Yo, just a heads up to you that teather launch,
I watched a visitor last week at my local go for a ride up and across his land cruiser bonnet, with a bit of bull bar rash thrown in ,after grabbing his Kite I noticed his teather leash was really long,
FFS you'll act like a pendulum if the Kite takes off, you should have just enough room between anchor point and clip to comfortably clip in
He said he'd seen it on you tube videos hence why he set it that long, checking through some instructional he's correct most are showing a much longer than reqd leash,
Always keep an eye on the Kite, a teather doesn't guarantee your kite wont shoot up through the window, especially in strong / gusty wind
We've had a life changing incident because of this this season, so worth a mention ,

Some guy's that I've seen use a tether pull depower on thus preventing the kite being fully powered
and once they set the kite they hold pressure on the windward steering line as they walk to
the bar to prevent the kite launching until they are hooked in to their chicken loop.. make's
sense and if you see where these guy's launch from it would make for a great instructional video.
There are so many ways to mess up too! Safe kiting too all!!!

cauncy said..

Fly on da wall said..
Some guy's that I've seen use a tether pull depower on thus preventing the kite being fully powered
and once they set the kite they hold pressure on the windward steering line as they walk to
the bar to prevent the kite lunching until they are hooked in to their chicken loop.. make's
sense and if you see where these guy's launch from it would make for a great instructional video.
There are so many ways to mess up too! Safe kiting too all!!!

I wouldn't go this way, I like to keep clear , some days here the Kite surges back n forth with a good chance of wrapping you up, did see a bloke clip his safety onto said line and walk up, I've a f......d up scense of humour ,a little bit of me was curious to see him go

When you have a rocky beach that'll shred your kite to bits letting it be powered up and surges back n forward well then you either have to be good at repairs.. Have heaps of money and kites or do what is the more obvious choice...
Different ways to use suit different applications.. All conditions are different...
Generally speaking.. Ha

Depowering your kite when tethering is a stupid idea. Don't do it. Think about what a kite does when it's depowered in the sky.

Ive seen far more serious crashes (and injuries) from self launching than tethering. Although I do both myself, depends.

Although as mick said there has been a very serious injury recently when one was tethering but there were other factors involved.

Either way take care. Even a modern kite will seriously hurt you or kill when used incorrectly.

And the number of Middle Aged and above lounge chair non water - man kooks that modern kites have allowed to get them on the water, creates a much higher probability of this happening.

eppo said..
Depowering your kite when tethering is a stupid idea. Don't do it. Think about what a kite does when it's depowered in the sky.

Ive seen far more serious crashes (and injuries) from self launching than tethering. Although I do both myself, depends.

Although as mick said there has been a very serious injury recently when one was tethering but there were other factors involved.

Either way take care. Even a modern kite will seriously hurt you or kill when used incorrectly.

And the number of Middle Aged and above lounge chair non water - man kooks that modern kites have allowed to get them on the water, creates a much higher probability of this happening.

Totally agree Chris, kites should not be trimmed or "depowered" before self launching by tether or via the method in my video. Donga is one of those places where tethering is a serious option, but I see people doing it at places where there is clean sand.
People who kite infrequently or after long spells off the water are at higher risk of making errors with either method, and middle aged weekend warriors tend to make up a lot of those.

Love the robust discussion on tethering.

Bahahabbaba

ps I tethered today just in spite of this post ...

eppo said..
Depowering your kite when tethering is a stupid idea. Don't do it. Think about what a kite does when it's depowered in the sky.

Ive seen far more serious crashes (and injuries) from self launching than tethering. Although I do both myself, depends.

Although as mick said there has been a very serious injury recently when one was tethering but there were other factors involved.

Either way take care. Even a modern kite will seriously hurt you or kill when used incorrectly.

And the number of Middle Aged and above lounge chair non water - man kooks that modern kites have allowed to get them on the water, creates a much higher probability of this happening.

We only use a tether to keep the kite set at the edge of the window to allow the kiter to get to his bar and hook in then fly it up.. Because there are trees that the kite would otherwise go into if you let your kite be fully powered and fly by itself.
I don't think everyone tether launches on a big wide open sandy beach so some consideration for those less fortunate that have to launch in a spot that barely had a beach needs to be considered before you shut down people's comments as you always do unless it's a pimp of ozone etc that you always bore people with..

Adam''KiteRepair said..
We would then hook out saftey leashes on and just grab the chickenloop and pop it on, never had a problem as kite was in rest mode.

Is there any other way?

quikdrawMcgraw said..
A real tough guy haha

Mate do you understand the difference between a long and short tether as a potential to seriously hurt you

I wish I hadn't forgotten my tether on Monday . I had an absolute amateur balls up self landing.
Kiting down the estuary in a spot that's dodgy launching and landing at the best of times, the wind was 25-30 knots. Had a good session and came in to land no one around so I thought, like I have done 1000 times , take a couple of steps up wind and yank the power lines. Not much safe area to get it right.
As the kite hit the ground a gust came through and lifted it back up. It all happened so quick the power line wrapped around my left hand I freaked out and quickly tried to pull it out with my right resulting in the kite powering up and putting seven deep gashes in both hands and 3 to the bone.
In conclusion , super glued fingers, feel like a knob and if I forget my tether again I'm going home to grab it
and yes I probably should of pulled the safety 100m out and walk in but that's all hindsight

fairly hard to f**k up a tethered launch imo. There would have to be something tangled or wrong for the kite to go over the top of the window, even over 30knots. Ive tried tethered and self drag launch. Both are fine methods but out of say 100 launches of each method I would have had 100% success on the tethered launch and 98% on the drag launch. Add in seaweed and some hidden limestone reef pinnacles on the beach to snag a line and I would go the tethered if possible.

Adam''KiteRepair said..

Jono77 said..

Adam''KiteRepair said..
We would then hook out saftey leashes on and just grab the chickenloop and pop it on, never had a problem as kite was in rest mode.

Is there any other way?

I think so, lol. There seems to be alot of talk about long and short tethers. I'm just saying IV only ever hooked a kite on a towball. My comment was more about how crazy I found it that a kite picked a csr up and moved it.

The way you guys are describing is different and safer by the sounds of it (easy cauncy) chicken loop on tow ball, connect safety then move the chicken loop from the tow ball to hook on harness.
As opposed to the tether where guys are hooking in to the kite - while the kite is still attached to the tether and then things go pear shaped your attached to kite and tether, in which case a longer tether would be more dangerous by the sounds of it.

Been tether landing all the time. While mostly self launching without problems. Agree if the beach is full of weed, rocks, sticks then I'd tether launch also. Unless you have a breach break it also makes sense (depending on the wind direction of course) to let the kite sit on the water. No damage, and it just sticks to the water. If nobody is around and I don't have my tether either, and I don't feel like walking up the safety line to the kite, I pull the safety and let the kite fall onto the water if need be. Don't know what happened to the good old safety pull action as last resort. And neither do I understand why people think getting the kite wet is a desaster. Same people who roll up their kites on the lawn as they feel sand may damage the kite I guess

quikdrawMcgraw said..

The way you guys are describing is different and safer by the sounds of it (easy cauncy) chicken loop on tow ball, connect safety then move the chicken loop from the tow ball to hook on harness.
As opposed to the tether where guys are hooking in to the kite - while the kite is still attached to the tether and then things go pear shaped your attached to kite and tether, in which case a longer tether would be more dangerous by the sounds of it.

There is no need to be be attached to the tether and hooked in to the chicken loop at the same time. After attaching the safety leash, grab the chicken loop and unclip it from the tether while keeping an eye on the kite. If anything goes wrong at this stage you can just let go of the chicken loop. Then simply hook into the chicken loop and launch the kite or launch first and then hook in.

While I'm positioning the kite at the edge of the window I also have a second tether attached to the safety. If anything happens to the main tether (e.g tether breaking from the kite accidentally launching and powering through the window) then the kite will simply flag out.

I have seen kites power through the window in conventional assisted launches too. I don't think it's that much more likely in a tethered launch.

If I don't self launch tethered then I self launch unhooked with one hand on the bar and the other on the chicken loop controlling the power. If anything goes wrong, like a wing tip wrap, then I can simply let go and flag the kite on the safety leash.

No one has mentioned self landing. A tethered landing of course is also a nice alternative in strong winds, especially if you have a kite with a high Y and there are sharp things on the beach. You avoid having to drop the kite hard on the beach or the kite powering up after not quite falling on its nose, with potential to have the line that you yanked on wrap around a hand as poor Nathe described.
Sometimes flagging the kite on the edge of the window doesn't go to plan either in strong wind even if the safety is attached to the upper front line. The kite may not always drop nose down but instead get blown downwind with the potential for damage if there are sharp objects around.

Tethering avoids all this. Again, I unhook from chicken loop first, then attach the chicken loop to the tether. If anything goes wrong, I'm only attached via the safety, until I clip my leash into the second tether.

coastflyer said..
Iv'e been using a tethered launch and landing for years using mainly North Rebels on five lines. Also, the kite has always been fully de-powered, and it always sits on it's wingtip without bouncing around. I don't fully understand why this is the wrong way to do it?

Cause some discussions are more like a contest at the urinal trough with some seabreezers!

Some just are the best at everything and know everything that's right for you too..

cauncy said..
I'm a retard and don't know how to upload video
but heres the example of how the Kite sat tonight on a tether using a peg, pretty mental winds tonight ,


Kite just rocks on the wing tip, with minimal movement saving potential damage or flying through zenith , years ago I'd do the sprint to the Kite praying for it not to take off

That's not an upwind line, nor a steering line though is it

You can walk to and from the kite with you hand on that line and it does the same thing, without the additional hardware.

50 knot gusts though, I'd rather assisted land...