3rd Ave - Kiter accident at upper launch

[drroc]

That being said, and correct me if i'm wrong, but it sounds like the guy's kite oversheeted and then re-powered up in the gusty air. If thats the case, it can't hurt to depower your kite before launching. This will prevent oversheet and also help out when gusty.

I think very few people at third depower the kite for launching and landing. I recall landing a kite for a woman who was starting to get terrified as the she started to slip in the mud as she was coming in. When I landed the kite, I asked her why didn't she use the depower rope to reduce the pull of the kite. Her answer: "Oh. good idea, thanks for the tip"

At 3rd or Waddell, I always pull the depower strap prior to landing or launching. Also since 3rd's upper launch is a zoo, I walk to the water with my hand on the QR. When in doubt, punch out or at least grab the front lines and sheet out the bar to the max.

[jrc]

I was walking up to the upper launch when I saw his kite go down in the grass by the golf course and thought "uh, oh." Yes, pretty bad open fracture to wrist and some real head trauma had us all pretty worried and eagerly anticipating emergency personnel arrival. I had enough time to run back up to the lower launch and find a nurse (thanks!!!) and return before emergency services arrived.

The stand out points in my mind:
1) write your name and an emergency contact phone number on your board, kite bag, helmet etc. - one of the main problems was figuring out who he was, how to get ahold of his family/friends, what car was his etc. After he was taken away, I went back and wrote my emergency contact phone number on my board, helmet, kite bag, bar/lines. Having your keys in your kite bag isn't a bad idea either although there is an obvious security issue there...

2) wear a helmet. His head trauma made the whole situation orders of magnitude more difficult and more dangerous and the severity would have been reduced with a helmet.

3) eject. If things are going wrong, get out. This requires mental readiness. There is no doubt that I will be all the more focused launching and landing. It's the most dangerous part of what most of us do at 3rd, I think.

[le noun]

I always pull the depower strap prior to landing or launching. Also since 3rd's upper launch is a zoo, I walk to the water with my hand on the QR. When in doubt, punch out or at least grab the front lines and sheet out the bar to the max.

I can't count how many times I tell people to trim down before I launch them.
And I do the same thing as you: depower all the way when launching and landing. Hand close to the QR as I walk to the water.
It is a really sad accident but could have been avoid if the guy had punched out.
Woulda, coulda shoulda... I just hope he makes a quick recovery.

[manplesvanuatu]

man this hurts me on every level. I kite often at 3rd. I see so many knarly stuff at the upper launch and to be sincere, I am surprised that this is one of the rare serious accidents! I was hoping the kitemare gods would ignore us and go dormant so so sorry to hear about this! I will finish my 5th kiting season and I can say that I am a light year away from being a knowledgeable kiter. My knowledge is about 1/100th of what the lower launch crew guys and gals know. If I can input my 2 cents (and I don't think it will take back the accidents that happened yesterday) and give my common sense logic, well here it is (hopefully a newbie will read this and it can be of use.

first: when you think about it..what is the main thing that really hurt or injure us kiters? Obstacles and hard surfaces.

-with that said when you launch your kite..GO in the water!! don't stand there and chit chat or have the kite flying for 5, 10 minutes. If you have to chat for that long. PUT the kite down!

-If you are a newbie and about to set up your kite on the beach...SET the kite as far as you can from the rocky area!! The lines are 25Metres (80 feet or so). If you set your kite about 2 kite length or plus...think of it..It will give you 1.5 second (not a lot to begin with!) to reach for the eject button. I see newbies come and set up their kites next to the rock wall at 3rd. INSANE!

-third upper launch is muddy sometimes. Well that means slippery footing. FIND a firm spot to stand on when you launch that kite IF you are out and the wind is super strong and overpowered on your kite..DON'T even think of coming back to the upper launch. Just go to the lower launch. The golf net takes out 5 miles off the equation. And when you are at the lower, just eject the kite and self rescue. Getting out at the lower beach and you don't know how to deal with the tricky area is EQUALLY dangerous. Land the kite in the water and eject! Once on the water the wind is non existent at the lower launch..you can self rescue and wind the lines. TRUST ME the golf net is your friend in many ways!!!

-Last, please depower the kite a little regardless of the kite condition (unless it's blowing 8MPH)..i see way too many people have the ball on the cam cleat all the way at the end. Then the bar fully sheet out and their arm fully extended. You know that's not the way you should kite though right? The bar should be close to the chicken loop. I have approached countless of people and telling them this but only to get an answer: " my kite fly better fully powered"! If it is so that means your kite is probably not that good:-) or the bar is not for that kite:-)

please stay safe!

I hope a quick recovery from Larry

paul

[Thor29]

A lot of times the wind is lighter at the launch than out in the water. So it seems to me that if you depower too much you risk not being able to fly the kite in a lull. I've actually seen it happen where the kite won't fly when launching because the person pulled way too much depower. So to say that you should always depower is too simplistic. It's much more important to be aware of the situation at hand and to be ready to react if there is a lull or a gust.

I might have misunderstood what happened, but it sounds like the real issue was that he overreacted when the kite started to fall and caused the kite to shoot past the zenith and into the power zone when it powered back up. During a lull I try to keep the kite low, sheet out, and try to steer towards the edge of the wind window.

[manplesvanuatu]

Hi thor29.

Thanks for catching that..yeah too simplistic way to explain it. I didn't mean it that way..you just have to use your common sense and see how much you need to depower. In my case even in light wind condition..I trim it even if it is 1.5 inch:-) But I never let the ball fully touch the cam cleat. I never felt a kite fly good in that position..and I tried a few kites. I just feel they the wing wants to stall.

[ramsey]

I think its pretty hard to trim all the wind out of your kite. It will certainly fly slower and likely less responsive (which is good for most beginners). If you can't fly your kite because you've depowered it too much than there's something wrong.

The much more dangerous situation is when you are OPed or on the high end of your wind range and your kite oversheets falling back only to power up fully when you let the bar out a bit. Someone who is unprepared for this may over-react sending the kite hard in one direction or the other.

I see this all the time and I think an important concept that many kiters don't understand. This can also be more severe on an older kite with stretched lines after a season of riding.

No doubt, panicking and pulling in on the bar is the real problem, but if you can lower your probability of error by simply pulling in on the depower strap a bit wouldn't you want to? I do this sometimes at the lower launch when I notice it is really gusty to avoid dropping my kite on the way out.

[skysalr]

I went out earlier, for a very short period of time. I rigged my small kite and the winds were 30-36 at the airport at the time. I figured less at the north launch since it usually takes some time for winds at the airport to get down. I launched in a lull, and the direction was relatively stable out of the WSW (between 240 and 250 degrees). As soon as the kite was up a full-power cycle came in and started pulling me off the ground. I depowered 20% but had to keep very close control of the kite because the winds were gusting up and down every 10-20 seconds. I 'very' carefully went out into the cove, waiting for a low cycle so I wouldn't slip and be rocketed across the launch area. I got lucky. I rode in the north end of the cove for 10-20 minutes and decided it was no fun. I reversed everything I did to go out, and was happy when the kite was safely down and anchored.

After that I told everyone I came in contact with that it was no fun and not worth it. Some listened, some didn't. Normal.

I do not know what the conditions were like at 5:20. Looking at the wind history the average wind speed came down but the gusts were still up around 40 mph. I am not sure how anyone thought it was around 20 but suspect they were mistaken. It seems as though, if anything, the gust differential increased as the day wore on. This is entirely normal at 3rd in a WSW flow.

Another thing about this incident that bothers me is that altogether too many kiters just go, rig, and go out without talking to regulars or even looking at the conditions. Its almost like they assume that the winds are always the same, that the conditions are always the same, when in fact they are changing constantly. We aren't out there talking to people to hear our own voices. We are trying to help people have fun and be safe. Sure, accidents will happen to even very experienced kiters, but they happen more to less experienced kiters and certainly to less observant/careful kiters. You can have as much fun being safe and informed as you can not, but you will walk away from situations more often than not when you are being safe and informed. It is something to think about.

Jack

[mjwarne]

I launched about 5 minutes before the guy that was hurt yesterday and my sequence wasn't that different to his by the sound of it.

I had my kite (10M) depowered and when I launched there was a big lull so I had to step back a few paces and let off the depower to keep the kite at the edge of the wind window. A few seconds later I was hit by a big gust that started to loft me, so had to quickly depower again.
The guy that launched me also grabbed the back of my harness as he could see how strong the gust was (Thanks!).

The ikitesurf sensor for 3rd Ave Beach yesterday was showing gusts around 26mph at that time so the launch was tricky. I kite at 3rd a fair bit and haven't experienced gusts that big coming so quickly after such a lull before.

Hopefully this guy will be OK. Agree with all the helmet comments. I'd never ride my bike without one so why kite without when you're going just as fast and there are plenty of hard objects around.

Stops my bald head getting sunburnt as well.

[skysalr]

The range of a kite doesn't change with trimming. All trimming does is lock in an amount of depower, and reduces the amount you can impose/effect by sheeting out. Most kites do not handle as well when trimmed, because they are designed to handle on the back lines which, when trimmed, are not under tension. So it is a fallacy to think that trimming a kite improves the range in any way, and since it reduces control, in a lot of ways it is to be avoided. It does provide the kiter with a fixed amount of depower and that may be worth it for the moment. As with anything, it is a tradeoff one should make consciously.

I agree with those that say that the larger problem is not so much the upper gust but the lower gust. If the kite starts to fall out of the sky and then suddenly reposers, almost no one is going to be able to control the kite. You have two choices if that happens. One is proactive and one is reactive. The proactive one is to always keep tension on the lines and don't fly the kite high in the window. They reduces the possibility that the kite will fall out of the sky. The reactive choice is to punch out. You may have to do both but being ready and prepared for it puts you back in the drivers seat and not just an observer to your own fate.

Jack