Fixing inversion on the water... smart or stupid?

[BWD]

Why do something dangerous when it is much easier to go to the beach and land the kite and sort things out safely?

Well, you are assuming there is a beach to get to.
This assumption doesn't hold for everyone, every session.
Of course you need to know when it is too dangerous to try to untangle the lines as well, and how to self rescue....
But when you practice a watersport that requires you to do things you can't do in the water,
you easily become an accident waiting to happen.
So it's at least worth figuring out how to untangle things in the water,
in case you can't get to a safe beach easily.

[magic%20Ed]

Last year I did this myself.


Big mistake!

The only good thing was that I realized that 10 years experience does not mean that you are always in control...

What happened?

I forgot to detach the leash before rearraging the lines, so I got stuck with a kite that was pulling me downwind hard by the leash that was stuck somewhere between the lines. The only thing I could do was completely release the kite and swim back to the shoreline (which took a while).

Luckily nothing serious happened, but for me no more "smart" moves on the water

[harviento]

As far as the generic crossed lines when the kite rolls over itself, don't even stress about it at all. Just finish your session. We do 8-mile downwinders around here. Occasionally, a kite rolls, and we just keep going. The wear on the lines is negligible. It's not like you're going to ride like that every time. From my experiences with linesets, I would bet you could ride with crossed lines for a couple of hours once a month for five years and your lines would still be fine.

Or ride to the beach and fix it...
Or weave the bar through the lines while on the water..

Or risk losing an extremity by diving through your lines.

[harviento]

The question I have is, if I wanted to fix it out on the water how should I have passed the bar?
The right outside line was now under the 2 center lines? If looking at my bar..the lines were in the following order...I had the left outside line straight (no problem there) then my right outside line then my 2 center lines..

thanks

Right end of bar follows right outside line (passing under the center lines) and weaves upward between left outside line and center lines. Pull bar back into position. Now depower line is wrapped around bar. Just roll the bar to unwind depower line and chicken loop, and let outside lines roll off the ends of the bar. Voilà! (HINT: don't do this with your whole body - just the bar!)