Why you should be ready to release? That's why...

[Daversj]

People overthink the should or shouldn't I release. It's ok on the water to first evaluate and see if you can rectify the situation without release. On land there is no time for it. If you first think and look and think, you could be dead or someone else could be hurt. Things start to go wrong, release. I see it too often that kiters try to safe the equipment but risk their lives doing so. The guy that got killed recently down in Florida fell into this trap. I can not even count how many times I yelled down the beach "RELEASE"! And they just don't. I've been dragged with kiters into bushes trying to save their ass by hanging onto the harness and yelling release and they still didn't. It's a real thing, people just don't do it. Live another day, be ready to release when shit goes down, be ready and DO IT!

When i did kite lessons i would explain to students that at any moment during the lesson i might scream “release” and they were to hit the chicken loop release immediately. This was after we practiced it many times already standing in the water or on the beach. How many students ever hit it immediately when i screamed RELEASE ? None. Some would take a few seconds, most i would have to scream it a few times. The point was to build muscle memory and learn that it was always a safe time to release if you had to. Modern kites flag so quickly its amazing. ….. As long as it doesn't fail to operate. I also taught to always release and reset it once before you launch to make sure it will work when you need it. Older systems didn't always work so well even when not jammed with sand. Newer releases you can actually fully pack them with sand and they still work.