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Catch 22 situation?

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Ray-au
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Postby Ray-au » Wed Jun 12, 2002 11:58 am

I don't wan't to go over the whole acident thing again, but in reality we all should give up this sport, am I not right?
Well I have been trying to think of a sport with a similar high risk of accidents, where manufacturers make sportinggoods with which you can die, and where the company gets away with it.
Kites should have been sold with a quick release right from the begining, attached in a fashion so that you must use it.
This would have been possible, as there are divices from sailing and waterski sports available for years, these work well enough to at least give you a chance.
I didn't know about all this in the beginning, and got draged around a fair bit with my first kite.
The catch for me is, I love the sport, and I cant see myself giving it up, the new kites I want to buy, still dont have a good enough saftey setup, they make millions of bucks, (kites only cost a fraction of what we pay) so I should not be supporting their stuff, should I?
I have been let down by them before

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Postby Guest » Wed Jun 12, 2002 12:49 pm

to see figure out how we got to this apparent lack of safety in the sport you have to look into the history and developement of the sport.

In the begining it was a simple 2 line bar and the safety was to let go, then after getting tired people started using a windsurf harness to take the pressure off the arms out on the water, this was stil pretty safe as you only hooked in to a fixed loop and only when away from land and danger.

Then came 4 lines and an adjustable sheeting strap which allowed you safely launch a depowered kite then get out on the water and really power up, again using a fixed harness line and only hooking in when out on the water. So safety was mostly just a case of letting go whilst on land.

The invention of the chickenloop is where it all went wrong, people wanted on the fly adjustment which it gave but the side effect was that you needed to be hooked in, unfortunately nobody realised the safety implications of being hooked in on land with an easy way out. This is why the sport is so dangerous. Nobody invented it that way it just evolved that way. A number of factors influenced this evolution, mainly the manufacturers and the top/early riders. IT was at this point that the sport started to snowball and safety took a back seat to hype, promotion and competion success and consequently the $$$ ruled

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Postby Toby » Wed Jun 12, 2002 1:10 pm

it is up to us now to change some things, isn't it?

Ray-au
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Postby Ray-au » Wed Jun 12, 2002 1:51 pm

Yeah, but it shouldn't be left up to us,

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Postby RickI » Wed Jun 12, 2002 2:01 pm

True, but the reality is that it may be up to us. At least to start the reform in motion and to motivate others to keep it moving. Look at the general lack of emphasis on safety vs. the major developments in kite performance. Kite performance has grown very substantially in the last two years. Safety is starting to gain more attention and design developments. In many ways safety provisions are largely where they were 2 to 3 years ago with some exceptions. If we make it an important issue, and profit issue for that matter, it should become one in the industry. If not, safety will continue to lag behind performance, kiteboarding style or whatever.

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Toby
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Postby Toby » Wed Jun 12, 2002 6:35 pm

with us I ment everyone involved into kiteboarding, producers as well as beginners.

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Postby Arcsrule » Wed Jun 12, 2002 6:39 pm

We are each responsible for our own actions. We cannot blame the mfg.'s, instructors, stores, or the government. Even though I am hooked--no pun intended--, I know I can get hurt or worse each time I launch. It is a choice that I make alone. I do try to minimize the risk with safety gear. And the next time I am able to go out, I promised my wife I will use good judgement! Good judgement is something we all should use more.

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Postby SKIBUMNCO » Wed Jun 12, 2002 7:43 pm

RAY-AU....
You refer to the Water ski & sailing industries having simalar quick release items.. Would you know the names or brands of some of those..Just to take a look at them and maybe get some idea's on making or attemping to play with the idea on my own.

I have a 2001 whipica harness.. The metal hook is strapped to the harness w/ 1 1/2inch nylon
sinch clips... I can picture simply similar to my sail boat having a dog or alligator teeth type of lock down. It works that a rope can only be pulled tighter unless the rope is lifted out-wards its free...
So IMO wouldnt a simple fix be.. Have a rope in stead of nylon at one end, to be permanetly secured to the harness. Then the rope thru a pulley system on the other side of the harness.. And then back thru the metal hook into the alligator cleat... This would sinch the metal hook to the harness and all it would take is to pull outward on the rope and let go.. The rope comes thru the hook and the pulley and the kite is free.. Now this is a rough idea but it works well when I have to dump my main sail...

Or simply instead of a metal hook.. Make a aligator clip that sticks out of the harness a few inches.. Then instead of the loop from the control bar a 1 line rope that just clips into the clip and can be pulled tighter if the bar needs to be shorter for different arm lengths... When the time comes for quick release its a simply matter just pulling up.. The forces involed cant be to much more than sailing a boat in high winds.. Again this is just a rough idea and my terms and names may be off a little so bare w/ me..

Ideas on this would be good... I know there is quick releases out there allready.. However this idea just sounds real easy?
Whats your opinion?
SKY HIGH
STEVE

p.s. now Im just still a rookie.. But I feel the pain in the dangers at risk.....

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Postby RickI » Wed Jun 12, 2002 7:47 pm

Hello Toby,

I like your signature line ...

"distance is your friend"

It works for me! Distance can forgive a great deal like sudden bad weather, errors in judgment and just plain bad luck.

Rick Iossi

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Postby Toby » Wed Jun 12, 2002 8:42 pm

Rick:
I always have it in my mind when I'm on the water now. And it works, you ride with less risk. Just talked to Johannes, who wrote the report being eye-witness of Silke's accident, and he was out yesterday and noticed that everyone rode with more distance than before.

Steve:
Good idea, thought about this alligator thing as well. It also could work with the depower adjuster like Wipika uses.
But yours is closer to the body, which should be better.
Make some tests with it, but with Wipika's depower adjuster it works fine under full pressure. The questions is, if you will be able to release it and have enough power to pull for releasing it.

Toby


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