I have assisted myself several times before. Landing on a beach covered in driftwood with not enough down wind room to land down direct down wind, but just enough cross wind sand to do an assisted land.... but with no one to assist.
Hooked the chicken loop to a bit of drift wood. Flew the kite to the edge of the window at about 10.30. Let go of the bar then ran like F#$K, caught the wing tip as the kite dropped down and thus the self assisted land was invented.....
that video could be called "6 ways to land your kite differently all the same. Every kite landing a backstall. Never use the QR."
there are basically 2 ways to self land a foil kite. 1 backstall. 2 use the QR.
The qr is a really good method. Just grab the line and get to the kite as quickly as possible. I use it a lot. Tangles aren't that bad, if you get to the kite before it spins more than 2 or 3 times. in high wind, good luck backstalling your foil without it pulling you into the parking lot. 18m a front just rolled in and it's gusting to 30 knots you aren't backstalling that sucker.
Every self land video honestly should start with "You are allowed to use the QR to land your kite" because apparently a lot of kiters think it's illegal, out of style, unsafe or something to use the QR. Use the QR it's great. Honestly I would not be surprised if most kiters thought that QR was an unsafe way to land your kite. It's one of the safest ways you can land your kite unassisted.
Because of videos like the above video every foil kiter has to learn the hard way that when that front rolls in unexpectedly and you try to backstall the kite, you are going to get pulled downwind sometimes into a busy street if you use that backstall technique thinking that it's the proper way to land a foil kite.
QR is not an option on our local spot. We don't have much space to flag out the kite...
You can't be out in the water swimming and flag the kite on to your postage stamp sized beach? It doesn't take much space at all to flag the kite, the same space as to backstall. If there's no room to flag it there's no room to backstall it either!
QR is not an option on our local spot. We don't have much space to flag out the kite...
You can't be out in the water swimming and flag the kite on to your postage stamp sized beach? It doesn't take much space at all to flag the kite, the same space as to backstall. If there's no room to flag it there's no room to backstall it either!
I usually rely on assisted landing (in fact, always)
The spot is small, has a bunch of obstacles (trees, voleyball poles, etc...) and usually has people walking back and forth, etc..
I know these techniques just for emergency and, of course, my very last resource would be ejecting the kite on the water (dry a foil kite is no fun )
QR is not an option on our local spot. We don't have much space to flag out the kite...
You can't be out in the water swimming and flag the kite on to your postage stamp sized beach? It doesn't take much space at all to flag the kite, the same space as to backstall. If there's no room to flag it there's no room to backstall it either!
I usually rely on assisted landing (in fact, always)
The spot is small, has a bunch of obstacles (trees, voleyball poles, etc...) and usually has people walking back and forth, etc..
I know these techniques just for emergency and, of course, my very last resource would be ejecting the kite on the water (dry a foil kite is no fun )
Didn't watch the videos, but at my local spot there is a bit of a wind shadow that I can use to self land as long as the wind is not nuking (if it is, there is always someone there to assist). The problem I have is that if I am landing my 21m the wind shadow is not high enough as that kite is very "long" (unless the winds are light).
I'll have to try plummet's tethered self landing (only if there is no other alternative and the wind is light). I'm getting old and I'm not as fast at running as I used to be..
If there's nobody left for me to grab my foil i use the same method i use for my LEI in high winds (when alone). I try to put the tip as steady as possible on the beach and grab the lower frontline,let the bar go, walk slightly upwind and towards the kite whilest haulin the line in, stay low with the foilkite, with LEI it doesnt matter( works also in 40knots with LEI) works for me anyway.