I had a bad learning experience at Orewa today.

At about 5pm today, a seemingly experienced kiter asked me to give him a launch. I held the kite and, as usual, carefully released the kite when he gave me the thumbs up. The kite went up about 1m, then suddenly rolled over backwards through the power zone. The guy got jerked head over heals and landed hard on his back next to my kite on the ground. At first I didn't think it was too bad, but when I went to him, he had trouble breathing and his eyes were rolling back. I waved at the guys on the grass for assistance and someone went to call the lifeguards. The lifeguards strapped him up on on a stretcher and gave him oxygen. An ambulance was called and he was loaded into it.

I decided to pack away his gear so that it doesn't go missing. I told him at the ambulance that I will leave his gear at the surf life saving clubhouse. He then gave half a description of another kite which also belonged to him on the beach. While I was breaking up the second kite, suddenly the kiter came walking to me. He looked like nothing ever happened. He said that he just had the weirdest experience. He was knocked unconscious, then woke up in the ambulance and felt as if nothing happened. He also said that he doesn't remember anything that happened. After I explained what had happened, he thanked me for helping and looking after his gear. I asked the ambulance man if he was ok. He said all seemed fine, but after allowing him to get all his stuff together, they would take him to hospital for observation.

I have done launches 100's of times and know exactly how to do it. I felt quite bad about the incident, but I don't believe I did anything wrong. When I packed away his kite, I noticed that the one flying line was quite badly wrapped around the pulley to the point that I struggled to unknot it. I don't know if that was the cause of the accident, or if it happened afterwards. I think it must have been like that before the launch, because there was no kite looping or anything during the incident. Another thing is that he may have been a little bit downwind from his kite.

An important lesson I learnt is not to believe someone has a kite under control just because he gives you a thumbs up. Check it out properly and don't release the kite until you are also happy that everything is ok. Always have a glance over the other persons lines in case there is a problem which they perhaps haven't spotted. The kiter also seemed to rush to get the kite in the air. If he slowed down a bit, it could have prevented the incident.

Anyway, all's well that ends well...

wow must have happened just after i have left - get well soon sounds like a simple KO hopefully
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Pullies and bridles scare the crap out of me, especially for high wind riding. They prob saved way more people overall than the old style kites overall tho. there are some hi depower kites that don't use them. Personal preference I guess...

I have spotted a tangled bridle/pulley a few times giving launches and undone it - its a good reminder cos i know of others that got kitelooped at launch by this.

Sounds like the guy was very lucky.

When I teach new kiters the do's and don'ts of holding the kite when someone is launching I get them to check the bridal and lines from their point of view before they let go of the kite. If they aren't happy with what they see I tell them NOT to let the kite go even if they get the thumbs up from the rider.

It is very hard to tell from the bar end if a bridal is tangled, so always a good idea to check before you let go.

Cheers

DK

hmmm.... i'm fairly new to lei's and i gotta say the launch and land gives me the gebbies compared to a foil... though assisted launch and land is generally easy. solo can become abit of a nightmare...

The freaken pumped up shape hooning into death spirals doesn't appeal....

Worn pullies can jam unpredicabily . i had one jam last night while flying the manta (the bridle line wedged in the side of the pully). I need to replace them. But a they looked good on the pre-flight ispection.

I suppose another lesson here is allways be ready to pull the safety on launch.

I do have one question.

Do you guys fit the safety leash on the back of the harness or the front? I was told to put it at the back to get it out way. But if the worst happens and the primary safety doesn't depower the kite that means i'm going to be dragged backwards to my doom. I'd much prefer the Secondary safety in front by the chicken loop.

PS i'm not into unhooked handle passes.

Hi Dave,

I was of the leash to the back for bar passing school, but have recently changed to having my leash to the side - on my lead hip on my 'good' side. Now if I blow a pass there is a chance I will land on my heal edge and ride away rather than get pulled over backwards and slam my head. It also puts the release close enough for me to pull it, rather than getting dragged backwards trying to reach it.

If you aren't bar passing put it to the front - easy to find is ALWAYS better!

Cheers

DK

The keen young whipper snappers can have their handle passes. i'm happy to bust big floaty hooken in oldschool air time. Front it is.

ian c wrote:



Absolutely, as an assistant, it becomes part of the duties to perform a visual check of the bridles. Setup of the kite has also to comply to a reasonable amount of discipline to prevent risks of tangles, and check the pulleys, etc...

I believe the pulley jams become a much more serious issue when the front and back lines are connected through a bridle. Some pulleys are better than others too.

Long/complex bridles are also much more prone to get tangled. And they also significantly increase the odds of having a wingtip wrapped in the bridle.

So far after 5 seasons of riding their bridled kites fitted with Riley pulleys, I'm happy to keep riding GKs. With gear I trust, I don't feel bad about riding on my own, at odd hours, etc...

alexb wrote:


This is how I feel about my flexi gear, and I'm sure anybody who sticks to one company feels about such gear, which is why I just tell people to try everything and find what you like.

I think I mostly prefer settingup on my own unless it's somebody I know, I can land and launch solo with minimal problems unless it's really blowing a gale, which I don't really have a kite for at the moment anyway.

Hope the guy's ok,everybody has to look out for each other in this sport, I hate these stories of how a kiter watched someone set up the wrong size kite and didn't go and say anything...

Yeah, I always check the other person's lines, but I'll definitely pay much better attention to the their bridal in future.

As for myself, I have ALWAYS double and tripple checked my own lines and pulleys. "Total depower" isn't fool proof if lines get tangled.

I have inverted my Switchblade one day, causing the lines to tangle. There was no depower until I connected my safety leach to one steering line and pulling the release on the chicken loop, while the kite was pulling me like crazy. Fortunately I was about 300m offshore, which gave me lots of time before I got to the beach. My chicken loop is attached to the back of my harness to kep it out of my way. I used to connect the other end between the safety release and the bar in case the chicken loop accidentally unhooks. Since that day I connect it to a steering line on the bar so that it is easy to flag the kite if there is a problem. It gets in way when loop the kite or spin the bar though. I will also have to rethink this soon when I start trying to sail unhooked...