New Milestone in Kitesports Safety: ISO Standard 21853 on Quick-Release Systems

[purdyd]

GKA News:

New Milestone in Kitesports Safety: ISO Standard 21853 on Quick-Release Systems

The Global Kitesports Association (GKA) has achieved a milestone in kiteboarding safety!

Since 2014, the GKA and its members have been working tirelessly with the International Standardization Organisation (ISO) along with an international team of engineers and experts to bring this industry-wide, internationally valid safety standardization classification for quick-release systems on kite bars.

The new international standard ISO 21853 for quick-release systems has come into force February 14th, providing the kite industry a new way of ensuring their equipment conforms to the state-of-the-art safety requirements, and it allows consumers to single out products that fulfil the standard and ensure consumers’ safety while practicing the sport they love.

In future production cycles, quick-release systems that comply with the ISO standard through testing at one of the independent testing facilities will be embossed with the official ISO standard number.

An additional label issued by the GKA, pronouncing a tested and certified product as ISO compliant, will make it easy for consumers to choose suitable equipment.

The ISO standard 21853

applies in all countries worldwide
overrules all national standards for quick-release systems in kitesports like the French standard AFNOR
sets the standard for maximum release force (equal to or less than 170N) and opening time (equal to or less than 2 seconds) of quick-release systems under different standardized conditions like
dry and clean conditions
dry sand
water with sand
non-salted water
cold and wet conditions
includes the safety leash release system that belongs to the respective kite control bar
sets the international standard on how to test release forces through
standardized testing units
standardized testing procedures
sets the standard on many more important safety relevant parts of QR systems like
percentage of signal color
strength of material

For quick-release systems on kite bars is tested at two independent, certified testing facilities worldwide:
Fraunhofer Institute in Rostock/Germany
Camosun Institute in Victoria/Canada

Only those two institutes can issue an official certificate stating the conformity of a product with the ISO standard 21853. The GKA is in charge of the entire certification process.

Additional information for consumers and manufacturers:

Embossing the number ISO 21853 on a part of the QR system is a mandatory requirement of the standard. However, because products have already been manufactured for 2020 and brands were not allowed to put this number on the QR system prior to the effective date of the standard, February 14th 2020, they are not able to call their QR system ISO 21853 certified, even if the QR system fulfills all technical requirements (QR systems opens at the required maximum release force in the obligatory maximum amount of time). Brands who hand in an official, independent technical approval stating that all requirements of ISO 21853 are fulfilled except the embossed number will be listed on the GKA website (https://www.global-kitesports.org/iso-product-norm/) and are allowed to label their products with the official Global Kitesports Association ISO label. We ask interested brands to contact the GKA directly.

[Baptiste_FR]

Nice ! Probably explain why Core changed their rotating release system.
I wish they had also mentioned that the left part of the bar should be red (not yellow, grey, white, blue...) just red !!!

[sq225917]

A new milestone in safety, that supercedes the French standard---- by having a release force limit that is 14% higher than the existing French standard.

C'est magnifique !

[decay]

A new milestone is safety, that supercedes the French standard---- by being having a release force limit that is 14% higher than the existing French standard.

C'est magnifique !

The actuation and force measurement systems are considerably different between ISO 21853 and AFNOR meaning the pass/fail load limits are not directly comparable.

ISO21853 is by no means easy (or easier than AFNOR) to pass, it is however much better defined and more repeatable, which was one of the major goals of the process.

[sq225917]

Until someone has run back to back tests on the same units under both regimes its impossible to say if they are comparible or not. I can't help but feel however that it's another step in the GKA's self-serving world domination plan. Same as the UCI submissions process, which i have quite a bit of experience with.

Hopefully brands will stick with AFNOR, and save the cost of lining the GKA's pockets. No doubt the brands involved in setting this up will jump all over it, singing it's praises while squeezing the smaller brands harder and further stifling innovation.

[decay]

Until someone has run back to back tests on the same units under both regimes its impossible to say if they are comparible or not.

I personally have, hundreds of tests on both setups using a vast range of QRs.

I designed, built and qualified the system the standard is based on.

Cheers

DK

[purdyd]

Having a standard is the right step forward.

Now can we agree on colors too ?

Break lights on cars are all the same color too...

[decay]

Hey Toby, this standard only to covers the release system not any other part of the bar.

It does define the release handle to be red, in a similar way to machinery E-stop buttons.

Cheers

DK

[BenBen]

Nice ! Probably explain why Core changed their rotating release system.
I wish they had also mentioned that the left part of the bar should be red (not yellow, grey, white, blue...) just red !!!

Since 9% of male people have some kind of red green color blindness, red can be a little tricky. I agree on having standard colors. Signal and strong colors. And red would be okay, as long as there is a standard second color which is a opposite color. But for most of us (red green) color blind people red isn't a real strong color. So it might be helpful if it would be a different choice than red as a signal color.

[purdyd]

Nice ! Probably explain why Core changed their rotating release system.
I wish they had also mentioned that the left part of the bar should be red (not yellow, grey, white, blue...) just red !!!

Since 9% of male people have some kind of red green color blindness, red can be a little tricky. I agree on having standard colors. Signal and strong colors. And red would be okay, as long as there is a standard second color which is a opposite color. But for most of us (red green) color blind people red isn't a real strong color. So it might be helpful if it would be a different choice than red as a signal color.

Bravo on the standard.

Please address colors gka.

It seems to me that orange or yellow might be better for left side color with blue being the contrasting color. I notice some companies have moved that way. Maybe you can offer an opinion?

2477D853-C8B0-4E3F-890F-E088A1252F39.png (134.2 KiB) Viewed 2384 times

And for the love of god, can we just agree which lines have the loops and knots?

I can’t believe we still see bars like this

5F963F19-4B31-4006-9205-4EAA8DD089E0.jpg (19.4 KiB) Viewed 2384 times