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PVITfrumBYRAM wrote:Very good observations from everyone. ........
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......
........... 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 .......
This is a spot I taught at and managed...........
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. ......
Generally,
the MOST DANGEROUS obstacles, in order of importance, are:
1. A road downwind (with traffic).
2. People (and pets).
3.
A ROCK JETTY
Although I mostly agree with PVITfrumBYRAM’s other comments above, it seems that he teaches at a location where there is a jetty downwind. If this is the case, even though he hopefully controls his lessons such that his students are not in any danger during their lessons, the
EXAMPLE he apparently sets by giving lessons at this location and personally kiting too close to this extremely dangerous obstacle is the type of behavior which
PROMOTES thoughtless conduct, especially by novices who generally use other’s behavior as a guide.
As to the specific isues raised by this thread, first, I think that the subject kiter should be thanked for posting his mishap for others benefit. Most of the kiters I know, would make it a point to never mention their mistakes, let alone post them online.
Second, it seems to me that the
MOST IMPORTANT POINT is that it is critical to ALWAYS be aware of where you will end up if something goes wrong. And
the worse that the place is, the FARTHER away you need to be.
Although in this particular case, the kiter actually had more than enough time to ditch the kite IF he had realized the danger he was in, if he had been another 500-1000 feet away to start with, it’s likely he would have avoided his collision with the jetty by ditching the kite or implementing one of the other possible solutions as others have posted.
If the obstacle had been a road or people, greater distance becomes even more important since ditching the kite becomes more problematic and attempting to implement one of the other possible solutions becomes more urgent.
Incidentally, compared to a TYPICAL jagged, slime and barnacle encrusted jetty unsmoothed by a concrete topping, where he ended up was like a waterbed.
RickI wrote:........Once the lines of a powered up kite go into a tree, the branches act as pulleys so as long as the kite is powered up, the lines and rider will follow. This can also happen with current pulling your kite on the water if your lines slide under a rock or fouling on a piling. This can cause you to be pulled and held underwater. ........
.......
Imagine if instead of a tree, you got dragged over to power lines.
Richard M.
Malibu Kitesurfing - since 2002
(310) - 430 - KITE (5483)
http://www.MalibuKitesurfing.NET
kfRichard@MalibuKitesurfing.NET