On 2002-08-21 20:09, Huncie wrote:
so is it just me then or the fact that I am starting out as a beginner with a kite that has extreme AR.
it just sits on it's leading edge in the water and pulls the lines and me downwind and every attempt to get it to roll over to the relaunch position fails. in the end i end up swimming towards the kite and rolling up my lines by which time i am completely knackered!
Any pointers?
High aspect kites are harder to relaunch, but all kites are hard when you’re learning.
You must get the kite to roll on its back. It’s really very simple to do. The secret is to keep swimming toward the kite, CONTINOUSLY. Don’t stop swimming to see if it’s working. Even though it looks like nothing is happening, it is working, and sometimes it takes a very long time of continuous swimming to get it to roll over. What you are doing is making the lines slacken and keeping them slack, while the wind has a chance to flip it. It is slowly leaning over and you must keep swimming to keep the lines slack, and it will keep tipping until it finally flops on it’s back.
Another trick is to pull in a bunch of line to you and throw it at the kite. Unfortunately this only makes the lines slacken for 2 seconds and that’s not always enough to make it flip.
You will end up swimming over your bar. You may need to swim with both arms, so put the chicken loop in your mouth. When the kite does flip on it’s back, you should have plenty of time to get your hands on the bar and check the lines for tangles.
The next challenge is to get the kite to fly. Take your time nursing the kite to the side of the window. Rushing to make the kite take off from the water is sure to make it flop back down on its nose and make you start all over again.
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Dwight on 2002-08-21 20:40 ]</font>
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Dwight on 2002-08-21 20:41 ]</font>