Hi all,

Hoping to get some clarity about the best way to self rescue - I'm hoping there is a guru out there.

I've been kiting for about 6 years and tonight I had a bit of a disaster.

One of the pulleys on my Switchblade (IDS 10m) broke on one of the leading edge lines. I've watched all the self rescue videos - and tried to wind in one of the brake lines so that the kite was parallel to the wind, but the wind was kinda strong and the kite just kept on picking up and spinning around. Tossed up whether to stay attached to the kite or swim my way along one of the brake lines to the kite - but decided to stay attached and minimise the chance of tangling myself in the lines.

Should I have pulled the absolute depower and wound up the lines once the kite was settled ? Or swam along the brake line ? What I was trying didn't work, and if it wasn't for a fellow kiter helping me out on the beach this might have got messy.

The jungle man

It's those brake lines that are holding you back

Last month I had a similar problem on a 6m IDs kite. I pulled the ids absolute depower and managed to wind the lines in. The trick is make sure you wind one of the internal lines first By a couple of metres on your bar to ensure the kite won't power up whilst self rescuing. The kite was performing small unpowered loops due to the broken pulley. My local cabrinha dealer replaced they faulty pulley. Steve mentioned last year that inferior metal was used in the pulley design.

You should have swum down the IDS line that was still connected to the kite - the IDS stands for Intelligent Depower System - and even if one lines broken - the other one still depowers the kite fully. Or just pulled your safety - which would have also flagged the kite onto one FRONT line...

If you grab a rear line (or a brake line) - yes, the kite will start 'death looping' and things will get ugly...

Think about it this way - If you were riding along - but you want to depower the kite - are you going to pull on the back lines? No - that will power the kite up more - so the same applies when one lines broken...

Biggest tip i've got for anyone - is to stay calm - if you're freaking out (especially in a rescue situation) then you will almost always do something silly....

Fantastic - thanks for the tips. It was the metal that failed. I'll replace all of them as that was no fun at all.

So if I've understood rightly
- pull the absolute depower
- swim up to the bar
- wind in the middle lines first a couple of loops (and the line thats attached to you)
- wind in the rest till you get to your kite

Let me know if I've got this wrong.

there is apparently an upgrade you can get that uses aluminium slides instead of pulleys
which a mate of mine reckons is pretty good his lines show no signs of wear either unlike
the pulleys which when combined with sand tend to wear the lines after a while.
speak to a cabrinha supplier, i think it only cost him around $30.

Yeah NickT is correct. The pulleys for the front lines can be replaced, with an aluminuim ring, just remove the pulley at the attachment for the front line and replace with the metal rings and add an extra stopper ball for the bridle. This is the standard set up for 2010 kites and is an upgrade for 2009 kites. Pulleys will wear and jam and should be changed each season, or every 6 months if you kite through the winter. My local cab dealer sells the rings as a $30 upgrade.
I've had the pulleys on a 8m fail in 35 knot winter fronts so i know its no fun, it is always the connection to the front line that fails because this is under the most stress. I replaced at the start of this season and as Nick said there are no signs of wear to the bridle.
P.S. In these situations the ids landing line can realease from the security pin on the chicken loop when you release the main safety. So a lot of Cab riders attach their leash to the ids ring rather than the metal part of the chicken loop.
Do the upgrade and its happy days, but while you're at it replace the other 6 pulleys and consider your kite serviced for the next 6 months!!

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Rhys Porter said...

You should have swum down the IDS line that was still connected to the kite - the IDS stands for Intelligent Depower System - and even if one lines broken - the other one still depowers the kite fully. Or just pulled your safety - which would have also flagged the kite onto one FRONT line...

If you grab a rear line (or a brake line) - yes, the kite will start 'death looping' and things will get ugly...

Think about it this way - If you were riding along - but you want to depower the kite - are you going to pull on the back lines? No - that will power the kite up more - so the same applies when one lines broken...

Biggest tip i've got for anyone - is to stay calm - if you're freaking out (especially in a rescue situation) then you will almost always do something silly....

Just to add to this, as you are swimming down your IDS line, wrap all of the lines up somehow, because in swimming through that much line in the water you WILL get tangled in it to a degree, I've had lines wrapped around my ankle to the point that I couldn't kick one of my legs one of the first times I did it. This was due to the surging of small waves pushing the lines past me, then dragging them back out past me the other way. NOT GOOD!

So now if I have to self rescue I always wrap my safety (flagging) line around the bar enough that the safety is in full effect, then wrap ALL the lines together from that point so I can't get caught.

Another tip, if you wrap them around your bar as you do when packing up the tangle won't be as bad to undo later, but if you wrap them around the bar the other way (Winding AROUND the bar) it will stop the lines slipping off the bar at all. Use whatever you need depending on the situation. I have decided after 2 hours of undoing my last tangle that I will only wrap the last little bit around the bar after the standard packing up style. If that makes any sense.

D

I just did a line-winding experiment in my hallway and a few things became apparent.

Using a cabrinha sb3 bar (or any bar with separate floats on the rear leaders), I can easily rotate the bar so that I can stay hooked and/or leashed to the chickenloop and wind one or two lines around the bar-ends without tangling the remaining lines. Hard to explain and I don't have the pictures, but I imagine this would be harder with the integrated rubber ends on the ids bars as you would have to bend the rubber over to get the ids line around the ends without tangling the other lines. Also, the ids ends feel soft enough that the load on the lines while winding a slogging kite could pull them over the ends?

Sort of hypothetical for me as I'm happy with my sb3s and should see out this season on them, but for other folk I think it's instructive to do a dry self-rescue (just tie your lines to a fixed object) so you can work out how to stay attached to your kite and get the lines wound onto the bar so as to de-power it and keep them from tangling at the same time.

I had issues with self rescue (and session aborting when the bastard turns turtle) too and could do with some clarification.
Using a 5 line c kite I -
let the bar go flagging to the fifth line.
wrap the the fifth line up to the bar to keep it flagged.
wrap all four lines at the same time......

so when I get near the kite - the fifth line has gone slack (and I think the front lines too)
which leaves the back lines tight and the potential to power up, hasnt happened yet.
I try to make up the slack by winding just the fifth and front lines a few times and then it starts getting messy.
I noticed a ring on one of the back lines that look likes it is for flagging but i am not sure.
so i tried wrapping a backline a couple of times combined with the fifth, so according to above comments i am probably fortunate for light wind nothing went wrong.

Once I get to kite and bar is wrapped and i try to sail it in the lines are still sucking onto my ankles!!
Its a real pain in the ar*se

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wotzy77 said...

I had issues with self rescue (and session aborting when the bastard turns turtle) too and could do with some clarification.
Using a 5 line c kite I -
let the bar go flagging to the fifth line.
wrap the the fifth line up to the bar to keep it flagged.
wrap all four lines at the same time......

so when I get near the kite - the fifth line has gone slack (and I think the front lines too)
which leaves the back lines tight and the potential to power up, hasnt happened yet.
I try to make up the slack by winding just the fifth and front lines a few times and then it starts getting messy.
I noticed a ring on one of the back lines that look likes it is for flagging but i am not sure.
so i tried wrapping a backline a couple of times combined with the fifth, so according to above comments i am probably fortunate for light wind nothing went wrong.

Once I get to kite and bar is wrapped and i try to sail it in the lines are still sucking onto my ankles!!
Its a real pain in the ar*se

Wotzy,

Wrap your 5th line around so that your kite is fully depowered and the other 4 lines are loose enough that they cannot power up, THEN wrap all 5 lines like that around the bar. This way the kite cannot power up when you are half way through winding up your lines.

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wotzy77 said...

I had issues with self rescue (and session aborting when the bastard turns turtle) too and could do with some clarification.
Using a 5 line c kite I -
let the bar go flagging to the fifth line.
wrap the the fifth line up to the bar to keep it flagged.
wrap all four lines at the same time......

1) let go of the bar, flagging the kite,
2) pull the bar towards you on the 5th line, once reaching the bar, wind up the slack bit of the 5th line around your bar
3) continue winding up ALL 5 lines together until you are at your kite
4) secure your lines on the bar, grab your kite on one tip, pull the other tip in with your bar
5) fload/drift/sail/swim to shore

6) once on shore secure kite, LEAVE LINES CONNECTED to kite, unwind all lines, all done, no knots, ready to start

Works fine for me.

(I also find it helpful to disconnect my safety leash, loop it through the board handle and re-connect the safety leash. At least then I do not have to worry about loosing my board whilst self rescuing.)

Interesting topic.
I see the SB3 is mentioned.
I fly one and always connect the safety to the plastic chicken loop line just below the bar, most people seem to do this.

Set up this way if you hit the safety you still remain connected to the kite by the two front lines. Touch wood Ive never had to do a self rescue with it but ive always though that it would be a bitch trying to wind the lines up in this configuration and one would be better off winding on a few meters of one front line first to take the load off the bar.

has anyone got any experience or comments on this.

cheers

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ueberqwerty said...

wotzy77 said...

I had issues with self rescue (and session aborting when the bastard turns turtle) too and could do with some clarification.
Using a 5 line c kite I -
let the bar go flagging to the fifth line.
wrap the the fifth line up to the bar to keep it flagged.
wrap all four lines at the same time......

1) let go of the bar, flagging the kite,
2) pull the bar towards you on the 5th line, once reaching the bar, wind up the slack bit of the 5th line around your bar
3) continue winding up ALL 5 lines together until you are at your kite
4) secure your lines on the bar, grab your kite on one tip, pull the other tip in with your bar
5) fload/drift/sail/swim to shore

6) once on shore secure kite, LEAVE LINES CONNECTED to kite, unwind all lines, all done, no knots, ready to start

Works fine for me.

(I also find it helpful to disconnect my safety leash, loop it through the board handle and re-connect the safety leash. At least then I do not have to worry about loosing my board whilst self rescuing.)

F*k sorry I have made a typo.
I do exactly as youve said and wrap all 5 lines up to the kite (not 4 thats a fk up)

the confusing bit is that as i get close to the kite the out side lines are now tighter than the fifth line....which seems really odd every time considering i wrap them up evenly,

I have made sure this is what is happening coz to safely self land the kite I use the fifth line for saftey and mock self rescue all the time. I am concerned that it may power up in a freak gust one day and would like to refine what is hapenning, I will start taking in fifth line from the front of the stopper to get some more line in. Just hoping to minimise all the loose lines wrapping around my ankles at the same time.

sorry for the dunce first description, just wraping fourlines and not the fifth would be well stupid.

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ueberqwerty said...

(I also find it helpful to disconnect my safety leash, loop it through the board handle and re-connect the safety leash. At least then I do not have to worry about loosing my board whilst self rescuing.)

This would have been good advice last week. I had to do a self rescue on monday night and I haven't seen my board since. It is good to know that I did it properly and made it back to the beach but I could have done without the 35min swim against the outgoing tide and the current taking me 2km up the coast. Enforces the rule to never go out further than you can swim in. Now I am stuck here for three weeks with two kites and no board...
I have had exactly the same pulley break on my IDS last year, Cabrinha will supply new pulleys for free.

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79Boarder said...
I have had exactly the same pulley break on my IDS last year, Cabrinha will supply new pulleys for free.

That's history...you have to buy them now.

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Caesar said...

79Boarder said...
I have had exactly the same pulley break on my IDS last year, Cabrinha will supply new pulleys for free.

That's history...you have to buy them now.

Mine were only replaced 4 weeks ago St kitepower. Same problem snapped pulley.

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Caesar said...

79Boarder said...
I have had exactly the same pulley break on my IDS last year, Cabrinha will supply new pulleys for free.

That's history...you have to buy them now.

Mine were only replaced 4 weeks ago St kitepower. Same problem snapped pulley.

Mine were replaced yesterday (same story) but my local dealer told me that has finished a while ago and these pullies he had were the last ones he has available on warranty. Every future case would have to purchase them.
Some dealers might still have these pullies but even Cabrinha advertises these replacement pullies at a charge despite it was their stuff-up (my first pullies broke having the kite on the water the first time at the first jump).

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Caesar said...

Mine were replaced yesterday (same story) but my local dealer told me that has finished a while ago and these pullies he had were the last ones he has available on warranty. Every future case would have to purchase them.

I will guarantee you that's not legal - and maybe you should mention that to your "local dealer"...

Warranties run from the purchase date of the goods, not whenever they get sick of fixing the problem.

depending on the cost of them, that would be worth a call to consumer affairs. Especially considering it was a know "safety" warranty repair they did

I found this video helpful and works fine on my 5 line Rebels.



This link is a pictorial of more or less the same thing. Recently a self rescue clinic was held for free in Adelaide, and by all accounts was brilliant!

http://www.ikiteboarding.com/kiteboarding/articles/kiteboarding-self-rescue.aspx

My 3 kids are all volunteer lifesavers and pointed me to this summary which is for THEIR knowledge, and not generally meant for kite boarders.

www.surflifesaving.net.au/pdf/rescue_services/kitesurf.pdf

worked out yesterday i just need to wrap three or four more times on the fifth line after the stopper ball and backlines will stay slack.
cheers for replies, I was probably shown this in my initial lesson but as time goes on not so common sense probably saw me thinking that up to the stopper balll was enough.
My lessons where pretty good, knowing that the kite could be powered up from the back lines being one of the things i learned.
I also learnt alot of respect for saftey from using an old C with limited depower push on the bar. But I wouldnt recomend it. Its far easier and quicker to learn on a bridled bow, having used one once in my second lesson over botany bay way.
cmon bank account grow baby grow!!!!

Hi guys
I'm an instructor up at noosa and run several free clinics on this every year and have on 4 occasions used it my self. I would recomend getting a group together and going to talk to your local school because to explain it on the computer properly is very hard and they proberly wont charge much if anything to show you. Can say most people who have done a full corse with us would have had this technique explained as its part of the IKO teaching, but it is hard to remember when you have only just learnt, and it isnt the fun stuff so people dont tend to practice it. If you are in NOOSA and want a run down on it drop in to Adventure sports and ask us or ring (Will say most of whats been said above is right but dose depend on your kite set up). But remember most importantly that you must fully flag the kite to safety before attempting to wrap lines & do the rescue process.
Hope this helps
GEORGE

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onemorehuey said...

Interesting topic.
I see the SB3 is mentioned.
I fly one and always connect the safety to the plastic chicken loop line just below the bar, most people seem to do this.

Set up this way if you hit the safety you still remain connected to the kite by the two front lines. Touch wood Ive never had to do a self rescue with it but ive always though that it would be a bitch trying to wind the lines up in this configuration and one would be better off winding on a few meters of one front line first to take the load off the bar.

has anyone got any experience or comments on this.

cheers

I've self rescued a couple of times on my SB3. The bridle/bar set up doesn't allow full depower when connecting your safety leash to the middle plastic lines just below the bar. So I take the safety leash off of the middle lines and flag it to one rear line.

After the bar is released it will slide down the lines for roughly the full length between tips of the kite and generally the kite will settle on the water (hopefully not death loop as it can do on the beach). Then tie off the flaggling line to the bar and wind all lines in whilst swimming in towards the kite. Once you get to the kite, secure all lines to the bar and swim in.

Haven't tried it, but you could potentially grab a length of the two centre lines above the bar and pull them in a couple of metres and tie off to the bar, before winding in all four lines. This could save having to flag to a single rear line and would have a similar effect to the IDS system in depowering the kite.

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Chaps said...

I take the safety leash off of the middle lines and flag it to one rear line.

After the bar is released it will slide down the lines for roughly the full length between tips of the kite and generally the kite will settle on the water (hopefully not death loop as it can do on the beach). Then tie off the flaggling line to the bar and wind all lines in whilst swimming in towards the kite. Once you get to the kite, secure all lines to the bar and swim in.

sorry i don't get it. if the bar has travelled down the flag line to the kite, how do you tie off the flag line without swimming up to the bar first? and doesn't it leave the other lines in a mess up at the kite?

hey - i'm not bagging your input. just trying to get a clear picture of what you
mean.
cheers

Technically, your kite is not completely depowered unless you have one complete length of your leading edge below the bar to your leash on one flagged line. (front or rear doesn't matter).

I think KiteLife has a demo of this on an upcoming season 2 episode.

Every brand is different and it is important that every kiter know their own equipment, (regardless of skill level), and practice it from time to time. Even practice on the beach on a light wind day is beneficial.

Mini 5th lines, IDS or whatever your brand call it do not completely depower the kite. That's why 5 line kites are so good. They depower and flag to a centre line and make self rescue so much more comfortable.

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dogfish said...

Chaps said...

I take the safety leash off of the middle lines and flag it to one rear line.

After the bar is released it will slide down the lines for roughly the full length between tips of the kite and generally the kite will settle on the water (hopefully not death loop as it can do on the beach). Then tie off the flaggling line to the bar and wind all lines in whilst swimming in towards the kite. Once you get to the kite, secure all lines to the bar and swim in.

sorry i don't get it. if the bar has travelled down the flag line to the kite, how do you tie off the flag line without swimming up to the bar first? and doesn't it leave the other lines in a mess up at the kite?

hey - i'm not bagging your input. just trying to get a clear picture of what you
mean.
cheers

Yes, you've got to wind in the flagged line whilst swimming towards the kite in order to get to the bar first, before tieing it off to the bar to ensure that the kite won't power up. It does make for some messy lines and you need to ensure you try and keep them tidy so you don't get tangled up in them.

I don't know any other way of fully depowering the kite (for a SB3 or earlier).