Letting Go of Kite to Save Your Life

[edt]

Toronto kiters are still mindful of the recent lofting death of an experienced local kiter which happened in very similar circumstances.

I remember that day. Very similar.

[Slappysan]

Yeah, I dunno why people are upset he went out. He was never in any real danger, they even said in the video he had 10 km of safe open water downwind. He was dressed for the swim and using a kite size about right for the conditions, he wasn't really putting himself at much risk.

I do think it's odd that it's a video about encouraging people to let go of their kite to save their life but in this case, it looks pretty clear he shouldn't have released his kite in this scenario.

The message is great and all and it's better to release than die but this situation doesn't look like it was the right call. If you look at his GPS track he ended up swimming directly downwind in the off shore wind. If he had either self rescued to the kite and dragged in on it or simply stayed attached with it on safety it would have made his swim to shore much easier and shorter. He can always release the kite once he's closer to shore.

What probably happened was that he tried to swim back upwind to shore but couldn't due to waves or current so when he made the decision to release the kite he though it was the right call because it would be a short swim in but in reality it was a 40 minute swim that could have been done in 10 minutes if he hadn't released his kite that early.

[edt]

What probably happened was that he tried to swim back upwind to shore but couldn't due to waves or current so when he made the decision to release the kite he though it was the right call because it would be a short swim in but in reality it was a 40 minute swim that could have been done in 10 minutes if he hadn't released his kite that early.

Probably safer to stay with the kite, I agree. Hard to be too critical since he wasn't hurt came in safe no problem.

[Slappysan]

Probably safer to stay with the kite, I agree. Hard to be too critical since he wasn't hurt came in safe no problem.

I'm not being critical of the kiter at all, I think he was in his right and didn't cause any harm. I'll bet there were wingers out in that gale that had a grand ol' time.

I am being critical of the video though, while it's a good message, it's not the right scenario to advocate for it. Staying with the kite until closer to shore was the safer move here (in my opinion from what I can tell from what the video presents).

[Havre]

For me part of the point would be under those kind of conditions you are prone to get stressed and make mistakes. Imagine if he ends up looping the kite or something.

If he didn’t feel he was in control and knew he could make the swim then he did the right thing in my opinion (even if he probably shouldn’t have been on the water - that I don’t know of course).

[Flyboy]

Yeah - he's safe but the possibility to be seriously injured was very high, the possibility to have a good session extremely low. That's the judgement to make. To put it in perspective: a 5m might be fine at 35 knots, but when it picks up to 60 knots the force acting on the kite is 300% greater. The kite is no longer controllable in that kind of wind. Wingers would not be having a grand 'ol time either. 60 knots is not gale force wind, it's "violent storm" wind. A very experienced kiter in a decent location may be able to come in safely in those conditions, but would have difficulty in side-off winds with a rocky shoreline for miles downwind.

[Herman]

Interestingly, he seemed to describe the start of his troubles as losing control of the kite. Maybe he was hit by a gust but, to me, it looked like he first lost control of the board. In conditions where I have become worried about being totally blown out and need to get back to the beach, my first course of action is to cut board speed. In the extreme putting your butt in the water and having virtually all the board submerged and edging. Adding 20 knots apparent makes a big difference, but a 5m kite with a big guy should cope in relatively extreme conditions imho.

Thanks for another interesting video from a fun loving group, ditching kites is pretty much a last option or for a looping drag with locked in tangle where it is not possible to pull a steering line imho.

In the water I hardly ever flag a kite, but on land if in doubt I flag. I have read about numerous water based incidents where imho flagging has possibly made things worse but I guess it also depends on experience plus skill set. ( I also have a very long bar throw on my storm kites, so if I let go of the bar it is almost as good as a mini 5th. Just means I have to pull a handful of centre line to retrieve the bar. )

[Slappysan]

To put it in perspective: a 5m might be fine at 35 knots, but when it picks up to 60 knots the force acting on the kite is 300% greater. The kite is no longer controllable in that kind of wind.

First of all these 60 knot conditions were gusts, not sustained winds. A big part of the reason he was having so much trouble is that the wind was coming over land and very gusty and swirly. If you look around the area you wont find any sensors that recorded even 60 knot gusts. We are talking about gusty 40 knot conditions here, a 9 or 10 on the Beaufort scale, gale / fresh gale / strong gale.

Here's the reading from the airport that was just a few KM downwind from this incident:

wind.png (35.24 KiB) Viewed 4672 times

I ride a surfboard with my 4.5m kite in 30-50 knots (gusting to 60). At 25 knots it's just not enough power, even at 30 knots it's very underpowered. There are big air TT people who would take a 7m out in these conditions.

People ride 45g60 at Rooster Rock, Oregon all the time without issue on 5m kites. The big difference with Rooster though is that even though it's cranking it's still relatively steady wind. When you start getting up in wind range you start getting a bigger swing between lull and gust in terms of knots (% wise it's still the same). It's the variance in lull and gust that make it almost impossible to control the kite, not the raw windspeed.

Wingers would not be having a grand 'ol time either. 60 knots is not gale force wind, it's "violent storm" wind.

And what are you basing these claims on? If you watch the video the conditions look pretty amazing for winging during his incident. One of the biggest advantages of the hand held wing is the ability to handle gusty and lully wind.

Everyone has their own tolerance for conditions. What one person might fear can be super fun to another.

[vakiter]

I don’t think haven’t been out in wind over 40kt, but he looked really out of control. Self rescue in that wind strength seems sketchy .
That other guy who came in was out of control too .
Definitely not worth it in my book . The girl is smart , she will probably kite longer without injury

[Flyboy]

People are inclined to wildly over-estimate wind strength in my experience.

The conditions in the video are terrible for any kind of wind sport because, as you say, it's very gusty & swirly. If the wind is stable you can hang on to a kite when you're very overpowered, but it's a bit pointless on a surfboard as you can't depower enough to ride a wave. At my local spot everybody rides SBs, everybody has 5m kites. At 25 knots to 30 knots everyone is on a 7m. If the wind is much over 30 knots everybody is on a 5m. Once it's gusting over 40 knots it's just survival kiting on a SB, but clearly very skilled & experienced TT riders can handle those kinds of winds.