Hi All,

Was hoping i could get your advice on something which happened to me yesterday. Wind was cross shore, and i was maybe 100m out from the beach, my kite went down in the normal fashion, with the leading edge down, and the curve of the kite downwind.... so it was pulling me downwind at some speed.

I was mindful of the speed it was taking me downwind, so kept hold of my board, which made it all the more difficult to relaunch with one hand.
That didnt seem to work, so after a few attempts, i leashed my board to myself, with the hope that with 2 hand i could relaunch the kite and be off again.

Unfortunately though, because the kite was still face down, it was still pulling me downwind, and the board was tombstoning, which left me in no position to be relauncing the kite. I think at this point something on my kit broke, perhaps the rope going from the chicken loop, due to the strain being put on it.

I unleashed the board from myself, and pulled the OSR handle to depower the kite. An started on a very slow swim to shore with a kite which was hindering progress.


Anyway, i got back safe, and i'm still yet to fully unravel all the lines, to see what state my chicken loop rope is in!



So, questions...

I'm not leashed to my board, whenever i fall off I body drag upwind to it, but in the case that when the kite goes down, and it may be some time for you to get it back up, what do you do ? In this case where the wind is cross shore, there was a very good chance i'd never see it again.

If i was leashed to the board, i guess there's a pretty good chance it would tombstone in the way it did (even with a reel leash?) ? as it would be attached to my harness, which would be underwater, so it would be being pulled down by me ?

I read the waroo07 manual last night about self rescue, and it said to pull the OSR handle, then simply wind up the lines around the control bar until u reach the kite... However, the second u pull the OSR, the bar goes shooting off toward the kite and you're in no position to be winding the lines around it!
I tried winding the lines up before pulling the OSR, but with all the lines the same lenght, the kite is powered up, and its blooming difficult (and probably very dangerous)


What would you guys do in a similar situation? ditch the board and get the kite up? and hope you do it quick enough to be able to find the board again? I'm sure there are also cases where the kite lands in such a way that you cant relaunch it.

Any advice appreciated

Peet

Hi Peet,

Glad you managed to get out of the water unscathed and more importantly with your kit.

I think the marginal conditions were a massive factor, it's virtually impossible (for me anyway) to re-launch a kite from the water when the wind is below about 16 knots. Some of the best advice I've heard recently is 'If it's not white capping, divn't bother'. If the wind was strong enough the kite probably wouldn't have gone down in the first place and secondly it would have popped straight up again after pulling on one of the outer lines.

I always make the kite priority in situations like that and forget about the board until the kite is up. You can then use the kite to body drag up wind to get it. You probably wasted valuable time messing around trying to attach the board and trying to launch the kite one handed and therefore getting dragged downwind.

Cheers,
Andy
ps What was the wind speed yesterday?

I didn't have a wind meter with me, but i'd guess it was gusting 15-20mph for a while, was enough to perform jumps etc.

I'd pull on one of the side lines of the kite, and it would try to scuttle to the side, but not really move much, occasionally one of the tips would clear the water, but then it would flop back down again, the wind was quite variable, and perhaps not sustained enough to relaunch.

I guess the fact that i was being dragged downwind with the kite, reduced the windspeed more, i read in the best manual that u should try to use the board to give lateral resistance, but quite how the hell you're supposed to do that when everything is getting dragged downwind, i do not know

If there was no wind at all, it would probably have been easy to wind the lines up, deflate the leading edge, and swim it all in, but the wind was strong enough to make this very difficult

I saw a chap at Budle whose kite went down 2 weekends ago, when the wind was howling, and somewhow he managed to sort out his lines, deflate the leading edge, roll up the kite, then swim his board and kite back to shore.
I'd love to know how he did all this in 25mph winds, without losing his kite/board or getting tangled up with the lines.

Hi Peet
Glad you're okay!
Perhaps after pulling the OS handle you can tie the OS handle to your board? Then swim to the bar and kite, pack them down, and then real in the board.
Also I thougt in the situation with the kite in the upside down position, you're supposed to wind the lines on one side of the kite for about 15 to 20 turns before winding in both sides simultaneously. This is to remove the tension on one side of the kite and also to stop the kite unexpectandly launching while you're winding the lines in.

b e n

Cheers Ben,

The idea of rolling up one side before the other sounds like great common sense! i'll do that next time!

Has anyone tried that stuff where you either double over the kite over so that the leading edge faces towards the shore and get the wind to pull you in? Or where you lie on/hold down one side of the kite, so again the leading edge faces to shore, and hopefully pulls you in ?

If I ditch the kite I always try to keep the board on my feet as it gives you more resistance against the kite which forces it to the edge of the window quicker for relaunch. If the board has come off your feet but you still have hold of it my priority would be to get it back on your feet as quickly as possible then worry about grabbing the bar and getting the kite launched.

Having said that, in marginal conditions you don't stand much chance. From what you describe this sounds like it was the case. I have an 11m Waroo and it is by far the fastest/easiest relaunching kite I have owned so if there had been enough wind it would have been up again before you could have sorted out leashing the board in my experience!

Peet I don't know if this is of any use but did you have the stopper ball pushed all the way to the end of the centre line? I know that in the standard setup when you pull the depower strap the velcro pushes the stopper ball down the line. If that was the case then perhaps you didn't have the kite fully depowered when it was floating upside down.

b e n

Dont ditch it lol

If it's windy its come back up, when its really windy 25-30mph it comes back up un-expectly!!!!

Dan - last week at Beadnell when I had the kite LE down you told me to swim towards the kite to let it roll on its back then to pull in a back line, would that help in this situation?

Ben : yeah, i think the stopper was at its furthest location down the rope.
Its made me think about that day when we had problems launching my kite on the beach, and it was because i had the kite too powered up (The bar was pulled right back toward the chicken loop)
Perhaps i was doing this again on the water, pulling the bar back as far as i could, to get it to steer as much as poss. This is perhaps why it would try to clear the water with one tip, then fall back into it again.
I do remember looking at the kite, and it seemed to be 'flared' which could suggest that this was indeed what i was doing.

I've never really had cause to move the stopper ball, or alter the depower strap on my waroo to be perfectly honest. I always have the back lines set to the 3rd knot, stopper furthest away, and the depower strap set to max power.

Cheers for the advice on the board Aido, I've actually found the waroo quite difficult to relaunch, compared to my previous airrush trio, which would flop on its back quicker than you could say 'Li-Lo Lil!'
This is perhaps due to me overpowering it, when trying to relaunch, or possibly just lack of practice relaunching a Bow. I find it very rarely goes down, so i dont get a chance to. I should set aside some time really.

Hey Joe I tried swimming toward the kite, but it didn't help, i guess i didn't go particularly fast with a board in hand either! I remember being told that when i did my course back in fuerteventura, yank the bar as hard as you can above your head, then swim toward the kite immediately after.

Thanks for the advice guys!

Peet

hi pete, A couple of things the 1st and most important if ou are goin to kite 100m out you must at least no if not practice a deep water packdown!
As already said you need to wrap approx 2m of 1 of the back lines around your bar then wrap all the lines normally until you get to the kite. You will need to leave enough line length to allow you to fold the kite (releasing some air if need be) stuff your bar in your harness and hold the rescue handles if available (dont think waroo has them) then you should be pulled in across the wind or if now offshore use the kite as a floatation aid.
back to the board, might be obvious to some put it on your feet! were you leashed to the chicken loop or OSR point?
Theres no way the chicken loop rope would snap with the strain! my guess is you have become unhooked quite common in these cases.
cheers (I dont mean to preach)
rev

Hi Rev,

Yeah, you're right, the chicken loop rope hadn't snapped, it had just pulled through so that one side of the rope was very much longer than the other. It didn't look right on the water, as the depower strap was practically at the bar, with a big length of rope coming through the bottom of the bar. I just didn't know what was wrong at the time. Its so much easier to understand when you're on land!

I leashed myself to the board from the strap i have coming from the chicken loop, i passed this through the board, and clipped it back to my harness again. This is probably why the chicken loop rope pulled through in the way it did, due to the board tombstoning.

Peet

Yeah Jomoj old "c" kite habit's die hard