Postby dracop » Sun May 11, 2014 5:39 pm
Self landing is tricky, I like to walk/swim/wade to the shorebreak, park the kite on its wingtip in shallow water (making sure I am over water and not the beach, kite wingtip on the water itself), then QR, which ends with the kite having leading edge facing the wind.. Very similar to a self rescue except I am standing on land while the kite is on the water and I am doing it to pickup a parked kite instead of sailing home. Prob would not be advisable if you have big waves near the shoreline but I dont have that in S FL.
I've tried the center line yank, but last time I did it it gusted hard just as I did it and the cuts on my fingers took three weeks to heal. The approach I use effectively does the same thing but puts the line tension on the safety system instead of my fingers, altho the QR method is messier to clean up the lines after. /shrug for 5 extra minutes I would rather save my fingers the damage potential.
Some quick warnings:
- If something gets tangled in the lines higher up the lines, you can get loops that generate alot of power.The kite over the water with you at shoreline means you will simply get dragged into water. There is a trade off for this though.
- Parking on the water introduces the risk that currents, waves, and wind shifts can alter the position of the kite relative to the wind. Its less stable than being parked on land, so you once bring it down, run to it. It works best if you have the kite in shallow water, but at 10-20m beyond the actual waterline going out to sea. If you have to go past waist depth to pickup the kite, use your safety leash to hook into the kite's pump loop to attach it to you so you can swim the kite back to shore.
= If you land on the beach, when you QR, the kite will punch backward a couple of feet , so leave some extra distance for the kite to move backward from you. On sand, leave a few feet between the kite and the ground before QR, otherwise it flips over if lines catch a wingtip. Seems to only happen to me when I do a QR landing on the beach, wingtip in the water responds differently.
I'm a beginner but rarely have someone to launch/land me, so after about 40 lifetime sessions, this works smoothly for me. I hate the anchor approach, tried it a couple of times and could never get it smooth. Kite instructor in Aruba told me not to waste my time, just use the QR approach. Worked easily in 35 mph winds when I was overpowered on my LF NRG 12. If you have super duper high winds, you can fly the kite beyond the wind window with an aggressive stroke (remember, kite is flying out to sea), then let it gently come down before QR.
Last edited by
dracop on Sun May 11, 2014 5:56 pm, edited 3 times in total.