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Tone wrote:

Toby wrote:I am really glad you made it and shared your story with us.
I am sure this will help to save some lives!

Wow, what a story.

And I am even more happy, that I prefer to fly a big kite in lighter winds...I limit my risk a lot by doing this. My smallest kite is a 14 and I barely use it.

For people who just like to have fun without worrying too much about safety, think about it...

mr moon, welcome back to life and enjoy it!!!

Toby, don't think this can't happen on a big kite! it can!

Yep i recon your more at danger flying a massive kite. imagine toby if theres a wind spike from your 22 knots your flying your 18m in to 35.you pull the safety but a for some reason it doesn't work then all of a sudden you have an 18m monster looping in 6m weather. thats a whole lot more dangerous than 6m looping.

PS had to pull my safety last night. it worked. kite flagged out on the leash. nice. i do need to practice it more often tho!.

Wind is strong this year in Brasil, bet Toby will be on his 14 alot.

Sure Tone, everything is possible.

Still, a big kite loops slower. I once crashed on the beach and my 16 starts to loop...I get dragged on the beach, but consistent pull, just sliding along.
Do it with a 9, you are more likely to get a hard pull and hit the ground hard.

And, this guy was out in 40 knots, sounded not like suddenly a storm came.
Then a big kite in lighter wind is way safer...just do a minimal steering...there comes your answer.

And if you take a big kite and get into a storm, you already made a mistake.
Check forecasts, check clouds, and be sensible to the wind...and you will avoid trouble.

plummet wrote:
I also wonder about a sacrificial part on a leash line? ie something designed to fail if more than X kg's of force is applied to it?. It would work in normal qr safety line situations but if you saw full power on the leash it would snap and release the kite?

My cabrinha IDS works like this. There is QR1 which does not detach you from the kite, but flags out on the ids landing line. The landing line is attached to the chicken loop via a ring and some velcro on the CL. If the kite still has power, the velcro opens on its own. The leash is attached to the chicken loop so once the velcro opens, your leash doesnt matter.

the leash is really only used in the event your CL slips off to keep the kite from flying away.

Toby wrote:Sure Tone, everything is possible.

Still, a big kite loops slower. I once crashed on the beach and my 16 starts to loop...I get dragged on the beach, but consistent pull, just sliding along.
Do it with a 9, you are more likely to get a hard pull and hit the ground hard.

And, this guy was out in 40 knots, sounded not like suddenly a storm came.
Then a big kite in lighter wind is way safer...just do a minimal steering...there comes your answer.

And if you take a big kite and get into a storm, you alteady made a mistake.
Check forecasts, check clouds, and e sensible to the wind...and you will avoid trouble.

Well i think if you have the correct kite for the conditions then you are safer than someone thats overpowered regardless of kitesize. i'd much rather be nicely powered in 40 knots on a 6m than overpowered on my 15m in 25knots. .... ... . . . .. people can and do have issues on bigger kites. Saying a slow kite is better is not always true. Sometimes a faster kite can help you avoid unsafe situations that a slow kite will not.

As an example i was flying my 15m speed 3 in 18 knots nicely powered. The the wind pulled up to 22 or so knots and i'm really powered. I'm coming into shore (on a borrowed board that doesn't hold much power) and realise i can't crank upwind to choke the speed down too late. i'm going at warp factor 9 and will smash into the beach very soon. With a fast kite i could have changed direction real fast and avoided danger. No on this beast. I quickly way up the options pain full rag dolling on the beach or send it for a floaty jump and hopefully land it. I decide to send it and blaze and awesome jump fly about 30m onto the beach and land sweetly with no injury.

Ok i managed to pull that off with no injury. but had i been on lets say a 6m in 40 knots. i would have never found myself in that position as direction changes can occure sooo much faster.
I've had similar interesting situations in big waves with slow big kites. the slow kite is definately more dangerous than the little fast kite in bigger wind. The chance of getting hammered by a monster wave is alot higher.

@plummet, I think you have to figure way more factors than kite size in to figure out what is dangerous. I fly buggy kites a lot and 1,5 to 2,2 square meter kites get so fast when really powered that really any mistake will send you flying, as they develop pull in a completely binary fashion. And of course then these tend to collapse and open up again in the power zone when you're recovering from your first hit on the ground lying on your back all dizzy.

Is that more dangerous? Hard to quantify. I'd rather avoid being overpowered on those kites than being overpowered on the bigger and slower (!) ones. Way more time to react to danger.

I agree with the fact that going out on bigger kites and light winds is generally less dangerous, no doubt. Small kites act fast and combined with strong gusts there is no room for failure or human mistakes... as simple as that.

mr moon wrote:....

From now on, for me it's going to be all about SAFETY, more than ever before!

My tips are:

1. NEVER CLIP YOUR LEASH TO THE BACK OF THE HARNESS.
2. NEVER GO OUT ON YOUR OWN OR IN REMOTE AREAS IN BIG CONDITIONS.
3. ALWAYS CARRY 2 KNIFES, ONE IN THE HARNESS AND ONE IN YOUR SHORTS OR AROUND YOUR NECK, AND ABOVE ALL GET FAMILIAR WITH THEM, TRAIN TO USE THEM FAKING EMERGENCY SCENARIOS.
4. THINK ABOUT SAFETY AND SAFETY SYSTEMS MORE, NOT JUST KITE FLYING SPECS. SAFETY IS NOT A BEGINNER ISSUE. GET FAMILIAR WITH YOUR RELEASE SYSTEMS, TRAIN HOW TO USE THEM AND TEST THEM BEFORE EACH SESSION.
5. DO NOT TRUST OR USE CHICKEN LOOPS WHICH CAN COME OFF, SOME OF THEM DO, AVOID THEM AS THEY CAN EASILY KILL YOU.
6. LEARN CPR, DO A COURSE OR ORGANISE ONE LOCALLY FOR ALL SURFERS, YOU CAN SAVE LIVES.
7. LIFE IS ATTACHED TO A THIN STRING (JUST LIKE THE KITE LINES), APPRECIATE EVERYTHING YOU HAVE AND BE GRATEFUL AS YOU CAN LOOSE IT AT ANY TIME UNEXPECTEDLY. ENJOY THE MOMENT, THE NOW. SPREAD LOVE AND PEACE

KITE SAFE, ALWAYS
...

Thanks for sharing your story and tips first hand with us!
So glad that you are here to do so.

Mr Moon,glad to know your ok,scary experiance.great to read your back on the water what an amazing sport it is,wondering should we have a shorter leash for people that dont unhook. Tony