got a go with ricki here.....

as a practical matter, if you don't see it coming or manage to release in the first three rotations, you are pretty much fucked, and just along for the ride....

that's the thing about aspiring to dangle, it's just a matter of time....

sooner or later your going to be along for the ride, and subject to nature's changing course untrimmed....

lucky is what your shooting for once the twirly thing as found you asleep at the wheel...

prayer, although a natural result is what you can do about it....

there but for the grace go us all...

proud to be, anti hype, anti promo anti beach monkey entrepreneur....

carry- on
fokiten

I agree with ricky,when a kite is in a death loop somtimes qr is no good as lines twisted,leash attached to back of harness might drag or drown you,only answer i have is qr harness short leash,i have covered this in another post,you are a danger to yourself other water users and people on the beach,Tony

Got a lot of experience with this issue

happens due to

bridle wrap
leader line half hitch on bar
line catch on depower/swivels etc
due to coiling/knotting of lines - happens with high wind/flapping hard out on beach - needs to be noticed
kite folded half inside out helicopter spin
suicide leash stuck around line at bar end (leash "jumps over")
Pulley jam/ knot
Bar gets stuck on depower/swivel etc
Spreader bar hook gets stuck on corner of actual bar (was not fun)
2 + kites tangled together - nightmare situation in high winds
chicken loop jammed in spreader bar hook with no chance of qr functioning


you can do a lot before launch to sort some of them out from not happening, some of the others are next to impossible to sort out as in high winds, like said most riders are taken for 3 loops before they even know their own name.

i have knocked a kite out of sky of someone else drowning with my kite after being towed about 1km by deathlooping kite, problem was it nearly killed me too, not ever keen to do that again.

I have been dragged in low winds with a big kite and managed to crash it grabbing onto lines, but only just in time.. was not easy - higher winds - no change.

My personal solution has been to avoid pulleys and bridles to limit the the risks for high wind riding.

a reliable quick release spreader bar would be something that would interest me - been tried before in windsurfing and kiting, but they have ejected by accident which is such a nightmare no one wanted to use them any more. For sure it could be done tho - QRs are so much more reliable than they used to be..

Hoisting in a 5th line may give someone a chance - 5th lines should always be colour coded - it is crrraaazy fro them to be same colour as other lines - when you are in deep shit surrounded by string.. you need to k now for sure which one is your 5th!!

Hows this! - a friend ended up unhooked with ankle tied in bar and lines - to death loop.., blood lines all around ankle, almost drowned..

Manufacturers are getting more clued up but are still in the dark with regards to some issues .

I think that I had raised this in the past but I was thinking about it again on the occasion of Mr Moon's near-drowning.
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For people who have their leash at the back of the harness (for new school tricks etc), it may be appropriate, as soon as the deathlooping sequence starts, to release the safety leash first, hold on to it with the hand that released it and almost at the same time (just a split second later) do the QR with the other hand, . This way:
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--if the QR depowers the kite then the kite is still held and self rescue can be employed
--if the QR fails to depower the kite then it will automatically slip off the hand that holds the safety leash and fly away, no risk to be dragged from the back

In terms of a solution;

The wrapping of the lines occurs fairly close to the bar. (depends on the length of the bar and the width of the kite).

Take for example a kite with below the bar trimming or rear line trimming. That means that if you had a tube like the Cabrinha IDS but long enough to cover the area where the lines wrapped, you could still operate the IDS after a lot of loops by using the Q/R and the IDS line (or a 5th line) sliding through the tube.

This is a 16m Crossbow and at 1:00 you can see that the lines wrap about halfway between the trim strap and the bottom of the front lines. By putting an IDS tube above the trim strap to above where the lines wrap, the existing system could be used, but the bottom of the front lines would have to be moved further from the trim strap by the length of the additional IDS tube.

Where the line wraps depends on the width of the kite and the width of the bar so if the kite is tangled and more end-on to the rider, the wrapping will be further from the rider if the bar is in the normal position. If the bar was end-on the wrapping would be closer to the rider.

It would be possible to take the steering lines close to the centreline to make the wrap happen at that point, but that would make the feel of the bar worse and increase wear.

Just out of interest do you fly a Cabrinha / IDS bar?

I have done. I have 2009 IDS Xbows. The bar ends were too soft so to wind the lines on you had to reverse the bar and wind the lines on figure 8 style from the back. There were a couple of other things I didn't like about the 09 bar which Cabrinha fixed on later bars.

I currently use Nobile 555 2008 bars with the Xbows. They function in the same way and I was able to buy a couple cheap when they were on close-out.