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Toby wrote: DrLightWind: happy you made it!
Where was your leash connected at the harness?

Thank you
It was connected to the back side of my harness,
which looks like was a mistake also when people on the shore told me, "that should be at the front"
Either way as you see it wouldn't help as far as disengaging the bypass leash,
because the line was wrapped around my ankle which was connected to that.
When I get home I will take a pick of my harness and leash how it was hooked up.

DrLW

edt wrote:Toby why does it say Lenkdrachens or "Stunt Kite" it makes it sound like he was on a trainer with hand rings doing jumps on land.

Hi edt,
Lenkdrachen stands for steerable kite
Lenken - steering
Drachen - kite

When I get home I will take a pick of my harness and leash how it was hooked up.

pls do, thx!

matt_81a wrote: Lenkdrachen stands for steerable kite
Lenken - steering
Drachen - kite

i thought germans said "kite" for a power kite and lenkdrachen for a stunt kite, but I think Toby is right, you can't really hope for a newspaper reporter to get any of the details right, better just to wait for the local kiters to let us know what really happened.

Toby....so far this year we've got 2 fatalities in Canada and 1 in Germany? Any more that we know about?

Holland had also a fatality recently, a 26 year old beginner.
Rolled his lines out upwind and launches his kite in full window.

Saw it on kitehigh.nl and hanglos.nl


http://www.hvzeeland.nl/Nieuws/Item?nid=22288

In Germany normal people don't know what a kite is, they know Lenkdrachen.
So reporters use that word for it.

We had several fatalities this year already, and we will see many more if people don't take lessons or have bad instructions.

What can we do?

Condolences to the family and glad you made it fine DrLW. I have been in a similar kitemare before when after I had to punch out, the lines wrapped tightly around both my ankles. I somehow managed to self rescue. Ever since I have been wanting to carry a real knife and not a wimpy hook knife. So what kinds of knives do people use/recommend for kiting that mounts on your harness?

Toby wrote:In Germany normal people don't know what a kite is, they know Lenkdrachen.
So reporters use that word for it.

We had several fatalities this year already, and we will see many more if people don't take lessons or have bad instructions.

What can we do?

Today a beginner, she told me she still had problems with starting...did not know exactly which way she had to go to start the kite propperly, second she connected her leash suicide mode.
Yes she followed a course !!!

I know several youngsters that give kitecourses, and are just hired in, because the kiteschools cannot find enough certified instructors or they find they have to pay them too much.
So they hire young kids that ''can kite'' so to say and give them the lycra with instructor on...plus inbetween 10 and 12€ an hour.

This is where it goes wrong from the first moment!

What should we do , is getting an controlling and certifiing independant organisation for kiteschools so they can be provided with an ISO number on security , equipment, organisation, safety and so on.

Instructors should be certified and getting their instructor license when examened by the same independant company that check the kiteschools.

Programs in teaching should be equal all over the world, so the beginners all get the same basis and skills to master the kite and board and the rules, before they get their license.

Maybe it sounds utopic , but it would be a start to a uniform kiteschool bible.

Now somebody who just can fly a kite and go a bit upwind downwind, can be hired by these kiteschools and all of a sudden become an instructor.......

This happens on one of the bussiest kitespots in Europe....

Dude

Toby wrote:well, to keep it safe there are the Golden Rules.
You break one, you should know the risk.

Most of us would never kite if we followed the all golden rules. Including you.

You break the golden rule of "don't fly overpowered" almost every time you take your 18m out in 20+ knots.

You can justify it all you like with statements like "I am very experienced", "I have never had an accident" "big kites are easier to control"

But the fact is you are one big advertisement for breaking the golden rule that kills more people than all the other rules put together. Riding over powered.

That said. Carry on. The sport has risks and we enter into it knowing those risks. Do what you enjoy and try and limit those risks or identify the actual risk compared to the percieved risk and make the appropriate decisions. As DrLW has discovered even the very experienced can and do have kitemares.

DrLightWind wrote:

Toby wrote: DrLightWind: happy you made it!
Where was your leash connected at the harness?

Thank you
It was connected to the back side of my harness,
which looks like was a mistake also when people on the shore told me, "that should be at the front"
Either way as you see it wouldn't help as far as disengaging the bypass leash,
because the line was wrapped around my ankle which was connected to that.
When I get home I will take a pick of my harness and leash how it was hooked up.

DrLW

I hate the back leash connection. Worst place for one as you can not reach it when you need it. If your harness does not have a handle pass leash that releases (I still would not connect to my back) then put your leash to the side or front of you harness.

I had a friend have the same thing happen to him but it was not an abrupt wind change. It was a failed release to the fifth line. Bar stopped half way up while flagging then started to death loop. What saved him was his chicken loop broke.