After just spending about 40 mins untangling one of my bars kite lines , it got me thinking has anyone ever thrown away a bar or lines because it was too tangled?

This photo is from awhile ago and is of my best tangle , my kite got smoked by a wave. It took me two days to finally untangle and almost went in the bin.

If you get one string out at a time it can't possibly take more than an hour.

I find that drinking mid strength beer can be really beneficial but rum can sometimes lead to string rampage.

(like what you said with it nearly going in the bin)

Let me guess, you detached all the lines and untangled them one at the time ?

Cut em off and put it in the tree for the birds!! Good luck!

As long as you do not detach the bar from the kite it shouldn't take more than 10 15 minutes. They are just loops on loops and will all fluff out. However, if you take them off the kite and do them one at a time that nest is a two beer minimum operation. We have all been there.

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dafish said..
As long as you do not detach the bar from the kite it shouldn't take more than 10 15 minutes. They are just loops on loops and will all fluff out. However, if you take them off the kite and do them one at a time that nest is a two beer minimum operation. We have all been there.

I do something similar, but I only take one line off the kite at a time, thread that one through and reattach it. Works really well.

I am particularly hopeless when your kite or bar rolls through your lines. I see guys unhook and just flick bar back throughout lines to fix, with kite still in air. I've landed and tried about 16 different options and still had to detach a line. Does my head in.

This was my mates bar after he left it behind. Found it down the creek the next day haha

That does not look bad at all. Start with the least tangled steering line. Untangle one line at a time, no quick way around it. Having multi cloured lines and a moderate temper helps.

A mate of mine in a fit of rage after a very bad session with an intense "birds nest" threw his bar and lines in the bin. I pulled it from the bin, opened a beer and sat down to begin the untangling, it took about an hour and was sorted. I charged him a 6 pack for the job.

This was in the very early days ~2001 He never went back to kiting but it did galvanise his love of windsurfing ;-)

DM

And I bet all the lines were white back then DM.

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eppo said..
And I bet all the lines were white back then DM.

Absolutely. Pre "Kook proof" connectors too

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If this is what your tangles looked like when you got out of the water, it's definitely not bad at all, especially in comparison to the picture Kemp90 posted.

You just need a bit of technique and remember the golden rule to NOT disconnect your lines.



Try the advice in this tutorial next time you get a tangle, it can seriously be 10 times faster to keep the lines attached.

Christian

Once you learned to kite and untangled a bar, the any thing in life that's tangled bad is a easy. Phone cords, cables it's all too easy.

It's the one skill kiting has taught me.

This one is really just a one beer job but I'm playing it safe

Thanks Christian for the tip . I just winded the lines up on the bar that day and chucked it in the car and grabbed a another bar that's why it got so tangled . We only get a short time to kite the seabreeze here can't waste it untangling lines.

Makes me feel blessed. Had to detach my lines as they were tangled around my feet during the swim back to shore. Left them in the garage and came home the next day to find my wife had gotten bored during the day and untangled them for me.

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weebitbreezy said..
Makes me feel blessed. Had to detach my lines as they were tangled around my feet during the swim back to shore. Left them in the garage and came home the next day to find my wife had gotten bored during the day and untangled them for me.

Untangled some of mine while the misses was wandering around out the back. Got told I was doing it wrong so I let her at em, job done.

Had my share of tangles, my only rule is to sort it out on the beach, never take it home a mess.

... reckon this dude takes tangled lines to next level,,, Louis Tapper,,,

^^^Faaaaaaaahhhhhhhkkk that!!!

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Puetz said..
... reckon this dude takes tangled lines to next level,,, Louis Tapper,,,

Probably a reasonable example of where detaching lines before untangling is acceptable

Cab recalled those lines so it would have a case of taking them back to a shop and getting a new set.

Had as bad as any of the pics ive seen.
been using Q-line for few years now and its a whole new ball game now.
doesnt float around and tangle like normal line.
Wont use anything else now.
Back few years ,just had to be in rite frame of mind and sit down at home with a beer and music on.
Dont leave it tangled till u need it though

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bjw said..
Once you learned to kite and untangled a bar, the any thing in life that's tangled bad is a easy. Phone cords, cables it's all too easy.

It's the one skill kiting has taught me.

PHONE CORDS!?!?!?! ITS 2017 MATE!

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Mrexport said..
Thanks Christian for the tip . I just winded the lines up on the bar that day and chucked it in the car and grabbed a another bar that's why it got so tangled . We only get a short time to kite the seabreeze here can't waste it untangling lines.

Yep, been in that situation many times as well, where you just don't want to untangle your lines right away and use a different bar so you can keep going.

In that case, carefully detach lines but don't wrap anything, leave the bar laying as is. When you're finished kiting for the day, re-attach the lines as they where, either back to your kite or attach them to a post, then proceed to untangle as per video.

Detaching lines and wrapping a tangled bar are those 2 common mistakes that make untangling seem like an impossible task.

Christian

The idea of keeping the lines attached sounds logical, but in a major tangle it makes no difference.

Certainly if it's just a bit tangled then teasing the tangles out in place will work and it might help to leave the lines attached. Even then, if the bar or kite has gone through the lines then it can be difficult to clear the tangles and work out which line belongs where.

Once it's a major bird's nest then all you can do is bite the bullet and tackle the task slowly and methodically and patiently.

My technique is to simply take a single line, find the end, trace it to a loop or knot. Clear the end. Repeat.

When you clear the end you need to walk it out straight and keep an eye on it so it can't get tangled again.

Keep repeating until that line is clear then set it aside and repeat for the next line.

As you extract a line, the others get exponentially faster to untangle. There's simply less lines to be tangled.

I usually do this on the driveway at home, or on the grass at the beach. I've done it a few times in the living room with the lines down the hallway. It's not hard to do. It's simple repetition and patience.

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Gorgo said..
The idea of keeping the lines attached sounds logical, but in a major tangle it makes no difference.

Certainly if it's just a bit tangled then teasing the tangles out in place will work and it might help to leave the lines attached. Even then, if the bar or kite has gone through the lines then it can be difficult to clear the tangles and work out which line belongs where.

Once it's a major bird's nest then all you can do is bite the bullet and tackle the task slowly and methodically and patiently.

My technique is to simply take a single line, find the end, trace it to a loop or knot. Clear the end. Repeat.

When you clear the end you need to walk it out straight and keep an eye on it so it can't get tangled again.

Keep repeating until that line is clear then set it aside and repeat for the next line.

As you extract a line, the others get exponentially faster to untangle. There's simply less lines to be tangled.

I usually do this on the driveway at home, or on the grass at the beach. I've done it a few times in the living room with the lines down the hallway. It's not hard to do. It's simple repetition and patience.

I'm fully with Christian on this one, IMO it is always way easier if you leave the lines attached.

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eppo said..
And I bet all the lines were white back then DM.

And there was only 2?

And on 4 line kites, if you do one at a time, you only have 3 to do, one done, 33% done, 2 and you are nearly done at 2/3rds....

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tightlines said..

Gorgo said..
The idea of keeping the lines attached sounds logical, but in a major tangle it makes no difference.

Certainly if it's just a bit tangled then teasing the tangles out in place will work and it might help to leave the lines attached. Even then, if the bar or kite has gone through the lines then it can be difficult to clear the tangles and work out which line belongs where.

Once it's a major bird's nest then all you can do is bite the bullet and tackle the task slowly and methodically and patiently.

My technique is to simply take a single line, find the end, trace it to a loop or knot. Clear the end. Repeat.

When you clear the end you need to walk it out straight and keep an eye on it so it can't get tangled again.

Keep repeating until that line is clear then set it aside and repeat for the next line.

As you extract a line, the others get exponentially faster to untangle. There's simply less lines to be tangled.

I usually do this on the driveway at home, or on the grass at the beach. I've done it a few times in the living room with the lines down the hallway. It's not hard to do. It's simple repetition and patience.

I'm fully with Christian on this one, IMO it is always way easier if you leave the lines attached.

+1

Which leads me to ask - why do we even detach lines in the first place!? Like the foil guys, I leave mine attached to all my kites. Way more quick and easier to manage.

Old topic I know, but here's a very old photo of a mate of mine up in Cairns

One of my land kiting buddies owns a kite repair shop. Regularly gets tangled bars sent to him to untangle!....

So there ya go chaps. Can't be farked untangling your own lines? Pay some other schmuck to do it.