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Top 5 Things your instructor didn't teach you

Posted: Fri May 29, 2015 12:38 am
by knot_moving
After reading about fatalities and concern with not enough emphasis on safety, i wonder iv there isanything close to a consensus on the top 3 - 5 things instruction should emphasize that isnt being adequately covered:
1) If your lines go slack push your safety release
2) one hand on safety release when launching your kite
3) pick your kite size based on the peak gusts not the lulls
4) if you get into overpowered conditons then keep kite low & put weight on back foot - this will drive kite further forward into wind window, making it a little more controllable
... 5) for someone else to add something important Im forgetting

Re: Top 5 Things your instructor didn't teach you

Posted: Fri May 29, 2015 1:08 am
by Faxie
4) You drive your windwindow forwards first, not the kite. The kite follows... kite goes more forward in the window when you accelerate. They should teach the real (apparent) windwindow for a change. That way students will understand what happens when their lines go slack and the kite falls out of the sky if they steer the kite the opposite way of travel and come to a sudden stop...

Re: Top 5 Things your instructor didn't teach you

Posted: Fri May 29, 2015 1:16 am
by Do-it
HAHA- I took one lesson and my instructor didn't even go over emergency procedures. I had to ask at the van......

Re: Top 5 Things your instructor didn't teach you

Posted: Fri May 29, 2015 1:24 am
by Bigdog
 
4) You drive your windwindow forwards first, not the kite. The kite follows... kite goes more forward in the window when you accelerate. Th[/quote]

Are you an instructor?

Re: Top 5 Things your instructor didn't teach you

Posted: Fri May 29, 2015 1:49 am
by Bigdog
5/All the first adopters in 1999 like me got their ass kicked and actually know something . Listen to them.
6/No one can really teach you the wind strength and direction gust behaviour and how it looks. That is experience.. You need to really pay attention to that but won't until you get hammered a few times.
7/Kiting is more dangerous than you think. Not in the lesson brochure LOL
8/Do a buddy system when kiting. Land and launch each other. You can share a kite and be way safer that way. My brother and I did that for yeasr. Each go for 20min crazy and handoff repeat. People don't seem to do that anymore and I don't get it.

Re: Top 5 Things your instructor didn't teach you

Posted: Fri May 29, 2015 5:06 am
by Kamikuza
knot_moving wrote:After reading about fatalities and concern with not enough emphasis on safety, i wonder iv there isanything close to a consensus on the top 3 - 5 things instruction should emphasize that isnt being adequately covered:
1) If your lines go slack push your safety release
2) one hand on safety release when launching your kite
3) pick your kite size based on the peak gusts not the lulls
4) if you get into overpowered conditons then keep kite low & put weight on back foot - this will drive kite further forward into wind window, making it a little more controllable...
5) for someone else to add something important Im forgetting
.

Regarding number 2 - it's pointless if you haven't already checked that your QR works so I would add:
99. Activate your QRs (all of them) before launching to ensure that it's free of sand and operates freely.

Sadly, I've never seen a lesson here that involved using the QR, even with utter beginners...

And a general rule:
Be mindful of your surroundings. Be more cautious when you're hemmed in and let the shit happen when you've got space, for the sake of experience.

Re: Top 5 Things your instructor didn't teach you

Posted: Fri May 29, 2015 6:29 am
by Westozzy
Bigdog wrote:5/All the first adopters in 1999 like me got their ass kicked and actually know something . Listen to them.
6/No one can really teach you the wind strength and direction gust behaviour and how it looks. That is experience.. You need to really pay attention to that but won't until you get hammered a few times.
7/Kiting is more dangerous than you think. Not in the lesson brochure LOL
8/Do a buddy system when kiting. Land and launch each other. You can share a kite and be way safer that way. My brother and I did that for yeasr. Each go for 20min crazy and handoff repeat. People don't seem to do that anymore and I don't get it.

my bro and I still do that now and then...especially when we've been at it 12 or so days in a row.

Agreed, a modern kite in a precarious situation will kill you as easily as the old kites we used to wrestle with.

ps Too many armchair athletes getting into the sport with piss poor motor skills and awareness.

Re: Top 5 Things your instructor didn't teach you

Posted: Fri May 29, 2015 6:59 am
by knotwindy
don't hold the bar with a death grip and your thumb wrapped around it

just the finger tips is more than enough with the thumbs along the bar

harder to screw up badly if the bar just gets pulled out of your grip, better control, less fatigue,

remember and actually use the idea of
when in doubt, sheet out, then let go, then pull the f'in release, NOW, don't wait to see what happens!
all you will see is carnage....

Re: Top 5 Things your instructor didn't teach you

Posted: Fri May 29, 2015 12:36 pm
by knot_moving
Lots of good responses - what i am after is a short list that we can share, in about 10 min, with new riders that show up at our beaches having just finished a lesson sequence - keep them safer & our spots open. Can we come up with something like this?

Re: Top 5 Things your instructor didn't teach you

Posted: Fri May 29, 2015 1:57 pm
by Lanc
17) Everyone should be taught to lay their lines out both upwind and downwind of the kite, not only the instructors preference.
18) When lines connected immediately bring the bar back to the kite to avoid others having to land their kites over your lines at busy spots (while you adjust your harness, gopros, foot straps, stretches)