jumptheshark wrote: ↑Thu Jul 30, 2020 11:22 am
If your trying to land the bigger ones in light wind it should be a no brainer. Put it down at the window edge on either side. You can lay it down plenty soft and as you slack the lines by walking toward the kite. You can give a tug on the front lines just before stepping to it if you want, but I generally just lay it down softly. In 10 knots, If it moves it will be one flop. I generally jog to the kite and get it before it moves and am using smaller peaks in more wind. It's the easiest kite to land I have ever had. No impact, no power, no issues.
If your going to walk up a line, I would walk up one of the lower two lines, but I have only needed to do that in serious wind a couple times and even then, it was precaution.
Backing them down in a tight spot is only a little more difficult. You can do it nice and controlled, erring always on the side of too much rear line tension, not too little. You can crumple the kite completely and bring it down pretty fast by really pulling in the rear lines, the kite looks all funky, but just comes down. You can do it all nice and controlled too with the kite in shape, but your playing the front and back line tension on the cusp of it flying forward and at much higher risk of a yank. Get to know the kite a bit on an open beach before you put yourself in tricky situations.
Overall, the kite is way more versatile than you think. Water relaunch and even deep water drift launch are doable as long as you are paying attention to a few key details. Those having trouble with these kites in the water are not paying attention to the design. Water pack up is super easy if you do it right, and like any bag of water, super pain in the ass if you don't. Roll up the lines well into the bridle on the bar. put the tips together. Raise the LE to drain the tip cells. Roll tight with bar in kite from tips to centre only really worrying about getting the LE with the battens all rolled up tight. You will end up with a nice wet soggy roll that is easy to drain by raising up the LE. I just flop that part up on the board, swim in and drain it once in the shallows.
Tensioning lines in the water or bunching/rolling it with water in the cells is no different than trying to handle an inflated LEI kite by its Trailing edge on a windy day. There is a manner to handle them that is in accordance to the design and if you can ride a kiteboard upwind, it shouldn't take much to understand the do's and don'ts. Water pack down of a single skin kite does not need to be difficult. There is no panic is it going to take off on its own or tumble downwind, just be methodical and there is no reason you should get water trapped in the kite...... there really is no "in the kite". It only has one skin.
Thanks,
I will try landing as you suggest.
I am sick and tired of the Connect bar, it really is hurting my hands, and turning the big 13m takes lots of fumbling and pulling, or downloops end up as water crashes... I will use my 62m 4 lines bar, and learn to land the kite safely without 5th line (am already better at backstalling it).
Also, just setting up the 5th line takes me 10m (unroll the tiny cables, link them, then check their passages, then connect to the bar), so I'm just very glad to be able to shorten the time-to-water!
As to water packing, I will have to learn, and understand the procedure.
I crashed the 13m in the water, and it was not easy for me to recover it.
My strategy – fully improvised – was to lace the lines to the bar (as if I was packing it to go away), leaving just the kite bridles free.
Then I tried to grasp the kite underwater, and pull a piece at a time on the foilboard, being careful not to pull too hard for fear of breaking the seams.
Eventually, I could load almost all the kite on the board (a Groove Skate L), laid my body over it to keep it in place, and I waited for current to bring me back to the shore, with some leg kicking (more for boredom than real help...). In 30m I was ashore.
It was not funny, and often I had to re-capture parts of the kite that wanted to slip away from the board, but managed it.
I will re-read the suggestions on how to pack the kite in the water, it seems very sensible with the Peak.
Honestly though, the 13m is
huge, am not sure I will be able to pack it neatly.
The submerged surface (which exerts lots of load due to the water) is very big creating all sorts of problems.
I'm sure packing the 5m is much easier. Even the 8m can be problematic (but learning with it gave me the chance with the 13m).
Thanks again, the forum is a great help in many ways, and especially when it comes to safety
Lopi