Obviously there are pros and cons for each way of doing it but neither of these look the best nor safest to me.
- I see tethered launch taking people "forever" and I observed two guys on two separate occasions getting kite up somehow almost full powered and hitting opposite side of the wind window, whatever they did wrong.
- never seen/tried weighted launch (LE up, as shown in video) and it looks like an option but I'd be concerned about line over the wingtip might get you closer to deathloop "adventure"
- self-landing pulling on the brake line as shown in the video is not safe practice either, pulling on upper front line is way safer way to do it in my opinion (sorry for high-Y bar owners who can do it only on one side)
I do tons of self-launch and self-landings because I can do it fast and reliably (local conditions specifically don't allow assisted launch/landing 90% of time)
- I do drift launch, walking in with lines unwind already). Great for flats, not great for shore break or deep-water conditions
- I rarely but I do weighted launch, LE down, walking an arch to tighten lines and turn the kite to catch air in. The disadvantage is you can get kite slide/drag a bit over beach surface which could be less than ideal (shells, rocks, sticks, someone's gear, sharp crap sometimes...)
- self landing over land/water with kill switch using upper front line works magic, except when it's blowing 30 knots.
And hey, who shared that video of a guy just throwing the kite up from his hands and letting wind pick it up and "tension" the lines. That was a crazy and unsafe but fun stunt