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12 o'clock position on the beach

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Don Monnot
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12 o'clock position on the beach

Postby Don Monnot » Thu Aug 21, 2008 3:53 pm

Been reading the posts about the Florida lofting incident. There's been some discussion about never flying your kite at 12:00 when on the beach. I understand the potential to be lofted by accident in a big gust if you're at 12:00, but with a SLE or Bow kite, it seems like the potential for that to happen is small. What I've experienced (and it's not a ton of experience) is that in gusty conditions my kite falls back in the window in a lull, and then powers up big time when the wind picks back up. If that happens with the kite starting out at 12:00, I have time to brace myself for it, make sure I'm sheeted out all the way ready for a hot-launch--or flag it out before the gust hits. If I'm keeping the kite low at the edge of the window and the wind backs off, the kite falls to the sand and when the wind picks back up it starts to tumble. If there are others on the beach, that seems more dangerous to others. Maybe safer for me, but sucks to be the guy getting hit by my kite or lines. That's why I've been keeping my kite high when I'm on the beach. I'd like to hear some constructive discussion about this--I'm open to suggestion. I like learning from the experience of others rather than making my own mistakes.

Don

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Re: 12 o'clock position on the beach

Postby marina » Thu Aug 21, 2008 4:12 pm

Don,
Everybody adjusts their safety and riding styles to what conditions they ride the most of.

The fact is, there are places where it is okay to keep your kite at noon, and other sites where it is not.

The bigger picture here is to use your common sense, be prepared and err on the side of safety. if you are standing on a crowded beach with big lulls, it is probably not the best idea to keep your kite at noon. Put it down, put it low while waiting to see if the wind smooths out, or just go out and deal with it. You never want to jeopardize anyone on the beach. You can seriously hurt someone and they are usually completely clueless as to what to do.

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Re: 12 o'clock position on the beach

Postby Toby » Thu Aug 21, 2008 5:40 pm

sounds like the trim of your kite is not correct or your launch is very gusty.
Normally the kite should sit quiet at the wind window or zenith.

Ask a good rider if he can check your trim, If you have an older kite, you may upgrade to something never, that is stable in the air. Maybe lengthen your backlines, and see if it still tends to stall backwards.

But as an important advice, you should always "feel" your kite, and when you feel it is loosing power, or back stalling, you should immediately depower and/or walk into the wind.
To avoid it to stall, keep it moving just a little bit in the air. When I feel my get wants to fly over me, or gets into a stalling position, then I steer it quickly a little bit and then it is fine.

If I experience a big back stall, and is likely it will spank you around once it gets wind again, you should have it released before it does.

I hope this helps.

Greets
Toby

Don Monnot
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Re: 12 o'clock position on the beach

Postby Don Monnot » Thu Aug 21, 2008 11:37 pm

My launch site can be VERY gusty, and it's that condition I'm talking about when my kite behaves that way. I don't just hang around in those conditions with my kite in the air while I talk to my friends. It's when I'm in transition, like maybe waiting for a group of beachwalkers to pass so I can head out, or waiting for a friend to help me bring the kite down. My kites are tuned pretty well. I don't think that's the problem. The nearshore environment causes plenty of gustiness in some wind directions that smooth out once you're a hundred yards from shore. I'm just looking for opinions about the safest position to fly a kite while standing on the beach for a couple of minutes--high or low--when the conditions are very gusty.

Don

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Re: 12 o'clock position on the beach

Postby afflatus » Thu Aug 21, 2008 11:45 pm

45 degrees,

that gives you max room from both extremes ...

if it's lighter, and gusty keep room to move upwind to help minimize the slack time...

if it's heavy and gusty, pre-place your board so both hands can work the kite...or grab the QR

gusty is the absolute worst...but you know that

good luck
fo

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Re: 12 o'clock position on the beach

Postby xtremewinds » Wed Aug 27, 2008 6:19 pm

Hello Dom, if you re in gusty conditions, you should position your kite 12:30 or 11:30, doing this the kite is not going to stall, you re near of a neutral zone and you dont use much space on the beach, when the kite is at 12 and a gust come normally a bow go behind our head thats is why the kite stall, another solution is pull the bar all the way to you, when you see your kite is going behind you and when the gust pass and the kite start to stall let the bar go so the kite come up again, about the accident in Florida no one need to kite in a Hurricane with on shore winds.


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