Postby PVITfrumBYRAM » Sun Feb 24, 2013 4:07 am
Very good observations from everyone. Were there things he could do to fix and fly, sure. Was he reacting fast enough, no. Will he in the future, if he learned anything here, then yes.
When teaching students about the quick release systems, I always ask my students, what do you value more, your life or your 1500 dollar kite? I then make it clear that you need to know that answer before shit hits the fan because if you wait for it to happen and then ask the question, you end up dragged into a jetty. Obviously this man started cursing because he figured he just blew a wad of cash. He probably assumed his kite would hit the jetty sometime after the first loops.
He could have pulled lengths of lines in a specific way to flag it or quickly pull the secondary release and unhook to un-invert the bar.
He should have just ditched it all though, I probably would have ditched it. I've been in a situation like this where I was riding suicide and forgot. I fell, kite started looking fast, I popped the QR and expected all to be fine. As I did, I remembered I was riding suicide so I was going to go through some more yardage if I didn't ditch my secondary. Anyways, there was a jetty about 80-100 in front of me, but I knew I had a short amount of time so I reeled the leashed kite in and grabbed my Oh-Shit flag loop on the bar at the same time as I released my secondary at my hip. Kite started to loop slightly but quickly flagged on a single flying line.
This is a spot I taught at and managed. I was very aware or the surroundings and how much distance I was being pulled at a time. I probably should have ditched the kite but I knew how to save myself and it at the same time with very little thought involved. Teaching people over and over makes fixing situations easier because we introduce roleplaying or actually supervise and engage ourselves in real life scenarios with our students.
Most people don't teach and I feel like few people really spend much time thinking about the scenarios and rarely observe them second hand. They probably don't practice emergencies, self landings and self rescues either.
It is probably not just a good idea to check your equipment functionality but also do dryland exercises in which you engage both safeties back to back. Pretend upon first release your kite does not respond and you are headed for breakers. Your adrenaline would kick in and you should pop your secondary and say adios to your gear. Or you could practice un-inverting lines or bars.