :D

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

Postby pistolpete » Sun Dec 20, 2015 12:02 am

and here is the solution. http://www.iksurfmag.com/kitesurfing-ne ... eath-loop/



pistolpete wrote:
Toby wrote: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 you lucky your harness has knife to cut the lines. might be impossible though if your kite loops like crazy


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