Anyone swap their bar colors around?

[Faxie]

I have worked on the water for years. There needs to be a standard which is red on left/port. ?Whether you choose to use it as a reference or not is your choice. It is this way for a reason. It is an international symbol and it makes us all safer. Dont F*** it up. There area few times I have let go of my bar in a bad situation. Grabbing the correct side quickly has allowed me to keep the situation from getting worse.

I had some cases were I had to pull one side of the bar to rescue my kite from falling in front of a collapsing wave, but I was still in whitewater so no way to identify the colours. Waiting to see the bar clearly and then thinking about which side to pull would've probably meant end of the session. You just crank that bar and hope it doesn't loop, and if it loops, crank harder through the loop.

[Faxie]

Great point! So when someone else uses your bar, having it standardized red left/blue right helps others using your gear.

Also, when someone is trying to kill (make safe) your kite by pulling on one line on a crowded beach (avoiding injury to others) having the colors on the correct side is really helpful (to others). This is most important when you have detached completely from your kite, or you are unconscious, because you really can't tell someone that "your bar is backwards" in that situation.

Yeah, so all bars should be green on the left, and red on the right. Right?

If you intend to say that when you are facing someone else, they should call their left hand their right because it is on your right side, then I would question whether you are actually self aware.

If you just made a typo, but still are on about green being equivalent to blue, my question would remain the same.

However, given red and green as a combination being a Christmas color, well......I think it is ok to substitute blue for green so we are not asked about our "Santa Claus handle" by non kiting beach goers.

Well, let's hope you're not being rescued by someone who is colourblind. Green/red colourblindness is the most common form.

[dejavu]

There is a recognised standard in nautical. Port and starboard. Red and Green. So many different colours are used on bars. Seems logical.

[Matteo V]

Well, let's hope you're not being rescued by someone who is colourblind. Green/red colourblindness is the most common form.

Good reason to have blue on the right side then, huh?

But if you're trying to say that there is a possibility that a color-blind kiter may not realize they are color-blind while trying to help an out-of-control kiter...........not going to happen. It's just not a problem by any stretch of the imagination. No colorblind kiter is going to be specifically looking for the red and green when they know they can't see red and green.

What is a problem, for a kiter who is not colorblind, is if they are trying to help someone with a blue and red bar that is reversed. Given that all conventions say red is on the left and even manufacturers state that, it is completely plausible to assume that red should be on the left for that out-of-control tighter. There is no problem here unless this is switched or there are colors on the bar that do not come close to either red or blue.

[knotwindy]

Couple of things
First- 6 pages on colors?
Second is a question also
How many of you who are worried about an emergency rescue have actually done at least one?
I have done a few and you either jump on the kite or jump on & grab the person and then grab whatever line you can reach and pull for your/their life. If you have time to look for the bar, let alone bar color and side, it might not be an “emergency” that requires instantaneous help?

[jcady]

The true answer is front and back of the bar one bright the other dark then it is not left or right but right and wrong. This takes less time to process and would be safer.

[SalmonSlayer]

I have worked on the water for years. There needs to be a standard which is red on left/port. ?Whether you choose to use it as a reference or not is your choice. It is this way for a reason. It is an international symbol and it makes us all safer. Dont F*** it up. There area few times I have let go of my bar in a bad situation. Grabbing the correct side quickly has allowed me to keep the situation from getting worse.

I had some cases were I had to pull one side of the bar to rescue my kite from falling in front of a collapsing wave, but I was still in whitewater so no way to identify the colours. Waiting to see the bar clearly and then thinking about which side to pull would've probably meant end of the session. You just crank that bar and hope it doesn't loop, and if it loops, crank harder through the loop.

Well if you have no choice, then you have no choice. However, I have been in situations where I could see the bar color and it helped me recover correctly. Stating that the color does not matter goes against years of sound safety practices in the water.

[iriejohn]

To be consistent with marine conventions the left of the bar should be red.

There's a problem with the right of the bar being green because of the relatively high incidence of male red/green colour blindness in most (all?) ethnic groups, so blue would probably be the best option.

[FLandOBX]

Granted, my eyesight isn't what it used to be. But I can't imagine relying on a bar's color coding when recovering after a crash. Just grab the bar and FEEL the kite. Then you'll know what to do with the bar.

[Faxie]

I have worked on the water for years. There needs to be a standard which is red on left/port. ?Whether you choose to use it as a reference or not is your choice. It is this way for a reason. It is an international symbol and it makes us all safer. Dont F*** it up. There area few times I have let go of my bar in a bad situation. Grabbing the correct side quickly has allowed me to keep the situation from getting worse.

I had some cases were I had to pull one side of the bar to rescue my kite from falling in front of a collapsing wave, but I was still in whitewater so no way to identify the colours. Waiting to see the bar clearly and then thinking about which side to pull would've probably meant end of the session. You just crank that bar and hope it doesn't loop, and if it loops, crank harder through the loop.

Well if you have no choice, then you have no choice. However, I have been in situations where I could see the bar color and it helped me recover correctly. Stating that the color does not matter goes against years of sound safety practices in the water.

If you have time to identify colours, then you're not in a rush, in which case you don't really need the colours.