Why do lines tangle when you release safety

[artificialname]

As a newer kiter, sometimes I have to self land in waist deep water by pulling the safety release on my harness loop, then wrap up the lines and walk 300 metres up wind back to the launch spot.

EVERY TIME i do this i get such severe tangling on my lines that it takes 4-5 hours to untangle.

I am careful to let the lines run down wind and not tangle, i am careful to wrap the safety line neatly on the bar as I pull it in, and then the other 3 lines when I get to them, I leave the lines connected to the kite when I get back to the beach and pull the bar/lines out as if I am launching to try and untangle/unspin and straighten everything. Nothing works.

If I pull the safety on my chicken loop, I get severe tangles. How do i prevent this?

I have an HQ4 One bar, bought new in December.

[FLandOBX]

When you wrap the safety line on the bar, wrap it in a figure 8 fashion on the BACK of the bar. Then, when you begin to wrap all 4 lines together, and eventually just the 3 remaining lines, wrap them in a figure 8 on the FRONT of the bar as usual. Keeping the safety line separate this way may help reduce tangles.

Of course, when unwrapping lines from the bar, always unwrap just one loop at a time.

[Matteo V]

This is hard to explain, and likely really hard for for you to belive, but the lines aren't really tangled.

When trying to undo a "bird's nest" of lines, dont disconnect and pull the loose ends through. What you see as tangles are actually loops. Your best approach to straightening is to focus on getting the loops out with the lines connected to the kite. This will shave lots of time off of you straightening your lines out.

If you disconnect the lines and pull the ends through the loops, you are actually tying knots that you will have to untie later.

[artificialname]

When you wrap the safety line on the bar, wrap it in a figure 8 fashion on the BACK of the bar. Then, when you begin to wrap all 4 lines together, and eventually just the 3 remaining lines, wrap them in a figure 8 on the FRONT of the bar as usual. Keeping the safety line separate this way may help reduce tangles.

Of course, when unwrapping lines from the bar, always unwrap just one loop at a time.

Brilliant. Thanks.

If i unwrap one loop at a time, and start with the 3 lines on the front of the bar, when/how do I unwrap the safety line from the back of the bar?

[artificialname]

This is hard to explain, and likely really hard for for you to belive, but the lines aren't really tangled.

When trying to undo a "bird's nest" of lines, dont disconnect and pull the loose ends through. What you see as tangles are actually loops. Your best approach to straightening is to focus on getting the loops out with the lines connected to the kite. This will shave lots of time off of you straightening your lines out.

If you disconnect the lines and pull the ends through the loops, you are actually tying knots that you will have to untie later.

Makes sense! Thanks!

[matth]

Welcome to kiting....I had many birds nest when starting out and still get one once in a while... Its never taken me more than a half-hour to fix....Matteos explanation is interesting .
I just focus on getting one line untangled at a time. Once you get the first one free the rest get much easier, just be patient and focused. Along Matteos line of thinking I do first try to pull outward on the nest and open things up first..

[Herman]

Matteo’s post is key. Don’t disconnect etc. I had to dump a 14 in a squall just a couple of days ago. The squall blew the lines into a real birds nest before I could lay them out or wrap. Once the squall had passed it took me about 5mins to untangle. This was because I did not disconnect and I was able to not tension the lines. I just kept fluffing/loosening the nest and pulling out the bar gently. I was lucky!

If a nest has gone tight the first thing is to get it loose. Study it and you will see a plethora of lines exiting holes. Look carefully and you will see that some holes have 2 lines exiting them. These are your loops and it is these that you must feed back through to loosen the nest. Once you have taken out some loops you can try to fluff the nest up and look to gently extract line by pulling out the bar. The number of loops you have to take out before you can pull out the bar will depend on how tight the nest was and luck.



PS if you have to disconnect the kite carefully transfer the flying lines to a 18inch length of line. Tie this into a small loop capturing the flying line ends and then tie off the 18inch line to the bag strap or similar to make sure you do not pass this line capture arrangement through any loops.

[leeuwen]

Just something to add:
Note that if your individual lines have a lot of twists in it they will tend to "curl up" pretty quickly if they are without tension floating on/in the water.
Although this is, again, not a knot it can certainly look like it and be pain to "uncurl" especially if you have 4 lines doing this together.

So if your lines ever get a lot of twists in them make sure you untwist them.

P.S. to be clear I am talking about twists in a SINGLE line which usually go unnoticed, not a twist with multiple lines like when you loop the kite.

[jumptheshark]

Just wanted to add, some lines are better than others in this regard. I've had so many bars and you eventually clue in that some line sets are stiffer and kink, some are softer and get wooly, some are soft and stay pretty smooth.

Over the years I have been more and more selective when buying and now have pretty similar line sets on all bars. I prefer the thicker smoother lines and find they are least prone to birds nesting. IF your new to the sport, your lines are your lines, but as you go forward. Take note of what yours are like compared to others and get an idea of what they are like for moving forward. I generally find stiff waxy lines kink and can become a pain to sort out after less than ideal in water pack ups.

With a bit more exp, you figure out how to wrap after pulling safety as per FLandOBX method that keeps the single leash line separate, and can reverse your steps once on land for a quick easy reset.

A good birds nest is a right of passage!

[FLandOBX]

If i unwrap one loop at a time, and start with the 3 lines on the front of the bar, when/how do I unwrap the safety line from the back of the bar?

Like jumptheshark says, just unwrap one loop at a time in the order that's exactly the reverse of your wrap order. So begin by unwrapping the 3 lines in reverse order, then 4 lines when you reach that point, and then finally the single safety line. Always one loop at a time in reverse order.