Hyperlink collapses and fills with water

[Herman]

Practicing water packdowns with lightweight foils, as already said, is probably not going to happen. To compensate it might help to do some mental rehearsal during your normal packdown to reinforce your plan, and to some extent it may depend a bit on if there is still wind.

If no wind no sea state:

Are you going to wind on a little rear brake or flag?
Where have I rigged my knife?
Are you going to sit on the board or leash it, if so, and to what?
Are you going to wind in the bridle onto the bar to bring the tips together?
How are you going to vent it, zip - then fold top half short to get zip on top?
Are you going to start rolling before you open the vents?
Are you going to put your harness around it or rash vest or carry a bag……..

Some of these things, and board sitting can be practiced or thought about during a normal packdown imho. No doubt circumstances will disrupt the plan but even a disrupted plan is generally better than nothing?

[ieism]

I have never seen a kiter purposely practice water pack down, or even purposely practice relaunching, foil or LEI. Heck, I’ve never seen a kiter purposely practice activating their QR before launch. My guess is that this is the norm…

I've practiced both relaunch (peak4) and packing, and you look real dumb doing this. At one point the lifeguards showed up, but after I explained they were actually supportive of the idea of practicing this.

I come from a mountaineering/splitboard background where safety is taken more serious. We actually carry rescue gear and practice avalanche and crevasse resque at least once a year for a full day. I don't understand why kiters don't do this. There are so many low wind days where you're just sitting at the beach anyway. Even kiteschools don't teach self resque.

[Herman]

If you are going to practice self rescue techniques or even boat rescues, particularly in non kiting areas where it is rarely seen, it is probably wise and courteous to inform the life guards and/or coast guard. Explain how you would call for assistance if things go Pete Tong….imho

PS if an inshore life boat was called out to me and I was happy to drift or swim in, imho there is nothing wrong with asking them to stand off and watch you in. Thank them either way of course!

[airsail]

. I don't understand why kiters don't do this. There are so many low wind days where you're just sitting at the beach anyway. Even kiteschools don't teach self resque.

Few want to wet their kites on purpose, especially if it’s a closed cell foil kite, pain to dry.

[wavy navy]

@keegster17: So funny to read that you did exactly the same shit I was doing. Now we know better!

I watched a lot of videos and read through this forum. At the very first time I rigged up the hyperlink in my garden, this was helpful.

One question: If I want to pack the kite in the deep water: Should I open the zipper in the middle and also the velcros at the tips, or only the zipper in the middle at first?

I didn´t find any detailed information about that, and I think it´s not all the same for all foil kites but every foilkite needs a specific way of treating it?

Hopefully my next try will be better. Over the last days we had way too much wind for my 9m hyperlink...

[Sceotend]

Have you seen this? If its a bow tie it might be the only option? I've had some success with randomly pulling front and rear steering lines on my soul to untangle and relaunch but this has always been in 10 knots+ wind so not sure if it would work on the absolute low end

Another one:

[Jyoder]

Another one:

That was a mess. Hydrofoil in the lines, lucky the wind didn’t pick up and tangle it further. Wrap the lines!

One tip I haven’t seen elsewhere is to put the wrapped up bar (wrapped past pulleys) into one of the center air intakes for safe keeping when packing up (unless kite has mesh over intake). This keeps the lines organized evenly and more on top of the kite than trailing in the water.

When it’s light and I fear a swim with the 18m, I wear a PFD and swim fins clipped to my harness. It is much much easier to swim to and roll up a large kite when you have both hands free and can swim fast with feet only. I hardly notice them dangling back there while riding.

[edt]

I have never seen a kiter purposely practice water pack down, or even purposely practice relaunching, foil or LEI. Heck, I’ve never seen a kiter purposely practice activating their QR before launch. My guess is that this is the norm…

lol. I can believe it. I remember practicing packdown my with foil kites at least 10 times. It's really helpful. BUT that's only after I had been using foil kites for 2 years already. People just want to go kite they don't want to listen to nonsense like packdowns and swimming.

[wavy navy]

Concerning the "How to water relaunch a foil kite when bridles wrapped around it":
Sure I understand that it´s a problem if the foilboard drifts fast downwind in the direction of the kite. I just wonder if it´s a good idea to simply open the chickenloop and close it around the fuselage? Then it should act as an anker and should prevent the foilboard from drifting fast!?

Another question from a foil kite-beginner: If the kite has let´s say 2 litres of water inside: Is it possible to let it drift out of the velcros at the sides by pulling the front lines again and again? Or is it then already too heavy to get the kite at least a bit out of the water?

[Jyoder]

Concerning the "How to water relaunch a foil kite when bridles wrapped around it":
Sure I understand that it´s a problem if the foilboard drifts fast downwind in the direction of the kite. I just wonder if it´s a good idea to simply open the chickenloop and close it around the fuselage? Then it should act as an anker and should prevent the foilboard from drifting fast!?

Another question from a foil kite-beginner: If the kite has let´s say 2 litres of water inside: Is it possible to let it drift out of the velcros at the sides by pulling the front lines again and again? Or is it then already too heavy to get the kite at least a bit out of the water?

Attaching bar to foil is never a good idea, in my opinion. If it’s windy enough to act as a sea anchor, it’s windy enough for your kite to accidentally relaunch or flap around with tensioned lines when you’re messing with it. Always wrap up the lines on the bar past the pullies and then deal with it.

If there’s water in the kite, and it’s windy but not too choppy/waves, and the kite is oriented in hot launch position with lines clear, then yes, the kite will drain the water and relaunch eventually. This stresses the kite a lot though, as part of the kite will be trying to fly and tensioning the fabric while water holds it down in another part, putting lots of stress on it. If there are any small waves, they can hammer the kite with the lines tensioned if it’s partially submerged. If one side starts to fly, it will flip over on leading edge or tangle in bow tie so you may have to pull one steering line excessively to keep one side from flying before the other side is drained.