Reeling in a downed kite?

15 Knots · Since 07 Sep 2011 3 Posts Sarasota, FL Kook

Hi everyone.

I have been kiting about 4 months now, and I have a question that I can't really reason out for myself.

I have a 16 meter 2011 Cabrinha Switchblade, and a while back, I had it out in 16-18 mph, and the wind dropped to nearly nothing, and the kite pretty much luffed out and fell into the water. The wind picked up a bit, but not enough to relaunch the kite. So there I am, about a thousand yards from the beach, with a downed kite.

Thinking back to my training, I knew I had to wind up the lines, get back to the kite, and self-rescue my way to shore. It had landed leading edge down, and trailing edge skyward, underside facing me. So I popped the release, killed the power, and got to winding.

As I'm winding in the lines, trying to work my way towards the kite, the wind picks back up and starts making the kite flip around, generally making it a pain in the butt to wind up the lines. I got to within about 20 feet of the kite, and it launched in a gust, and did 2 loops and slammed into the water again, and since I was winding, the lines were in contact with my hand, and when I deathgripped the bar to keep the kite, it tore a huge gash in my index finger, pretty much to the bone.

Fortunately, the wind was somewhat onshore, and not being in much of a condition to wind any further, I tied the lines off and let the kite pull me in a half-assed manner back to shore, like the crippled kook I was, occasionally looping to show me who was boss. To add insult to injury, when I got close to shore, the breakers rolled my kite and me like a washing machine, jerking me around like a rag doll. Fortunately I was coming ashore in an unpopulated section of beach, so no ladies were present to see me in my disgrace.

I don't want to repeat this scenario again, so if one of you more experienced riders could tell me what I need to do next time this happens to spare myself the injury, disgrace, and general oh-crap feeling, I would sure appreciate it!

I'm sure if I could have just dropped the bar and overhanded the front lines to the kite, I could have kept control, and self-rescued to shore like a boss, but I was taught not to do that because you could get wrapped up in the lines and drown, and I don't really want to go out like that. LOL

What's the correct way to handle this with my rig? This is my bar in this video, but its not as he makes it look while you are in deep water with the kite tensioning the lines. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTZo9RGIgws

Thanks in advance!

Nak · Wed Sep 07, 11 7:02 pm

Two ways to do this, you have to use your judgement as to the situation.

1. Don't wind up your lines. Deploy your safety, hook your board to the safety, work your way up the safety line to the kite and self rescue. Works very well at Rooster. Caution: your lines could get tangled in seaweed, if there is any. That can be a big problem. (Not so much at Rooster or Sauvies... )

2. Wind up your lines. Be EXTREMELY vigilant to make sure your safety line is the ONLY line that has any tension. Wrap your safety until their is lots of slack in the other lines, then wrap them all. You may need to add extra wraps of the safety line along the way to keep your other lines loose. Throw a couple of half hitches on every five meters or so, that will help prevent things going out of control. Warning: If you let tension off your safety line the kite can power up and do you injury. ( As you saw... ) Your lines will be a mess.

One issue with technique #1 is that your board will "fish lure" and dive down causing excess drag. I put a leash attachment point on the very end of my boards to avoid that.

People will argue which technique is best; I feel that the situation may call for one or the other.

scottman · Since 08 Jun 2007 150 Posts hillsboro Stoked

I would wrap 10ft of center line on the bar so you only have center line tension. With kite direct downwind leading edge down, swim quickly toward kite untill it falls on its back totally de-powered. Now wind all lines in. There will be no pressure on the lines. So it goes very quickly.

D-Krep It Kiter · Since 18 Jul 2011 417 Posts Obsessed

Man, that sounds like it really sucked! Sorry to hear about your finger. I've been kiting less time than you, but had the same sort of issue, and learned that a bad wrap job can really make things go from bad to worse.

Scottman's summation is basically it in a nutshell... as he and Nak are suggesting, you need to wrap the center line first so there will not be any tension on the other lines as you wind in.

When you eject your primary, most likely your bar will slide up and away from you, and your kite is attached to you via your leash... so what you see is a single "center" line stretched out in front of you between you and your bar. This is the line that you need to wrap up on your bar before you start wrapping all the lines at together. 10ft, or a good couple of arm lengths should do it, and then tie/hitch it off so it doesn't come off the bar as you start to wind in all your lines.

While your winding, your kite may take to the air again, upside down. I've been told this is a "smiley face" (it happened to me during a successful reel in of my lines) and its no big deal... its really just like holding your kite upside down when you have to carry it some where... if you've secured the center line first properly, the kite won't flip and won't have any power. Just keep winding and bring the kite in.

As for not wrapping your lines, Nak is an experienced kiter, so I'm sure the advice is sound. However, I got totally screwed by doing a poor wrap job, and then making a desperate effort pulling myself up the center lines to my kite. I got completely tangled in the lines, and it was pretty unnerving for a few minutes. If you are not going to wrap your lines, keep in mind that the next step may mean you cutting the kite free of yourself if things go really wrong. Also, if you get approached by a boat which is trying to help you, you'll need to have wrapped your lines so they don't get sucked into the prop.

If you can, find a quiet day/area where you can practice a full on safety release and wrap so you're sure you have it down. You'll feel a lot better knowing you're comfortable with the safety release, wrap & self rescue procedures. You're right though... in deep water and the clock running, its easy to make little mistakes that add up to an "oh shit" situation quickly.

kitezilla · Since 22 Jun 2006 453 Posts gorge Obsessed

No sense "reinventing the wheel".... read the following 2 threads, and then, if you still have questions... ask them.

Nak is right, once again: "different horses for different courses"... practice both types of self-rescue, if you want to cover all the bases.

Here is a thread presenting the basic facts and controversies about SELF RESCUE: On page 2 there is a drawing of the"raft-buggy-sailboat" ....and the beginning of the question: "HOW DO YOU SAFELY SWIM UP TWO LINES"?... on the newer 2 line safety kites:

http://www.kiteforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2358443

.................................................................

This the best discussion on the 2 methods of SELF RESCUE:

http://forum.bestkiteboarding.com/viewtopic.php?t=6877

beech · Since 21 Aug 2010 485 Posts Longview, WA Obsessed

awww dude I feel for you. I've been there.

Did you take lessons? The instructor should have spent a lot of time with you on this whole deal. If I were you I would definitely practice somewhere with a smaller kite til you are very comfortable with it. Don't go riding again until you get it down.

As was mentioned the key is keeping tension off the rear lines thru the whole procedure. Wrap the center safety line like a madman- any way you can get it on the bar. If theres a gust and some tension builds on the lines, I wrap around the bar for a spell ( the short way around) then continue wrapping lengthwise when it calms down. I used to try to do half hitches whenever I wrapped around the bar but now I just get the line wrapped any way I can as fast as I can. I'll throw a half hitch in once in a while to lock it down. Like Nak said your lines will look like crap and you'll have a spaghetti mess but you can deal with that back on land.

I now carry a spare leash on my harness to hook my board to. I had to use it a couple weeks ago. Its nice just to hook the board on and forget about it so you can concentrate on your kite and lines.

Mount your knife on your vest right at your chest so you can grab it instantly and use it in case you get a line wrapped around arm/finger etc. If that 16m powers up suddenly and you've got line looped around an appendage it can de-glove the skin or worse.

MarkWorth · Since 02 May 2011 149 Posts Hood River Stoked

Two issues that you found include:

1) Cabrinha kites self-rescue easiest if you keep tension on both front lines. By working toward the kite with tension in both front lines the kite will not roll to one side. If the wind kicks up the kite will flip to smile face and may buck but will not roll to one side over and over again.

2) When a kite is in the smile face position, you should tread water to one side and slightly away from the kite so that you can create a constant pull on the front lines. This will keep the kite from sliding downwind and scooping water with the trailing edge. Any water on the trailing edge of the kite keeps the kite from spilling air under the kite. This trapped air lifts the leading edge forcefully since the trailing edge is held down by the water and generates a bucking motion. Treading water up wind and to one side keeps the kite on the surface and minimizes or eliminates any bucking.

Note: any time you are in the water with slack lines, always tread water to one side and away from slack lines to avoid entanglement.

soona · Since 27 Sep 2009 72 Posts

15 Knots · Since 07 Sep 2011 3 Posts Sarasota, FL Kook

Thanks for the replies everyone!

By what I've gatered by reading the responses and surfing all the linked posts is that in the winding, I neglected to maintain tension on the correct line(s) to maintain a depowered state. This was probably a result of not winding the front lines up enough before I started winding the rest. During the process I was devoting a lot of my attention and energy into fighting fairly nasty chop and keeping my board, and I know I was tying the lines off every couple wraps (which created a massive rats nest to sort out later).

From what I'm reading, it can be done without wrapping the bar by:

1. Depowering the kite by throwing the quick release, sending the bar and rear lines with it towards the kite.
2. Watch the rear lines to determine which side they float to, while hooking the board to the leash.
3. Unhook, and walk up the 2 center lines on the side the slack rear lines are not floating to, so you don't end up tied like a salami.
4. When the kite is reached, sit on the kite, while unhooking 3 of the lines, pulling in the remaining line to retrieve the bar and board.
5. Relax on the inverted kite while winding the (now completely tension-less) lines up in an organized fashion.
6. Proceed to self-rescue to shore, like a boss. Thumb's Up

Does this sound right? I know from self landing experience in rather overpowered wind that as long as I have firm control of the front lines, the kite will find one of two possible positions. It will either flatten out with the entire leading edge on the water (convenient, its not likely to unstick and fly again) or it will go upside down smiley face, which seems to be the most common. In that state, it can fly, but it is flagged and has very little power. It has, on occasion while self landing, flown to about 10 feet off the ground, but as soon as it reached a certain hight, the downward pressure on the leading edge tipped it down, pushing the kite back to the ground. It usually does this while I am walking the lines to the kite after landing it, and it doesn't create near enough energy to cause the lines to injure me, so I think I could handle this situation while in the water, so long as I was very careful not to blunder into slack lines.

jackZ · Since 13 Apr 2008 355 Posts Devon Alberta ca. Obsessed

All good stuff here and ....
I am on Maui now and am using Cab.........kites . Awesome kites for sure .
What may be the case for you is the same as the scenario here , release the bar , all good .
Activate the safety at chicken loop , in the conditions you are describing , and watch how far the bar slides out along the load line ! It does not go very far . In all cases we used it , or so it seemed .
So you may want to see if thats it .
What I have done to correct it , If you put the kite to safety directly start to walk your way hand over hand up the load line towards the bar and push the bar forward along the line to the connection point, (it can't go any further ), as you move forward . It seems there is not enough breakaway force to allow the bar to travel it's intended distance when in lighter conditions .
Yes I said it lighter , on Maui , 4 days of it , but tomorrow ....
The kite will keep it's full shape if the bar does not travel completely .
If the bar travels it's intended distance the kite will lay out flat on the water and is easy to get to with no loading up and or flipping around . In light wind it's no sweat to do this step if needed .

JackZ

MarkWorth · Since 02 May 2011 149 Posts Hood River Stoked

Nope, swimming (with your feet) is relevant.
By treading water you can move away from the slack line. I strongly recommend moving toward the side that your car is parked on (in the pacific that would be the side with a beach).
You can use either of two methods to get to deal with your lines:
Option 1) To start you can release the safety and go up the front line to get to the bar and then rap that line on the bar, or in very light wind, do not release the safety and rap only front lines for about 20 feet. In either case you should have 20 feet of slack in the rear lines. At this point, fully disconnect your safety and continue swimming to one side so that you can release the kite at any time. Rap all 4 lines on the bar until you reach the kite. If the kite is in the smiley face position you can prevent bucking by swimming slightly up wind and to one side to keep water from piling up on the trailing edge. When you get to the kite you should still have about 20 feet of slack on the rear lines that will prevent the kite from powering up. After getting a hold of the leading edge of the kite rap the last 20 foot of line to keep it away from your feet. Sail the kite to shore.
Options 2) Use only in conditions where there is no seaweed. Leave the lines behind as you go to the kite. Swim to one side as you move hand over hand up the center lines. Keep the line you are pulling on the surface of the water and watch the slack as you swim to one side. If the kite is in the smiley face position you can prevent bucking by swimming slightly up wind to keep water from piling up on the trailing edge. Leave the lines trailing behind as you sail the kite to shore. Once you reach shore you can continue quickly up the beach until the lines and bar are on dry land.
If you are offered a ride on a boat or jet ski as you are self rescuing to shore with your lines trailing in the water behind you, deflate your leading edge bladder and roll the kite around the center strut (close the valves that isolates the struts first). Continue rolling the kite to rap all the line around the kite and then pass it up to the rescuer.

15 Knots · Since 07 Sep 2011 3 Posts Sarasota, FL Kook