Who is responsible for kite when landing?

[JGTR]

Shame on us, but my wife and I do this all the time. She launches my kite, I then walk out into the water and set my kite on the water away from shore, it sits at the edge of the window 90% depowererd. She walks out and hands me her kite, unwinds her lines towards shore and I launch her.
We do the reverse when we are coming back in. I would not suggest doing this on land especially considering you could instead do a tethered launch.
Most importantly you must be aware of your surroundings and the wind weather conditions. I keep one hand on her kite and the other on my release, but never had to use it...yet

Nothing wrong with this, I do the same but we launch and land with out kites in the air, things do go wrong but you should understand how to do things safely, aslong as the kiter with the kite up stays upwind of the kite being landed and the other rider is attached to his safety then if anything goes wrong the kite just goes onto safety no harm done

[kitanas62]

You're the owner, you are responsible all the time whatever happen. Imagine your kite on the beach, lines connected, you're not there, kids paying your stuff then unfortunatelly your kite injure someone else on the beach. It's your fault. If you think some hazard remain with any of your stuff on public area, it's your responsability to keep a watch on your kite. Same with your motorbike, the difference is your motorbike have insurance to cover it in case someone else rob it.

[tautologies]

No my question is whose fault it was and who must pay for new lines.

It really worries me that kitesurfing attracts people this stupid.

Not necessarily stupid, but as many else letting their wallet decide their values.

[tautologies]

Shame on us, but my wife and I do this all the time. She launches my kite, I then walk out into the water and set my kite on the water away from shore, it sits at the edge of the window 90% depowererd. She walks out and hands me her kite, unwinds her lines towards shore and I launch her.
We do the reverse when we are coming back in. I would not suggest doing this on land especially considering you could instead do a tethered launch.
Most importantly you must be aware of your surroundings and the wind weather conditions. I keep one hand on her kite and the other on my release, but never had to use it...yet

Nothing wrong with this, I do the same but we launch and land with out kites in the air, things do go wrong but you should understand how to do things safely, aslong as the kiter with the kite up stays upwind of the kite being landed and the other rider is attached to his safety then if anything goes wrong the kite just goes onto safety no harm done

I agree.,..the problem lies when someone who has less kitecontrol does it...but yeah there is no real issue with this if both parties are good kitefliers and no people are close by..

[JollyGreen]

Usually when I land a kite for someone, I catch it and then turn it over with the struts facing the sky so it is kind of flying in your hand (upside down?). Then I walk to the guy and hand him his kite or if he tells me to flip it, I do, at that point it is near him and he is able to do what needs to be done to secure it. If it's pretty windy and they ask me to flip it, I'll throw sand on it especially if I don't know them.

if I were doing a buddy land in high winds, I would just hold onto the kite where I caught it until the guy came to pick it up where I was standing. Trying to flip a kite while flying your kite or trying to carrying a kite back to someone you just landed while flying your kite just sounds like too much risk for a simple task.

It's a weird situation, I certainly wouldn't try and ruin my friendship by demanding it be repaired.

[edt]

Dont understand why u would enjoy landing or launching a kite with your kite in the air. There's way too much that can be not fun. More relaxing to let the last person out self launch.

[Westozzy]

Similar thing happened to me 5 years ago. Wind was 25-30kn gusty. I caught my fiends kite while mine was still in the air and I thought I could do him a favour and flip it. He'd already disconnected from the bar walking towards me. Half way through my flipping his kite his wingtip catches my bar and a gust hits. His kite takes off lines wrapped around mine and suddenly I'm left with two kites attached to each other death looping down down the beach. I was dragged about 100m and ate a lot of sand. I could not see anything because of sand in my eyes. At the same time my friend realizes what is going on and runs after me to try and help. Somehow he gets a slack line of his kite wrapped around his foot and now he is being dragged downwind by one foot. The line around his foot eventually snaps after degloving his foot. Myself and my gear were not damaged by the incident but he was left with hospital and new line bills. He did not ask me to pay for anything and assumed the responsibility. We are still friends and still occasionally kite together.

From now on when ever I catch someones kite I keep holding it in the upside down position and let them flip and secure their own kite. 90% of my sessions I self launch and self land. If the wind is below 25kn its easy enough to land by walking up the front lines. If the wind is >25kn I store a carabiner clipped to the back of my harness and use it to do an anchored landing with the carabiner around the chicken loop and a fixed object.

Good luck with your friendship.

Man if it wasn't so true it would be funny. Christ that paints a crazy picture!!

I still watch guys catch a kite and then flip it over smashing it into the sand...makes me cringe.

When you catch a kite, hold it out struts up and wait for instruction off the rider. It is their responsibility over all.

[kungfupete]

If I was your mate and tried to land your kite while mine is still in the air, I'm looking out for you. By having my kite in the air, I stand more chance of getting hurt. At least its easier for you to detach from your kite completely and avoid getting slammed.

No one likes spending money to replace gear, but it happens. In fact you're lucky your lines snapped, otherwise your kite would have been blown offshore, right?

Seriously are you going to loose a mate over the cost of new lines? Maybe you need to re-think this.

I've detached my kite a couple times when shit has gone wrong and hoped for the best. Better to lose a kite than end up hurt.

FROM NOW ON, YOU SHOULD ALWAYS LAND YOUR OWN KITE IF THIS IS YOUR ATTITUDE!
Just saying...

[Jantrit]

Shame on us, but my wife and I do this all the time. She launches my kite, I then walk out into the water and set my kite on the water away from shore, it sits at the edge of the window 90% depowererd. She walks out and hands me her kite, unwinds her lines towards shore and I launch her.
We do the reverse when we are coming back in. I would not suggest doing this on land especially considering you could instead do a tethered launch.
Most importantly you must be aware of your surroundings and the wind weather conditions. I keep one hand on her kite and the other on my release, but never had to use it...yet

I've done this before with the holder's kite sitting on a wing tip in the water...I don't know if you can really call that still flying. After the second kite is in the air the holder then just relaunches their kite off the water and off they go. You can't really do this if you have to deal with waves though so it isn't always an option.

Holding another kite to be launched while your own kite is in the air sounds way to sketchy to me.

my .02

[Peter_Frank]

Hmmm - the topic of the thread changed a bit I think.

I see nothing wrong in launching/landing with your own kite in the air.

The risk is bigger, no doubt, and not "recommendable" for less experienced, agree.

But apart from that, no problem

If we are out in waves, going upwind on a lonely beach with no "anchor" points, we do this often if we want to either take a break, or maybe turn on a camera or GoPro or whatever.

This is usually with 5-6-7-8m2 kites though, and relatively easy even possible when slightly overpowered (which could be another reason to go ashore).

With bigger kites it is more risky/difficult, because of their sheer size when up on the side.
But usually you can self launch/land a big kite much safer and easier even on a lonely beach, so often no problem.

Peter