My close call - Be Careful

[nick_80044]

Here's one more lesson, which I learned the hard way: Make sure your kite actually depowers when you pull the safety. I found out the hard way that mine didn't--not much, anyway. It went into the water in light wind at the Toll Plaza. I pulled the safety, but the kite had the high-Y design with two attachment points and this caused it to stay powered. Pulling the line actually made it worse--the kite kept tumbling and dragging me, not coming close to settling down. The tumbling wrapped the lines around the leading edge--finally, I tugged a little too hard and the leading edge popped. That was it for that kite. I later learned from the kite's rep that the design is intended more for ease in relaunching if you're riding unhooked and lose the handle than for depowering and self-rescuing. Wish I would've known that earlier.

Would you care to share the brand/model of that kite and bar so other users can check their gear to avoid a similar problem in the future?

Kirk out

It was the RRD Obsession with the RRD bar. I was lucky that I was in waist-high water so not in any personal danger. If you have this type of kite or something similar, I suggest you take it into shallow water on a light wind day and develop a strategy for how you're going to wrap your lines and get to your kite. You don't want to have to figure all this out on the spot when you really need it.

[WindMuch]

Thanks for reporting back on the kite/brand/model. It's always good for people to know what to look out for.

And speaking of which, It's ALWAYS a good idea to check your gear, right everyone? If you haven't pulled your safety in a while, test it! For most safety systems to work, lines have to run through tight places and slide through other stuff. If those things are tangled, corroded or otherwise f'ed up, your kite may not depower in a timely manner or as expected.

Each time I get in the water (particularly in the surf), I close my eyes and reach down for my release, just to make sure I know exactly where it is. It's always further away from my harness/spreader bar than I think it is going to be. But it's good to have some amount of muscle memory as to where to go if things go bad, particularly if you're under water or being dragged across the parking lot and you can't see what you're reaching for...

Kirk out