BIG thanks to the person who help picked my kite up yesterday and averted disaster.

n00b mistake. Bought a secondhand kite to practice. I was thinking as a n00b, I would most likely break the thing.

Checked everything and that everything was working. Kite was in excellent condition as well as the bar and lines.

Took it out yesterday at Melville Road, Applecross.

Had the kite up and pulled QR1 only to find the QR2 was not set. Kite flew away and onto the road. Thankfully no damage to anyone. The kite and, bar and lines were also ok.

This lesson is pretty simple and everyone probably already knows this, but it's a biggie. Always check the safety systems are set correctly.

Hey Flyty, sounds like a gut wrenching moment. What kind of kite was it?

Cabrinha Nomad.

Yeah, definitely scary watching the thing fly onto the road, over the rocks and bushes. Oh, and yeah, cars.

Ah, the joys of a Cab system. I got caught out myself, having hired a Cab system overseas. I was complacent and thought I knew how it worked (the instructions weren't....ace, but the onus was on me to ask questions). Pulled the quick release to depower the kite as I got caught in an unforgiving pocket of waves and ...bigger waves. The kite didn't seem to depower, so pulled the '2 or 3' safety systems, not realising it detached the kite completely.

It fully powered up as I was till hanging on to the bar and after about 3m of being launched through the water head first, I had the presence of mind to let go of the bar (had I'd held on, it would flown the kite straight into some spiky trees by the beach and my head most likely into a rock.

Glad you 'got away' with this one. Good lcuk for the future!

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flyty said..

Cabrinha Nomad.

Yeah, definitely scary watching the thing fly onto the road, over the rocks and bushes. Oh, and yeah, cars.

Did exactly the same thing with my vector!!! A car side mirror was kind enough to catch a line before kite tore itself to pieces.
My problem was i hadn't read the manual on the ids system and QR2. I had been playing with QR2 and could not figure out how to make it activate and that very same afternoon i needed the QR1....and that is when i discovered how QR2 is activated.

Lesson LEARNT!!!!

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bigtone667 said...

flyty said..

Cabrinha Nomad.

Yeah, definitely scary watching the thing fly onto the road, over the rocks and bushes. Oh, and yeah, cars.

Did exactly the same thing with my vector!!! A car side mirror was kind enough to catch a line before kite tore itself to pieces.
My problem was i hadn't read the manual on the ids system and QR2. I had been playing with QR2 and could not figure out how to make it activate and that very same afternoon i needed the QR1....and that is when i discovered how QR2 is activated.

Lesson LEARNT!!!!

I must have gotten lucky that no damage done to anyone nor my kite.

Heres a lesson all the newbys & everyone else needs to learn.
QUICK RELEASE - the FIRST RESPONSE ; NOT the LAST RESORT.

when you have pushed out - still a problem?
drop your bar - still a problem
THEN dont wait to find the problem & attempt to solve it.
You may not have that amount of time available.
Hit your QR immediately & think about later.

There is never anything to be lost by taking this action. You are still connected to your kite.

In the inevitable discussions in the shop surrounding our latest sad fatality one report came from the mate of an air-crash investigator.
Fact is that almost every disaster is the cause of at least one secondary problem complicating the first.
When you have already have a problem then the likelihood of a 2nd is far more likely.
Practice your QR regularly & use it without a 2nd thought.

QUICK RELEASE
A First Response - NOT a Last Resort

Heres a practice Ive posted a few times but no harm again. I'll be doing it regularly.
This is an easy way to practice your QR so it becomes an available instinctive action.
When landing your kite - every session
As soon you launcher has control & needs some slack to put your kite down DONT do whats normal - do what makes sense.
Instead of walking towards them & unhooking; hit your QR to slacken the lines.
All it takes is a simple rebuild - which is another action you should have available instinctively - to be ready to go next session.

Do it as a normal practice every time you are confident with your landing partner.
Its a potentially life saving No-Brainer.

Im sure by the time we all require licences to fly kites this will be a compulsory practice.

Hey guys, long time reader first time poster.

I was just wondering what wind range i should be going out in... i have a Core xr3 10m, i am about 75-80kgs and have a blankforce 137x41, also should i steer of off shore winds?. I am also having trouble getting up when i have my left foot in front (goofy normally) does anyone have any tips or ticks that helped them feel more comfortable on their non preferred side?

Also my local Beach if anyone goes there is Brighton should i look out for everything? offshore winds? or should i stick to St Kilda until i am abit better?

Thanks in advance.

Geez mate how did the kite end on the road on a southerly? Never have the kite at 12 when just standing. At meville keep it out towards the river, 10-11 o clock and limit the time being stationary out there as the space is ridiculously small already. The wind is dodgy there on a good day. Be at least a lines length from the shore before waterstarting if your learning so you have a buffer. Plenty of shallow water to do this

Border - I weigh 70kgs main kites are a 9m north dice an 9m ozone edge. I can get going on thr edge in 16kn up to 25kn on the dice if that helps. Wind below 18 on a 10 at your weight would be hard work. Never ever go when the wind is offshore think about it if you **** up which direction are you going to drift. Crossshore is good, onshore winds are ok but be very careful and again be sure you have a buffer from the shore in case something happens.

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puppetonastring said..

QUICK RELEASE
A First Response - NOT a Last Resort

Heres a practice Ive posted a few times but no harm again. I'll be doing it regularly.
This is an easy way to practice your QR so it becomes an available instinctive action.
When landing your kite - every session
As soon you launcher has control & needs some slack to put your kite down DONT do whats normal - do what makes sense.
Instead of walking towards them & unhooking; hit your QR to slacken the lines.
All it takes is a simple rebuild - which is another action you should have available instinctively - to be ready to go next session.

Do it as a normal practice every time you are confident with your landing partner.
Its a potentially life saving No-Brainer.

Im sure by the time we all require licences to fly kites this will be a compulsory practice.

Great advice that i will practice.

i got one from the other day. was doing unhooked s bends and kite twisted and was back stalling super bad no matter what wouldn't go up into the air just sat in the power zone. i frantically was trying to hook back in by pulling the bar in towards me but i just wasnt strong enough arms were quite knackered. i was to close to the beach to release chicken loop as people were there + cars etc so i couldn't do anything as lines twisted. luckily a dude grabd the kite as he saw what was happening. felt like hours but was probably 5 seconds. anyways should of done 2 things.

1! i should of grabd the chicken loop and pulled it down and hooked in. how simple! for some reason i couldnt tho (in my head if i did that it would of looped and i would have been dragd into power lines but i bet i could of done it quick enuff or even grabd loop with one hand then released hand off bar) if my hand were more in center bar this wouldnt been an issue.
2! even tho i must of been 75 metres out no real reason why i couldnt of been 100m out just didnt want to have to ride upwind again

so yeah hope my stupidity helps someone. brain just goes for a wander after 4 hours of practicing.

packed up embaressed and went home. god i cant wait to get out again been stuck in school all week.

For other Cabrinha owners.

I thought my kite had a slow leak so I called a couple of shops to see what the costs are to repair a slow leak.

One of the shops suggested that the Cabs sometimes get sand under the seal. Sure enough, there was sand under he seal that was causing the slow leak.

Todays learning experience: You might think you know your shizel, but i dare you try getting up on a race board!!! A very humbling experience.

I had to spend three hours after the "EVENT" on a tt to get my confidence back.

Good work big tone. Yep, had the same thing on the directional... feels like you're back at square one.

I had a similar experience when I was trying to convince friends I'm totally ready for waves. I went out when there were waves... I'm totally not!

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flyty said..

For other Cabrinha owners.

I thought my kite had a slow leak so I called a couple of shops to see what the costs are to repair a slow leak.

One of the shops suggested that the Cabs sometimes get sand under the seal. Sure enough, there was sand under he seal that was causing the slow leak.

good to see u fixed that!

Lesson learned today: if the centrelines break, you're in for a swim,...

How did U snap ur centre lines?!!

Fortunately... it was a mate's kite (and it snapped in his custody). Seems like the lines were just old and rotten. Apparently it broke during an ascent jump... making the landing completely depowered!

Hey Guys,

Just a question with the depower and power on kites, How do you know when you are overpowered or underpowered and how can i tell how much i need?

From my perspective it comes with experience. Try starting with an appropriate* sized kite for conditions, fully depower it, try a few water starts. If you can't get going (up and out of the water) even when you have a deep dive of the kite, slowly apply more de-depower or power, and build it up.

Over time, you'll start to learn when you're well/over/under powered and a lot of it comes from your body position (if you're bent over at the waste with your arms and shoulders forward, you're way too over powered).





* - If unsure, speak to other kiters and check not just the size of their kite but their weight and compare with yours (i.e. if they've got 10-20kt on you, they're probably riding a kite 2m bigger than you for the same power to weight ratio).

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Brohan said..
Hey Guys,

Just a question with the depower and power on kites, How do you know when you are overpowered or underpowered and how can i tell how much i need?

You are overpowered when your kite is fully trimmed (aka depowered) and you are still in the poo stance and gusts pull you off your edge.
You are underpowered when you have to sine the kite all the time or worse you can't hold ground and go downwind or even worse you don't even get on a plane.

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WeirdEd said..

Brohan said..
Hey Guys,

Just a question with the depower and power on kites, How do you know when you are overpowered or underpowered and how can i tell how much i need?

You are overpowered when your kite is fully trimmed (aka depowered) and you are still in the poo stance and gusts pull you off your edge.

Or you have an incredible sense of weightlessness and you can't keep your tippy toes on your strapless board.

Or your arm is fulling extended on the bar and you can't get it back.

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bigtone667 said..

WeirdEd said..

Brohan said..
Hey Guys,

Just a question with the depower and power on kites, How do you know when you are overpowered or underpowered and how can i tell how much i need?

You are overpowered when your kite is fully trimmed (aka depowered) and you are still in the poo stance and gusts pull you off your edge.

Or you have an incredible sense of weightlessness and you can't keep your tippy toes on your strapless board.

Or your arm is fulling extended on the bar and you can't get it back.

I had a play around with the depower and power lines today, I think I get how they work...... I will fiddle around with them some more should be right with some practice. On another note, I can get up and going now but i am having trouble keeping up and going at a speed, i dip the kite up and down but i still lose speed. I dont know what i am doing wrong, i think i might be pulling in on the bar but a few times i have made a mental note on it and it still happens, am i not leaning back enough or wrong footwork?

Overpowered symptoms:

* Bar right out, arms fully stretched, kite still pulling you hard
* If you fly the kite high (you shouldn't when overpowered) it lifts you off your edge or off the water
* Can't reach the depower toggles
* Kite canopy is luffing (flapping)
* If you start the power stroke, the kite moves quickly and yanks you too hard so that you lose control of your board and go over your toes.
* There are whitecaps everywhere (but if you have the right kite size you won't be overpowered).

Underpowered symptoms:

* Can't generate enough power with full dive to get out of the water
* When moving, forward motion stops (board) as you sine the kite up and you sink back into the water
* When moving, sining the kite hard but you still go downwind. If you edge to go upwind you lose speed and sink back into the water.

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Ed517 said..
Question to those who have done the cable park thing, I went today for the first time, to learn board skills, but holy crap my legs get tired after just a couple of laps on the kiteboard. Do y'all usually go with a kiteboard, or wake?

I have always taken my own kiteboard with me.

Lesson learned today - waves can crush you. But even scarier than that for a person who has never successfully jumped before, is the ramp capability of waves.

You approach the little two/three foot with a little speed, the wave arches it's back getting ready to break as you fly up it and you grab the bar tight in panic and seriously power up and begin to fly... up and up. Mentally i had air sickness, but reality was only three or four metres .... but there is more.

You leave the ramp and fly for four seconds and then you remember the wave frequency is eight seconds!!!! Holy cow that's a lot of white wash approaching and only four seconds away.

Bigtone, ... that's is def the case. In time, you'll love the ramps. As you say, if you pull your bar in panic, in any scenario, you're doing probably the worse thing you can do!

I'm new to waves also, had a few sessions... but don't find them particularly intimidating (up to 4ft, anyway!). As you approach the wave, slow right down. You should be able to 'crawl' over the wave, rather than hitting it at max speed and launching yourself.

Learning to jump does help. Not so much to jump over the wave, but it will help you understand how to take weight off your board so you can lift yourself over the wave...

Keep going with it, it's very rewarding, but be safe and ensure you're getting advice and guidance from locals.

Hi guys so Iv been lurking the forums a while and had a odd post but anyway Iv been kiting a total maybe 20-30 sessions now and progressing pretty well, kiting upwind easily, jumps, back rolls, toe side to heel side carves etc but I keep having problems with catching water and crashing while riding. Now my right foot forward stance is pretty rough considering I surf and wakeboard natural rather than goofy if you put it that way but I will get going and build up speed edging upwind and every now n again catch the water below my heels somehow - possible problems I have thought of is the board maybe set up wrong, poor stance or just a general consequence of kiting in chop. Does anyone else have this problem ? had it and fixed it ? or simply knows the answer ?

Another problem Im having which maybe related to the above, is building up to much speed on my right foot forward side to the point where I loose control of it and wipe out. I have put this down to stance and have been trying to apply more heel pressure but maybe something else is going on.

Im 90kg riding an Airush Xpact 138 and 10m BWS. Woodies and PW.

Cheers Nick.

I seem to have the same problem, much less experienced then you though. Also eager for a solution! For me it seems that it happens when I lean too much back when going upwind.

On a different note: this is the first time something stupid and crazy as the following has happened to me. I was eager to kite at Leighton the other day. Bugger, not enough wind, tried it anyway. Pretty high waves which probably wouldn't have been a big problem if there was enough wind to get away. There wasn't and I ended up crashing my kite on the beach (onshore wind in which I shouldn't have kited anyway). Launch was obstructed by seaweed attaching to my lines, which was nuisance at first but became a dangerous situation later. Now and more seaweed attached up to the point there was no way to launch again and it actually started pulling my kite into the sea. Pulled qr1 and ran up shore to grab the kite and parked it. Disattached all lines from kite and myself from the harness and started clearing the seaweed off, when the sea dragged my whole bar and lines away. Managed to grab it before it was too late but couldn't drag it on the shore due to the weight of the seaweed. Long story short, I managed to get all seaweed off which all in all took about 45 minutes. Pretty stupid accident!

Lessons learned: 1.seaweed is evil and wants to kill you and 2. Don't kite in onshore wind as a beginner