One thing I find myself doing a lot, during winter, is losing my kite as the gust dies and the kite hits the water. I've found that 1 out of 10 times it will turn itself inside out (especially the 5 line North kites).

I've found that if this happens and the lines are tight and the wind is still blowing. If you then fire your QR it usually gives the kite enough slack to roll and turn itself the correct way round.

However, when I did this yesterday at Brighton (Vic), the steering lines were crossed and I was unable to unravel, so pulled the pin and collected the damp kite out of the water.

All fun and games, kiting in Victoria in Winter.

How was Brighton yesterday? Were there may people out? I really wanted to go but bailed when I saw that the prevailing wind direction at most weather stations but St. Kilda and Fawkner Beacon was NE which would be proper offshore.
I just recently had a situation a couple of weeks ago at Brighton that made me think:

I had to self rescue after the kite (2012 Slingshot 12m Rally) stalled in a lull while it was at 12 to slow down, dropped ~5m away from me and tangled the lines around the bar. I let it drift while trying to sort out the mess and found myself with a death-looping kite pulling me. Tried to release QR1 but it was stuck, can't tell whether it was because of the tangling or because of sand (I alway check and release the QR before going into the water but not this time, don't ask me why). After the looping kite hit the water I used that pause to manually unhook but found that it was not flagging (probably stuck after all the looping) so I grabed a frontline and held on for dear life. Managed to pull myself through the lines to the kite and did all the self rescue drill. Took me about 30mins of swimming and sailing to land ashore at the last beachhouse. Knackered but with all my gear, was pretty happy about the outcome.
Some dude was waiting for me at the beach to tell me the kiters had been looking out for me but since it looked as if I had everything under control no one had intervened...fair enough, good to know that people are actually caring.

Learnings:
- I would probably have been ****ed if the wind had been stronger, the pause to pull the donkey dcik and unhook was very short and I guess we had 15-20 kn during the session.
- I had a hook knife but did not think about using it while it happened...interesting
- Flagging the frontline by hand was surprisingly easy even though the kite was flopping around
- It was a bad idea to try and undo the tangle instead of releasing QR1 right away and having the hand on the leash release ready to fully ditch the gear. If I had fired QR1 right away the kite would probably not have looped
- The most strenous part was holding the line to create a sail, had to switch positions a couple of times and my arm and hand were pretty stuffed
afterwards.

If the wind is N at Brighton I will go for sure keeping in mind that an equipment failure can turn SAR in no time but NE...I did not dare.

Well, happy kiting guys but take a moment to think about the worst case scenario before you go out...and fire your QR before going out...always.

Hey Ed.

That sounds like a pretty typical Brighton experience to me... albeit without the kiteloops. Seems the locals who get on better, simply launch and head about 500m offshore where I guess the air is clearer. This is probably a good plan, but I can't bring myself to do it. If the air was smooth, and confidence levels high, I'd consider it, but I usually end up running out of wind and having the associated problems of a ditched kite, I couldn't imagine being that far out and having the same thing happen (which probably wouldn't due to the cleaner air).

Brighton was a bit Meh. I got there at around 11.30 and was the first one on the water for around 12pm (after much shall I, shalln't I). One minute there's not enough wind to pull me downwind on a 10m, the next minute I am being literally pulled vertically out of the water even though the kite is depowered.

Some of the locals did alright on their 12m and twintips, but it died pretty quick and they ended up coming back to shore in a bit of a convoy of sining kites. All in all, the window was less than an hour.

It was unusually flat, depsite the wind... The tide was in and managed to personalise my board with the small crop of rocks which were barely visible under the water.

I'm sporting two new cuts on my (unbootied) feet, which is actually a good result, usually picking up more when I go to Brighton.

Bring on the sea-breezes!

In a northerly you basically get the choice between clean(ish) wind offshore and the risk of not making it ashore before you drift past the headland further south or patchy wind closer to the beach. I had my 8m RPM suddenly drop out of the sky close to shore while it was hammering 30 knots further offshore. NW and all your problems are gone, nice and clean. In addition there is the reef you seem to check out frequently to spice things up a little.

Aye, it's a bit of a magnet. Fall into the Bermuda Triangle, and you're left to do the walk of shame in front of the tourists taking pictures of the beach huts.

Oh, and don't rely on those guys to help put your kite down... useless ;-).

Come on summer, where are you?

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SaltySinus said..Come on summer, where are you?

It's up here in Townsville mate! Constant 17 to 25kts+ for over a week now! Yeeeeoooww!!!

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SaltySinus said..

One thing I find myself doing a lot, during winter, is losing my kite as the gust dies and the kite hits the water. I've found that 1 out of 10 times it will turn itself inside out (especially the 5 line North kites).

I've found that if this happens and the lines are tight and the wind is still blowing. If you then fire your QR it usually gives the kite enough slack to roll and turn itself the correct way round.

However, when I did this yesterday at Brighton (Vic), the steering lines were crossed and I was unable to unravel, so pulled the pin and collected the damp kite out of the water.

All fun and games, kiting in Victoria in Winter.

Nice one figuring out that punching to the 5th will usually unravel the kite!

You can usually still fly the kite fine with a steering line passed through the center, at least well enough to get back to shore and land it.

Once you've landed it get someone experienced at your spot and ask them to show you how to pass your bar through your lines.

Next time you could be back in business in minutes!

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Markie said..

SaltySinus said..

One thing I find myself doing a lot, during winter, is losing my kite as the gust dies and the kite hits the water. I've found that 1 out of 10 times it will turn itself inside out (especially the 5 line North kites).

I've found that if this happens and the lines are tight and the wind is still blowing. If you then fire your QR it usually gives the kite enough slack to roll and turn itself the correct way round.

However, when I did this yesterday at Brighton (Vic), the steering lines were crossed and I was unable to unravel, so pulled the pin and collected the damp kite out of the water.

All fun and games, kiting in Victoria in Winter.

Nice one figuring out that punching to the 5th will usually unravel the kite!

You can usually still fly the kite fine with a steering line passed through the center, at least well enough to get back to shore and land it.

Once you've landed it get someone experienced at your spot and ask them to show you how to pass your bar through your lines.

Next time you could be back in business in minutes!

Hey Markie, thanks for the suggestion, and yeah, given the amount of downtime we're seeing in Victoria, we've plenty of time to practice these drills. Like you say, could save a lot of hassle in relaunching etc.

The issue I had, in this case, was the centre lines were fine, but the steering lines were crossed, i.e. the left side of the bar was connected to the right side of the kite and vice versa, meaning if I pulled the left side of the bar in, it would have caused the right wing tip to dive... Is that recoverable from the bar end?

After many 'little jumps' (10cm off the water) I've found that I was not bringing the kite far enough over stopping at 11 O'Clock (if travelling towards 9 O'Clock). A friend pointed this out and by bring the kite over to 12 O'Clock (or even a little further) it significantly increases the height of my jumps....

After an 'experience' over the weekend, just a reminder/suggestion/request: If you lose your board and/or kite, please do notify the local coast guard and/or the local police department. An errant kite will set off alarm bells and more than likely trigger coast guards to look for the kiter. As a follow up, and to be considered, including your name, number, ICE (in case of Emergency) number is also a good idea.

So after a few sessions im up and going on the board comfortably. i'm starting to try and go up wind but i dont think im quite getting it. in general, i lean back and try apply pressure to the heels to dig an edge. but at the same time i seem to power up the kite which sucks me downwind and i keep accelerating.

Which leads me to my other issue - Tacking/declerating. Tacking appears to me to be a process of.
edging hard as you depower the kite, swinging it overhead and back the other way and your off again. I was thinking worst case, you dont swing the kite over quick enough and sink into the water. but i seem to have a habbit of swing the kite up with too much power and getting a little accidental jump in before enjoying a minor crash. Is there something im doing wrong?

It was suggested to me that a quick one hour lesson would iron out these issues and i'd be underway - seems logical, but i guess my pride is rdriving me to try and figure it out myself. Is this an easy fix or are the lessons worthwhile??

You people with your wind, you make me sick!

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teamex said..

So after a few sessions im up and going on the board comfortably. i'm starting to try and go up wind but i dont think im quite getting it. in general, i lean back and try apply pressure to the heels to dig an edge. but at the same time i seem to power up the kite which sucks me downwind and i keep accelerating.

Which leads me to my other issue - Tacking/declerating. Tacking appears to me to be a process of.
edging hard as you depower the kite, swinging it overhead and back the other way and your off again. I was thinking worst case, you dont swing the kite over quick enough and sink into the water. but i seem to have a habbit of swing the kite up with too much power and getting a little accidental jump in before enjoying a minor crash. Is there something im doing wrong?

It was suggested to me that a quick one hour lesson would iron out these issues and i'd be underway - seems logical, but i guess my pride is rdriving me to try and figure it out myself. Is this an easy fix or are the lessons worthwhile??

Teamex, yep, quickly changing the direction of your kite, whilst holding an edge is exactly how you jump...

Trick is to push the bar out and let the kite gently rise to 11 O'Clock, as the kite loses power, you'll not need to edge so hard (so the board is flatter on the water) then just as your momentum is waning, you do two things, one is edge hard so the boar is effectively pointing very close to directly up wind, secondly is dive the kite in the opposite direction (in the same way you would for a standard water start, from 11 to 2) and off you go. The skill is knowing when to shift your body weight so your old front foot becomes your new back foot. This needs to happen before the kite pulls you.

The board needs to be pointing mostly down wind so as to offer as little resistance as possible. Note that as you're already out of the water, you typically need less power than a water start. If it was me, I'd start slow, and almost allow yourself to sink into the water before going again. If you go to hard, you'll get wrenched out of the water, lose your board and have to recover it.

First day on a directional today,... Loved it.

Not the ideal conditions (high winds, small skitty kite) but a lot of fun. Still struggling with toeside but much more peogress on the directional!

I was surprised how much easier a surfboard was than a twin tip. I went from nose diving all the time (definitely user error) to being flying along.

Had my first success the other day turning from healside and doing toeside. I was very excited.

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bigtone667 said..

I was surprised how much easier a surfboard was than a twin tip. I went from nose diving all the time (definitely user error) to being flying along.

Had my first success the other day turning from healside and doing toeside. I was very excited.

Good work bt.

I found I can sort of go heal to toe on the surfboard (in one direction) but always stall. I'm obviously going too hard up wind and/or too little power on the kite. User errors suck!

Did you have straps on the surfboard?

I started with front and back straps and have now dropped down to just a front foot strap (next jump is strapless). I needed to be able to move my back foot to get the surfboard to plane better in the different wind conditions.

Toeside: I found I was going to hard upwind on the toeside turn and stalling and one of the many helpful dudes (Mr X-19) at Kurnell said I needed to lean a lot more forward onto my front foot and flatten out the board a little. I obeyed and was successful.

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bigtone667 said..

I started with front and back straps and have now dropped down to just a front foot strap (next jump is strapless). I needed to be able to move my back foot to get the surfboard to plane better in the different wind conditions.

Toeside: I found I was going to hard upwind on the toeside turn and stalling and one of the many helpful dudes (Mr X-19) at Kurnell said I needed to lean a lot more forward onto my front foot and flatten out the board a little. I obeyed and was successful.

Interesting tip... thanks bt.

I'm keen not to get dependant on straps on the directional, but need to get a little more comfortable before this.

Lessons for today: Do avoid having a perfectly straight front leg when using your strap on surfboard.

If you have the misfortune to stop dead against a small swell in 15 knots with a 14 metre kite, you will pivot perfectly at the hips and kiss your knee.
And then your hamstring will attempt to stretch to assist you in your new found romance.

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bigtone667 said..

Lessons for today: Do avoid having a perfectly straight front leg when using your strap on surfboard.

If you have the misfortune to stop dead against a small swell in 15 knots with a 14 metre kite, you will pivot perfectly at the hips and kiss your knee.
And then your hamstring will attempt to stretch to assist you in your new found romance.

Ouch, I hope no permanent damage was done!

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SaltySinus said..

bigtone667 said..

Lessons for today: Do avoid having a perfectly straight front leg when using your strap on surfboard.

If you have the misfortune to stop dead against a small swell in 15 knots with a 14 metre kite, you will pivot perfectly at the hips and kiss your knee.
And then your hamstring will attempt to stretch to assist you in your new found romance.

Ouch, I hope no permanent damage was done!

Only to my pride. I filmed it and the children at work are still having a chuckle as I shuffle by.

Okay, this weekends lesson 1.) if you're kiting somewhere unfamiliar, especially when there are buoys on the lake,... wear your life vest (you idiot)! My first attempt at winter kiting on a tree lined lake was an epic failure... on the plus side, worked on my swimming :-(

Lesson 2.) If you're going to decide to 'do a downwinder' because there isn't enough wind at Brighton beach to go back up wind,... tell your mate!

I have been too complacent this winter, being scared of the big nasty winter gusts and not getting out on the water. I'd say I've retained 60% of what i knew, and 60% of **** all doesn't leave much.

Two steps forward and I'm probably at the one step back stage. I look forward to the upcoming punishment.

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Sammyjay said..

I have been too complacent this winter, being scared of the big nasty winter gusts and not getting out on the water. I'd say I've retained 60% of what i knew, and 60% of **** all doesn't leave much.

Two steps forward and I'm probably at the one step back stage. I look forward to the upcoming punishment.

Sammy, i know that feeling... but stick with it. It may come back quicker than you think

Oh I will be, watching some nice vids at work is getting me pumped. As long as the wind stays up long enough on Saturday i'll be out there eating the water.

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Sammyjay said..

Oh I will be, watching some nice vids at work is getting me pumped. As long as the wind stays up long enough on Saturday i'll be out there eating the water.

That's the spirit! How far did you get before winter bit? Were you standing up on the board? Can travel both directions?

Don't stress it, I feel sure we've got a nice long season ahead of us here in vic... (he says tempting fate).

Just managing to stand up going to my natural side, clumsily, so extreme beginner!

The end of my season came a little earlier due to losing my best mate late January, so i went hermit style.

So its been quite a while since i've unpacked my gear but im back in business for this season.

Sorry to hear about your best mate. Good to see you are up and about again.

**looks out the window** Doesnt look like 15-20 kts to me :(

SammyJay, sorry to hear that... sounds awful.