Hi All,

First time poster, long time lurker.

This is now my third season kitesurfing and while I have had the odd mishap that happens when learning, what happened on the weekend is by far the worst.

Somehow I managed to get the front line hooked over one of the wing tips, causing the kite to start looping. I released the bar but the kite was still pulling so I released the safety on the chicken loop. Contrary to what I thought would happen the kite kept looping. The chicken loop did detach and the bar went down the lines but the kite still stayed powered. Fortunately the wind was only around 15kts and while the kite pulled me out of the water and up onto the beach, it eventually got caught in the grass up in a sand dune. I could have released the kite completely but as there was no one around I decided to hold off as long as I could to try and save the kite and also because I hate the thought of a rampant kite blowing down wind and hurting someone.

My question is in relation to the safety of my kite (Best Kahoona V2 with Red Line bar). When the chicken loop is released the kite goes to the two front lines and as this kite has a bridle it doesn't completely depower. The bridle keeps some of the shape of the kite and in strong winds it still catches the wind and pulls.
The bar does have OS handles. If I was to connect my safety leash to one of these than I can see the kite flagging on a single rear line and becoming almost completely depowered. The problem is I have velcro on my OS handles and it would then become a twostep process to release. Pop the chicken loop and then release the Velcro. It would also mean that if the bar spun the safety leash would get wrapped around it. I am not doing any jumps or tricks at the moment (going upwind is my only trick :) but sometimes when I crash, the bar does spin or get caught up and I think having the safety leash wrap could cause even more problems.

Most of the time the safety works well on this kite but the fact that it stays something like 30% powered when released means that it's still dangerous and uncontrollable in stronger winds. Which is generally the time things seem to go wrong and matter the most.

I am considering selling my kite and switching to a North Rebel, for its 5th line safety.

I'd appreciate experienced kiters advice on this. When it comes to safety I'm not concerned with the price but I don't want to switch kites to find that the 5th line has a whole new range of issues. I assume there is a reason that there are many brands of 4 line kites out there that go to the two front lines when released.

Thoughts ?