Surviving a death loop

[sergei Scotland]

Yeah the "foul hook" thing has happened to me a couple times. Thankfully I was able to uncluster the F'ck I got myself into without bodily, bystander or equipment harm.

I did really consider getting the Mystic Stealth surf bar with the slider AND fixed loop to skip having a hook altogether. Someone starting out should option for this bar. Skip the hook thing completely and learn their chicken loop deploy/reset.

mystic2019_stealthbar-3.jpg

I don't foil or surf so just went with the standard hook. (I fear change....lol)
Apparently I can add the slider later if I get more into surf/foil/skim.

I was not sure Stealth slider will work with my Dakine Shorts seat harness. Harness does not have the velcro belt panels to tighten the harness on your waist. Does not look like the Stealth bars "wings" will have enough room to go to.
Ordered a Mystic Clicker 4.0 bar. It has the steel ring included and a knife and is not too expensive. Everyone seems to think that sliders are good so hopefully I will not need the central short rope connection Stealth has.

Dakine and ION B2 shorts (especially) seem to work better with shorter spreaders which leaves more room for tightening the webbing. I guess this is because of the rather wide clips on both sides of the actual bar. So I went for S/M size although my harness is L. Hope it works, although will give me less travel of the CL. Might be a good thing for a beginner too

[sergei Scotland]

Strangely no one apart from Berdytello (who said it works) actually commented on the idea of pulling the unloaded steering line to stall the kite and stop the death loop. I guess most people did not bother watching the 2 videos from an unknown Russian guy, or/and never been in a death loop situation to be able to comment.

IMHO this guy at least bothered to experiment and confirmed his technic in practice and even recorded his experiences. He obviously seem to have mastered the technic himself
Having been in a death loop myself and instinctively doing the same thing I think that this has a good chance of working and with practice is probably not that hard.
Was easier for me to do than finding my knife for example - which I tried and failed...
After my death loop some people on the beach suggested I should have pulled on the front lines, but I do not think it was possible at the time as they were under load?

[knotwindy]

I broke the front line that was also the safety line so could not release without losing the kite and endangering others so pulled the first line I could grab. Turned out to be an outside line and just kept pulling until the kite depowered and fell calmly to the water. Tied it off to the bar and self rescued easily. SO, it worked really well for me. 9m kite in 25 knots if that matters. Just not sure one time is statistically significant & don’t know if the outside line was on the same or opposite side of the broken line.

[Herman]

Sergie

The video is as good as l have seen on the subject of bar tangles. Personally I would not regard it as a special technique, I would prefer to think of it as just another aspect of kite control because the kite is only doing what a kite does!

For example if the bar is hooked at bottom of the leader just squaring the bar should stop the kite looping. If you cannot pull the top of the bar down pulling the top leader (which will be slack ) down the same distance as the bar will stop the kite looping. With a normally trimmed kite this will probably be enough rear line tension to back stall the kite.

In general keep your hands away from pinch points, use the bar as a lever to unhook lines. If you are going to pull on a line committ to it as it takes a while for the result to kick in. Practice untangling bars using a tether!

Pulling in front lines decreases the kite angle of attack and initially makes the kite fly faster not what you want in this looping kite scenario.
Pulling in front lines can be useful if you want the kite to overfly the window and crash down, pulling in enough front line will have the effect of a mini 5th on relevent kite designs

THE ABOVE IS ONLY FOOD FOR THOUGHT AND IS NOT COMPREHENSIVE. THINK AHEAD, PREVENTION IS BEST!!!

As an aside: if I were being dragged towards an object overpowered but under control and could not eject I would hit the object with the kite hoping that it would give me enough respite to release. If you are being tea bagged release as you hit the deck. Above all anticipate trouble and respond early, then there will be other sessions!

[sergei Scotland]

I was not sure Stealth slider will work with my Dakine Shorts seat harness. Harness does not have the velcro belt panels to tighten the harness on your waist. Does not look like the Stealth bars "wings" will have enough room to go to.
Ordered a Mystic Clicker 4.0 bar. It has the steel ring included and a knife and is not too expensive. Everyone seems to think that sliders are good so hopefully I will not need the central short rope connection Stealth has.

Dakine and ION B2 shorts (especially) seem to work better with shorter spreaders which leaves more room for tightening the webbing. I guess this is because of the rather wide clips on both sides of the actual bar. So I went for S/M size although my harness is L. Hope it works, although will give me less travel of the CL. Might be a good thing for a beginner too

Mystic Clickerbar 4.0 size S/M (small/medium) arrived today. Seems to be a perfect fit for my Dakine XL Nitrous shorts with about 4 inches webbing on both sides, so I can make it much tighter if I want

10'-25/26cm in straight line between corners of webbing clips (that is full width including clips) . 31 or 32 cm when I measure between clips corners around the curvature of the bar.
Just thought exact sizing might help someone.

[mede]

There's also this (below) - I'm surprised they never caught on more:
viewtopic.php?t=2379959

Doesn't help with line tangling at all...