Almost kitemare

[crasher]

The other day I met my kiting buddy at the beach for a cold, rainy NE sesh at my local spot.

He rigged his 9m based on an 18-22kts reading on his meter which I confirmed with my meter.He thought he was being conservative since he was thinking about rigging his 11m.Wind was side shore.

I waited to see how he was on his 9m, then I would decide to go on my 11m or my 7m.

I picked up his kite to launch and he signaled for me to put the kite down. It felt like the wind was stronger than he thought so he checked one more time just to be extra safe. Again, 18-22kts was the reading. No problem for the 9m. He probably weighs around 190lbs.

He has been kiting for over a year and I have been watching him progress quickly. I suppose he would be considered a solid intermediate kiter. He is landing small jumps and backrolls and he has been out in some pretty nasty surf.He always wears a helmet.

We launched his kite without incident and he went out. I watched him for a little while and he looked well powered but handleing it OK.

After a couple more tacks he came back to the beach and signaled to land the kite but at this point he was well down wind of where I was standing so I started to run down the beach to help him land.

As I was running I could see that he was getting pulled toward the beach by his kite which was low. At that point he decided that he would put the kite at 12 o'clock and activate the safety system. He has a Slingshot spinning leash system.

Then I watched in horror as his kite went into a death spin and began lofting and dragging him in the shallow water toward the beach and toward a concrete sidewalk that went from the beach into the water and had its edges exposed.The kite was fully powered.

My heart was in my throat as I watched helplessly as I was running and screaming for him to release the whole rig. Just then the kite and lines flew away and tumbled down the beach and toward a restaurant until the lines got snagged on a recently installed snow fence and stopped, leading edge down.

My friend and I both ran to the kite and I grabbed it and asked him if he was OK. He said he was fine but he did end up with a nasty cut on his finger which they glued shut at the hospital.

After we got the kite we proceeded to try to figure out what went wrong.
It didn't take long to figure it out.

Instead of hooking his leash to the metal ring at the end of the leader line, he hooked it to the metal eyelett that the line goes through.Therefore, instead of depowering, the kite was fully powered, and being steered agressively to one side causing it to loop continously.When I showed him what he had done he couldn't believe it and obviously he was extremely upset with himself for making such a bad mistake that could have easily cost him his life.

By the way, he did not release his leash from his kite, it came apart on its own, thank god. He said there is no way he could have pulled the release while being dragged around like he was.

That was the scariest thing I have ever seen happen to a kiter in person and it reminded me once again how dangerous this sport can be.It also makes me glad that I started wearing a helmet.

Has any one heard of this happening before?

I realize that it was a dumb mistake, but who hasn't made dumb mistakes before? It seems like it would be a simple thing to make that a kook proof connection.

Does anybody know if the safety leash is designed to come apart on its own with a hard impact or was he just lucky?

[loeuftok]

Glad that he ended up with only a cut to his finger.

Have seen several times situation similar to this one. Most of the time it happened to what you refer to as "solid intermediate" kiters.

Similarily, In many proffessions, shit happens to proffessional with a few experience rather than to very experienced or little experienced guys.

One of the reason is that people buid confidence with experience, and after a while, the confidence to fear ratio tend to be on the confidence side.
then shit happens, because of a lack of preflight check, lack of appreciation of the conditions....

After their kitemare, all of them were amazed they could do such a stupid rigging mistake, but also all of them started to do preflight check much more throughoutly...

You and your buddy learned something didn't you?
than it's fine, unfortunately, it had to be thanks to a close call....

[MrBonk]

Instead of hooking his leash to the metal ring at the end of the leader line, he hooked it to the metal eyelett that the line goes through.Therefore, instead of depowering, the kite was fully powered, and being steered agressively to one side causing it to loop continously.When I showed him what he had done he couldn't believe it and obviously he was extremely upset with himself for making such a bad mistake that could have easily cost him his life.

A relative newbie at our spot did the same thing to his brother-in-law not that long ago (with a Slingshot bar/lines like the one you describe). They were out on their own and in their haste to get set up, he connected the safety to the wrong ring. When his brother-in-law got into trouble and used the safety, he got hauled/pummelled up the beach while the kite death-spiralled. Definitely not cool

Are the Slingshot bar/lines still like this, or have they changed the design now?

[CaptainArgh]

Are the Slingshot bar/lines still like this, or have they changed the design now?

On the '06 Turbo Diesel the leash connects to a point on the center line below the bar. So this would eliminate any confusion.

Not sure about the '06 Fuels, Octanes, etc.

I have '04/'05 kites and religiously double check that hookup every time I go out and it still scares the piss out of me that in haste I may connect to the wrong eyelet...just one of the things on my mental checklist. (lines clear, outside lines to trailing edge, leash connected to correct eyelit, surefire hook tested and engaged, cold beer in cooler, launcher knows to not release kite until I give thumbs up, etc...)

[BiteMe]

Instead of hooking his leash to the metal ring at the end of the leader line, he hooked it to the metal eyelett that the line goes through.

Does anybody know if the safety leash is designed to come apart on its own with a hard impact or was he just lucky?

I'd say he was just lucky. They are not made to release at a given force. Was it a trigger clip connector? If so it probably pulled open.

Never really thought about it, but I leave mine on all the time and just wrap it up with the lines. One less thing to go wrong..........[/img]

[alguaro]

I've done the same thing on the '05 slingshot bar and only realized it when I got back to the beach. Just have to be careful!

[panchito]

Are the Slingshot bar/lines still like this, or have they changed the design now?

On the '06 Turbo Diesel the leash connects to a point on the center line below the bar. So this would eliminate any confusion.

Not sure about the '06 Fuels, Octanes, etc.

I have '04/'05 kites and religiously double check that hookup every time I go out and it still scares the piss out of me that in haste I may connect to the wrong eyelet...just one of the things on my mental checklist. (lines clear, outside lines to trailing edge, leash connected to correct eyelit, surefire hook tested and engaged, cold beer in cooler, launcher knows to not release kite until I give thumbs up, etc...)

Yes. the new 5th line ends at a wave grenade ping where you attach your safety leash, also the new 06 bar comes with a quick release surefire bungee leash with a wire gate beaner.....better safety

Regards

[Phillipp]

Great to hear that nothing worse happened.

I noticed that myself. The longer you kite the less you check your material.


P

[Toby]

damn, what a nasty story. Good to hear your buddy is alright.
Sometimes little mistakes can cause major fatalities...Now imagine you do this in onshore winds....that'S why onshore winds are a no-no!

Since 2005 Slingshot has mainly the One Line System. Here you snap your leash into the 5th line below the bar. There is only one eye where you can snap it in.

Greets
Toby

[Rockstar]

The BIGGEST mistake you BOTH made was trusting a windmeter !

If he was concerned when he first felt the wind in the kite,thats when you should quit.