Bad Landing --> Slams Rider

[RickI]

Me, this time.

Who's else has had landing accidents and what went wrong?

It was my first time out with a new kite and after several months off the water. I had waited a day and a half for lighter winds before heading out given it was the first time out with the kite and healing wrists. It was blowing out of the SE about 12 to 18 mph, I was in the process of landing a 12 m SB IDS on the surface of the beach after a short couple hour session.

The IDS is a purpose designed depowering mechanism for solo landing and emergencies. Ignoring this function is not a great idea, the first of several mistakes I made.

I attempted to solo land the kite by bringing it down to near the ground, reaching forward and pulling in the trim strap assembly slightly. It worked well with a variety of flat kites in the past, just not this time. I had just unhooked the chicken loop at this point but had forgotten to detach my kite leash from the harness (second serious mistake). For some reason the kite landed more downwind than crosswind this time and very near some sea oats and dunes. (I learned later that tensioning the trim strap assembly on this IDS equipped kite will cause it to fall back in the window). I grabbed and gently tensioned one of the back lines to try to keep the kite stationary as I am used to doing. In this case, it initiated kite looping. I dropped the back line thinking that would end the looping but it continued. I then dropped the bar, thinking that would end the looping but it did not.

I don't know for sure but suspect a wingtip got wrapped by a bridle, possibly aided by a temporary snag in some of the sea oats. Whatever caused it, the flat kite depowering was disabled. Next thing I was yanked off my feet downwind. A bystander said I flew about a dozen feet or so forward then vanished into the dune vegetation. I was being pulled by the kite leash which contrary to my normal MO I forgot to detach before landing. I learned to do this after a real nasty LA that happened to a guy a few years back. He tried to solo land using the "spin the kite" technique with his kite leash attached. The kite relaunched downwind and slammed him into a seawall, over the road smashing the hood of a car before tossing him into a tree. If you have people at risk downwind, simple, don't solo land, use good holdfasts if your kite supports this approach, etc.. I was dragged by the looping kite through the dunes about 100 ft. over several seconds. The leash was attached just above the chicken loop with the harness attachment at my waist out of reach as I was dragged over it. By the time I thought to try to detach the leash attachment I had about stopped when a tree caught the kite and held it.

My ankle had a knot on the side of it the size of a baseball as soon as I stood up. I elected to stand still and with the help of some bystanders got the kite out the tree, and sorted the rest of the kite gear out. One of them was in medicine and thought the ankle was broken and suggested an ambulance ride to the ER. It didn't hurt that much but I have learned the hard way not to torment an injury by unnecessary activity.

I was talked into going to the ER, was Xrayed, no breaks, just some messed up soft tissue. It was later diagnosed as two sprained ankles, a sprained neck, displaced rib and strained shoulder. The rib and related referral pain hurt more than the rest currently, ouch. Pretty light bill all things considered. I did this landing technique with no problems an hour and a half earlier. Probably because the wing tip didn't get wrapped. I did remember to detach the leash attachment that time. Not the second time when it really counted however. Being off the water for about three months likely contributed to what I did and didn't do. I did have a helmet and impact vest on which may have improved how things turned out.
__________________
transcribed by:
Rick Iossi

[RickI]

Moral: New kite system, carefully learn and practice the New Stuff, FIRST! Don't assume old techniques will necessarily work. Line tangles whether at the wingtips, in the lines themselves, pulleys, or at the bar can disable depowering in flat kites. Given the lack of time to react and inaccessibility of the leash attachment, avoidance is key yet again.

I never used the IDS when I came ashore, if I had, none of this would have happened. There would have been no need to detach the kite leash either in this case. A hard won but fairly obvious lesson.

There was very little to no time to react in these fairly light winds. If conditions had been stronger the outcome likely would have been worse. If there had been rocks, logs or whatever in the dunes, it could have readily been a one way trip. I still feel strongly about not using new or unfamiliar gear for the first time in strong conditions. Lots of guys have been messed up badly over the years by doing so.

Flat kites appear to have reduced impact related fatalities by perhaps 75% in the last couple of years when compared to traditional C kites. This has been a substantial safety dividend. Despite that, you can still get messed up particularly if you make enough mistakes as I demonstrated in this accident. Things are healing rapidly for which I am extremely grateful. Hope to learn from this one and not repeat the mistakes.
__________________
transcribed by:
Rick Iossi

[prayfawind27]

Glad you're not seriously hurt,wow! you're lucky indeed that it wasn't windier . With all the new de- power tech these kite companies are comes out with i still don't trust it, because if the wind is right the kites still have some power, i only trust the age old way of self landing, i come on the beach land my kite into the water pull the quick release one line attached ,the bar goes towards the kite and slowly pull the kite to me,the kite is wet and your lines might be spaghetti but it's the safest way to self land.

[surf-turkey]

didn't toby give you a whole section to talk about yourself and post your safety stuff in?? Can you use it, please.

[RichardM]

didn't toby give you a whole section to talk about yourself and post your safety stuff in?? Can you use it, please.

Although this thread could have been part of some other threads, I don't see what's wrong with it being on its own. It's easy to get lost in a long thread and it's possible that the title will attract readers who wouldn't bother perusing the giant safety topic.

This forum is an excellent place to discuss safety related topics and the greater exposure, the better.

Richard M.
Malibu Kitesurfing
(310) - 430 - KITE (5483)
http://www.MalibuKitesurfing.NET
kfRichard@MalibuKitesurfing.NET
The BEST way to learn kitesurfing since 2002 !

[prayfawind27]

didn't toby give you a whole section to talk about yourself and post your safety stuff in?? Can you use it, please.

stop being a Jive turkey dude

[panchito]

Me, this time.

Who's else has had landing accidents and what went wrong?

Rick Iossi

Your error was trying to correct the situation , next time as soon as you even think something is going wrong , release the kite 100%

I dont know your IDS system but until now my front line flag out has worked pretty good , still , when self landing , as soon as I activate the flag out , my hand grabs immediately the leash release .

Have seen too many accidents around and people saying afterwards : I thought I could manage to control the kite ...


Saludos

Franz

[RickI]

Good point Franz about not trying to correct or fly out of this. It sounds like a long time as described but from the start of looping to dropping everything, I would guess was a couple of seconds. I had already unhooked, had dropped the bar and was holding the kite by the trim strap. All I did was to first drop the backline and then the trim strap. If I had followed my normal rule of detaching the kite leash before doing any of this as I had less than a couple of hours earlier, wouldn't have been dragged and would have accomplished what you suggest.

Another big mistake was electing to use this landing technique that worked with a bunch of other flat kites to date, period. I don't think it is a good approach with the IDS. Maybe I was just lucky with the other bridled kites to have never have had a wingtip wrap on landing? I have had them catch wing tips before, twice with other brands on solo launching which I stopped doing using that technique.

The thing that sticks out in this for me is how blindingly fast things went from mellow to out of control looping by using the landing technique I chose. In stronger wind it would have been even faster and more powerful. Competent assisted landings work much better than something like this. Or, proper water landings as you say prayfawind27 beat what happened by light years.

[panchito]

Hi

It has a lot to do with the fact that in my case I´m used to kite together with , some times 200 + kiters at the same spot , apart from very rare occasions like in my home spot ( Sotogrande ) or during storms were we are just a few out there , most of the times there are at least a minimum of 50 kiters ... I believe I see things in one single day , you ( or probably most of the people ) may not get the chance to see in one year .

I guess I am very lucky watching others do all the errors I hope never happen to me , and I am convinced that 95% of the accidents like yours could be avoided if the rider had the chance to get rid of his/her kite on time .

I have also gone thru several multiple kite tangles , bad launches or self landings during my 4 years kiting that I got used to grab the leash release as soon as I have either un hooked or activated the CL release .... when I have it in my hand I can react " just on time " before for whatever the reason " shit happens " because ( I have seen it so many times in front of my face ) as soon as you are dragged your first reaction is to hold yourself into your bar or if not extend your arms preparing for an imminent crash (which is a natural reaction of the humans ) so that fraction of a second, to think about grabbing your release feels like seconds you may not even have.

Now Rickl .... be honest ... during the first few seconds you did try to save your kite .... next time do it to save your life .

Saludos

Franz

[Satan]

I find it ironic how dangerous Mr. Safety is. You go around chastising people for being dangerous, not wearing helmets, etc. the you do something like this. You don't even know how to safely self-land your kites? Amazing.

Glad you're okay.