Foil tangled in lines

[tomi3000]

During last session had a situation when after a crash I ended up with a foil between my lines. Kite was still in the air stable when I was holding the bar with one hand but I could not unwrap the lines from the foil with the other hand. When I tried to use both hands kite started looping and had to release to safety and than was able to untangle the kite but the lines were tangled too much and was not able to reset and had to swim to shore.

When you get foil between your lines do you release to safety immediately to free the foil and then restart or maybe lay kite to the side of bar where the foil is tangled and then try to remove it and relaunch kite after?

[jumptheshark]

Imediately

[Peter_Frank]

I have kept the kite flying, or flown it on the water - and got the foil free of the lines.

Releasing might cause the kite to loop and you might get pulled into the sharp wings - if the bar gets stuck on the foil, which is very likely to happen unfortunately.

If you can release fully from both the loop and your safety line really fast it would work, but you might not have time for that...

Not an easy situation

PF

[OzBungy]

While a foil in the lines is very scary, especially when you're a newbie foiler, it is rarely all that serious. Unless total disaster is imminent I would not be releasing to the safety. That can make things worse.

It's always best to treat all incidents in the same way. Don't panic. Assess the situation. Deal with immediate risks. Fix the problem. Keep riding.

If the kite is more or less controllable then it's best to bring the kite down onto the water and try to make it safe.

Once the kite is safe look at how to get the board out of the lines. That usually means push it through, or back it out.

In the worst case the foil can be woven between the front and back lines. You need to free one end before removing the foil.

Possibly the scariest thing is the foil/board being wedged across your body and providing drag that powers up the kite. Sometimes turning the board to align it with the flow is enough to reduce the drag and the panic that you're feeling.

Often the cause of a foil in the lines is having the kite too low. You fall and the foil glides on and through the lines. It can help to keep the kite a bit higher and develop the reflex to flick the kite up when falling.

The other thing is to preserve your space downwind when riding. I always always always have 2-3 line lengths downwind between me and anything hard (buoys, markers, breakwaters, reefs). If other riders are getting too close I stomp the foil and blast off upwind and get a clear space to ride by myself. If you have space you have options.

If you have a sharp foil or mast then sand off the edges. There is no sane reason why you need razor sharp edges unless you're racing (and winning).

[Pedro Marcos]

During last session had a situation when after a crash I ended up with a foil between my lines. Kite was still in the air stable when I was holding the bar with one hand but I could not unwrap the lines from the foil with the other hand. When I tried to use both hands kite started looping and had to release to safety and than was able to untangle the kite but the lines were tangled too much and was not able to reset and had to swim to shore.

When you get foil between your lines do you release to safety immediately to free the foil and then restart or maybe lay kite to the side of bar where the foil is tangled and then try to remove it and relaunch kite after?

It is scary no doubt. But you should be able to in a few seconds determine if you will be into a deadloop drama very soon or you can let the kite go down fully deepowered and work the foil out of the lines. If you think its the first one release and stay with the flag out, then you will have another second to check if it will flag out or not, so be ready to also release your flagout line if needed (if you do, try to alert kiters downwind).

[Sandras]

If you release, it will probably still be tangled in the foil and keep on deathlooping.

Once I had that problem, I just found a line that was looking clean and pulled it until the kite was flagged.

Then untangled everything and relaunced

[tomi3000]

During last session had a situation when after a crash I ended up with a foil between my lines. Kite was still in the air stable when I was holding the bar with one hand but I could not unwrap the lines from the foil with the other hand. When I tried to use both hands kite started looping and had to release to safety and than was able to untangle the kite but the lines were tangled too much and was not able to reset and had to swim to shore.

When you get foil between your lines do you release to safety immediately to free the foil and then restart or maybe lay kite to the side of bar where the foil is tangled and then try to remove it and relaunch kite after?

It is scary no doubt. But you should be able to in a few seconds determine if you will be into a deadloop drama very soon or you can let the kite go down fully deepowered and work the foil out of the lines. If you think its the first one release and stay with the flag out, then you will have another second to check if it will flag out or not, so be ready to also release your flagout line if needed (if you do, try to alert kiters downwind).

I agree with Pedro on this. Doing it second time I would move the kite to the side where the foil was tangled, dropped it in water, depower the kite to be able to have the bar and foil closer to me and then work the foil out keeping one eye on the kite to make sure it stays in water. The problem I had was that I was on a fast 6m LEI kite and all happened too quickly. With the foil hanging on your bar in order to release to safety you need to pull the safety line by hand to flag the kite out as the bar will not travel anywhere.

[jumptheshark]

Must be very different with bigger slower kites or in marginal winds. Happened to me twice, both in my first year foiling, and both in real wind. Things happened really fast.

Have been ready to punch out on a few close calls since then.

[Peter_Frank]

For me it usually happened with smaller kites in more wind, where I go too fast downwind and the board shoots up through the lines when trying something I dont succeed, OR, in initial jibe practising where things ended up quite wrong when learning.

Things happens fast yes, but the kite still flies very often, thus keeping your head cool and fly the kite is still my advice.

With bigger kites I havent really had this problem with board tangled in lines

Maybe if I crash the kite yes, so board shoots down or most likely drift into the lines, but here it is often easy to just keep the kite on the water while untangling the foil - no matter if big or small kite.

But as said, it IS a difficult and scary situation being caught in front of the "Axe"

Not to mention, how will your lines hold up when you re-ride again?

They might snap - some has snapped several lines at the same time this way, on the foil or after being cut by the foil.

PF

[jumptheshark]

Maybe a bit too variable to generalize. I've no doubt in what you say about the kite being manageable, but you have to be ready to let it all go. Both times for me the foil shot up into the air, similar to your described scenario and it caught both lines on one side. Immediate power loops, jamming me up against the foil. The first time was very lucky to escape unhurt as I hit the thing hard, The second was no where near as hard, but still roughly the same scenario. Since switching to a pocket style board I have had less issue.

I was ready that second time and hit the release before impacting the board and it all just stopped. Have not yet had to hit the second release, but I am really happy its right there in hand at the ready. One of the benefits of the double ball BRM style release.