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Dave Whettingsteel said...

At melville on Wednesday night I self landed as no one to catch for me. Winds were light, but gusty. As I pulled 5th kite lightly floated onto back and drifted downwind. I kept pulling on 5 th and a pretty big gust came in and the kite went straight down wind on its back. Of f@@@@ I thought but I kept pulling in and the kite never went pyscho and I grabbed it and landed it.

Was not pretty, but not un safe either I think. When you have hold of the 5th and the other lines are completely depowered I think you have control of the kite.

I'm a newby, but feel this technique works for me in all winds. Probably best in steady sea breezes. If anyone has had a disaster doing this, I would be really keen to hear what happened!

I need to learn more for sure.

Cheers

Just letting you know.. I myself think that self landing at Melville is never safe.
(however I know you had no choice)

But please never self launch or land at Melville if you get the choice, since the beach is so narrow with cars and (really expensive) houses right behind it.

hey eppo, i dont give it a heap of pull but i just watch and judge on how much i need to.
safest way is to have some always launch and land your kite but this isnt always the case.
maybe practice in light winds to get the idea and see what the kite is going to do.
i never try to self land if its over 18 knots but. too sketchy

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eppo said...

Mitch how much of a pull. Give us a picture of how you actually do it, ie how much do you grab and how hard do you pull, do you keep pulling. ? Honestly I never felt comfortable with it.

My bro has the kite now and I would really like to make sure he lands it the most safe and effective way. Willing to give it another crack and show him.

As for the red thumbs wtf is wrong with you? Seriously wtf? Get ya head in the game ya kooks.

ta Mitch. Yeh have tried it a fair few times and never felt comfortable. But hey, as some have said you gotta commit.

Out yesterday, man huge big ass swell, just me and my bro at a non disclosed spot, big fat hairy swells rolling in double head high. Wind would lull to 16 knots then bang up to 24, 25, crazy man.

But my bro had his first taste of the 11m 2012 rebel in its glory. He was stoked, although it was a somewhat intense session.

Got back to shore and I swear is hit 25 to 30, on the smart bar just let it go at 12 and it lands slowly and softly on its leading edge rolling forward. Then I grabbed his rebel, not a good time for him to try the fifth line thingy as it was lifting him out of the water at the time. Lol,

But yeh, he is starting to understand how good the kite it.

Yup, I agree its not the best place to self-land. But if no-one is there, you cant leave the kite up all night!

I'm less worried about the expensive houses, which are quite a way back, but I really do worry about the people, kids, bikes, etc that use the footpath. There is quite a lot of them and very little seperation between the kite zone and the path.
It would be awful to have an accident.

Cheers

I was taught to self land by Puetz and rarely miss now.
1 Depower
2 Land kite pointing slightly downwards and touch tip on beach
3 The moment the tip touches YANK firmly and positively on the fifth and hand over hand a few times til the kite flops on the beach .
4 If it drifts - just keep pulling in the fifth - you have it under control .
5 There is point where if not confident ( you'll know ) of self landing due to too much wind - punch out from 12

Here is a video from today. Wind was light as I came in so didn't have much trouble landing but it should give some of the people an idea. (and which is why I wasn't worried about the bag slightly downwind)