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The Safety Topic: please post your experience and advice!

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

Postby mr moon » Tue Oct 07, 2014 2:47 pm

edt wrote:
xenosd wrote:What seems strange to me is the fact that non kiters take the responsibility of trying to launch you up. I personally select known fellow kiters to launch my kite.
non kiters have zero clue.

So a fellow kite girl at the launch sees how windy it is and sees some spectators and thinks it would be a good idea to have one of them hold her down by the handpass loop while she walks out to the water. Spectators are clueless don't ask them to do anything don't even ask them to hand you your board, don't let them do ANYTHING.

The spectator comes right up to her grabs the bar by one end and kiteloops them both for a terrifying trip a trip to the hospital and a few stitches luckily nobody died.

Spectator obviously thought she wanted help with her control bar. They don't know the difference between a handle pass loop and a control bar.

Do no ask spectators for help. Do not ask them to hold your kite do not ask them to hold your board do not ask them to hold your beer.

It is ok for them to take pictures. That is the only thing you ever want a spectator to do.

I was out kiting last month solo and some spectators nearly called the sheriff. "We saw the wind pulled you in, the wind pull you out, sometimes the wind pulled you high up in the air but you couldn't get back to shore so we were about to call the sheriff."

They do not know anything.

No matter how terrifying the conditions are, it is always safer to launch and land solo than to ask for help from a bystander. And if it is too windy to launch solo just wait for a kiter, don't use a spectator.
totally agree with you.

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

Postby KYLakeKiter » Tue Oct 07, 2014 3:27 pm

Probably splitting hairs here, but I would specify untrained non kiters. I get your meaning though. People who have no clue about the kite. My wife is a non kiter, but she can launch, land, and move a kite better than most first year beginners. I taught her in light winds, but now she is completely competent in any wind, and better for me than a stranger (even one who kites) because she is predictable (I know what she is going to do, and she knows what I expect).

On a beach with a lot of other kiters this summer, I watched peoples reaction as my wife would launch and land my kite. It was kind of funny but I get their concern (which quickly disappeared once they saw she knew what she was doing). In one case as my wife went to lift my kite, some guy jumped up and offered to take the kite and gave her a little speech about how unsafe it was for her to launch the kite. She gave it to him and didn't say anything and when I asked her about it later, she said she didn't care and figured that would keep other people from asking her to launch them while I was out :lol: Anyway, the guy was kind of a noob and let my kite go while I was twisting my swivel without a thumbs up.

I guess my point is that predictability is also an important safety factor, so when in other than your normal area around people you don't know, maybe have a brief discussion before the launch.

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

Postby NHKitesurfer » Fri Oct 24, 2014 3:02 pm

pmaggie wrote:A friend of mine, on our lake. Fortunately, he was trying to swim back to shore because the wind dropped to zero, so flat water, no waves etc.
Eventually, we rescued him with a boat (in the picture, I'm the one in the water). It took more than an hour to untangle the lines from his legs without cutting them.
Happened once really bad like the picture above and once just a couple of line wraps. Both scenarios the kite dropped out of the sky and I swam toward it. The time it was really bad I had so much line wrap that I could no longer kick my leg because the lines were so tight and it had cinched the lines when my leg was not extended. Luckily a boat towed me to shore - the current was taking me far from my launch site too. Took me an hour to untangle the lines.

I think if this ever happens again my first reaction will be to get as far away from the bar as possible, maybe even punch out but hold onto the safety leash so I don't lose the kite, but swim away from the bar, lines and kite. Another option is to immediate start to wind the lines around the bar but this could be a problem if there is so much slack in the lines and it starts to float around your body.

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

Postby xenosd » Wed Oct 29, 2014 10:06 am

Self rescue technique would help in such cases I believe. Just start wrapping the lines (some meters of the center line first) on your bar. After finishing, secure that the lines wont't go out of the bar, leave the bar and just grab the kite from LE and swim.
In any case, stay away from the lines.

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

Postby jeromeL » Mon Dec 08, 2014 4:01 pm

My first almost kitemare yesterday in New York.

After taking a break I asked a guy who was setting up his kite next to me to help me launch. Once i am in position to launch and put tension on the line I notice on of his lines is wrapped around one of my back line so I wave to him to not launch but the 5 mm gloves are kind of preshaped in thumbs up ;(
Anyway he launch and i can't keep the kite to the side of the window the kite powers up as i try to counter steer the effect of the squeezed backline and get dragged/superman 10 yard toward tree and fence. I finally hit quick release, I was looking of a bright red oh shit button but it is a bit hard to track it down while getting dragged.
I am fine and kite was fine, after recovering kite I had another great session and landed my first back roll or is it backloop?


How to prevent this in future:
check your lines before re-launching
avoid asking someone who needs glasses to launch you.
have a hand on quick release.
don't wave to abort launching, instead run downwind.

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

Postby edt » Mon Dec 08, 2014 4:12 pm

jeromeL wrote: don't wave to abort launching, instead run downwind.

my signal to abort a launch is always the same. Point your hand at the ground. If necessary slap the ground with your hand.

We have a good launch signal (thumbs up) why don't we have an abort signal. Waving the hand can mean so many things.

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

Postby jeromeL » Mon Dec 08, 2014 4:36 pm

Point your hand at the ground
Thanks for your input.

I kind of waved my hand toward the ground, but the 3 finger 5mm finger from 25 m away must have looked like a thumbs up from a 50 year old dude who was not wearing his glasses :lol:
What was weird is that i was still downwind from the kite when i gave him sign, the kite was still flapping in the wind so when he let go it drifted slowly in power zone.

It would be nice to have a clear sign to abort launching. I think in the progression video they would run down wind.

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

Postby bc-sf » Mon Dec 08, 2014 11:17 pm

edt wrote:We have a good launch signal (thumbs up) why don't we have an abort signal. Waving the hand can mean so many things.
Generally agreed is tapping your head to land the kite. It's easy to see. The 'cut your neck' sign could be interpreted as abort, but i don't think it's universal.

While it's expected that most kiters can launch and land a kite, it doesn't hurt to confirm what indications you might give. Launchers should also be checking that its okay to release the kite (check for crossed lines, snags, wandering pedestrians etc). It's a good idea to have it in mind that you might be hitting the quick release immediately after launching.

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

Postby Deaimel » Wed Dec 10, 2014 5:36 pm

I'm not sure if this got posted here (repost from the videos topic). That's not me :
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=715308848564416

Pretty scary, what happened here, leash in suicide mode ?

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

Postby edt » Wed Dec 10, 2014 6:10 pm

tapping the top of the head usually requires the other man to acknowledge you by tapping the top of his head. So he's trying to launch you tap the top of your head and without thinking he lets go of the kite with one hand so he can tap the top of his head with the other to acknowledge and with only one hand on the kite it slips and OOPS! Not a good signal because you are overloading a symbol to mean too many things it leads to confusion and confusion is not what you want. Landing a kite and aborting a launch should have two different symbols.

I like pointing down or slamming my hand on the ground but again it's not universal.

Most people tend to scream at the top of their lungs "Put it down!" which is not real good because if it's windy it is hard to hear and they might think you mean "Put it up!"


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