OH SHIT HANDLE SAFETY WARNING

[sols]

Ok, I never thought that this could happen, never saw it happening before,
but it happened today.

Human error, ofcourse, but it's worth mentioning it for safety purposes.
It can happen to anyone.

I was teaching today on the beach
when I hear this woman screaming like mad!!
Her kite was looping nonstop and she was being dragged along the beach.
Luckily, I was standing downwind of her and I yelled
''pull the QR, pull the QR'' and she responds '' I did I did ''
So I run and jumped on her and then the kite crashed in the bushes.

She did pull the QR but her leash was attached on the wrong ring.
Instead of the OH SHIT ring,
she attached it on the ring that the rear line goes through.
And she ended up connected on a looping 11M kite in 20knots,
fully powered, after pulling the QR.
Her leash didn't have a QR, either.
Pure nightmare that ended with a few scratches.
She was lucky I was close and the only one there.

So,

WARNING

Even experienced riders can connect their leash on the wrong ring,
by mistake, or not.
Imagine, connected on a looping kite, fully powered,
without being able to release!!!

[stiffingandshifting]

Holy Shit - That could have been so bad

[Satan]

The '04 Slingshot bar has that design. I made the same mistake once and I saw someone I was teaching make the same mistake. I was self-landing, luckily it only crashed the kite into the sand. If I had put the kite to the other side to land, I may be dead.

It's a really sh1tty design. It shouldn't be that easy to make such a mistake. I bet people make that mistake with more frequency then they think, but just never realize it, because they never release the kite.

Slingshot makes good products that I like, but this design is just asking for accidents.

[Fatfish98]

So clip onto the actual handle then. In all truth, it doesn't take 2 seconds to double check where you're clipping the leash onto....especially for someone who teaches. I'm not having a go but really...if you teach then it's your job to get it right

Maybe I'm extra cautious with my kite setup but I've never crossed lines or set up a safety wrong.

With regards to the Slingshot design.....there is only one actual ring (i.e the full circular ring that the webbing 'O' shit handle is attached to)...the other bit is the metal loop at at the top of the padded bar float...they don't even look the same.

Not bitching here but for the sake of double checking then the girl who got dragged would not have.

Take Care

[sols]

I was teaching somebody else Fatfish98.
I didn't run immediately cause I had to redirect my student's kite
which was in the way, downwind of her.
Imagine if her kite got caught into my student's lines.

She wasn't a student of mine.

I asked her why she put the leash there
and she told me that's where she always puts it!!

She was practising bodydragging, when the wind was light.
She had a break, and then she launched when the wind picked up.
The kite dragged her, she paniced and pulled the QR.
Then imagine.
I don't want to think about it anymore.
Especially when she said '' I DID I DID '' and I started running after her.

Not everyone is careful and doublechecks or knows everything.
Some are careful some don't care.

[ronnie]

I have seen a similar accident. Someone had to release his fifth line after a bow-tie and decided to leash to the ring on a rear line. There were 2 identical rings side by side. He clipped onto the wrong one, which is easy to do if you are being dragged in the shorebreak. He was lucky that some people jumped on his kite when it hit the ground at the carpark.

I have seen the same setup on a Slingshot kite. It is a bad design and dangerous.

[slingslut]

I had a quick look at the SS bar just to make sure and concluded what I had already thought...
you would have to be a complete idiot, with no understanding of safety systems or kites, to connect the safety leash to the oval eyelet protruding from the rubber float instead of the solid stainless ring on the oh shit loop...
get some leasons!

bit like saying those thin strings that manufactures use to fly kits on are so so dangerous... they can cut you or someone else! All kite companies should make those lines at least 10 mm thick... bad bad company.

Get a life and use your head or you will get hurt

[sflinux]

Let me guess, it was a slingshot kite.
I saved a guys ass under the same scenario.
I was flying a peter lynn on land just getting a feel for it, when I felt the winds pick up and get really gusty. I knew two guys were on the water with c-kites and knew they would be in trouble. I self landed my kite and watched to see what the c-kite guys were going to do.
I started walking towards him to see if he wanted a catch.
He looked like he was getting really overpowered.
I glanced as I saw him release his kite to leash. The kite started doing kite loops as you described. I dropped my gear and sprinted to him and grabbed his kite as he was being dragged on the beach out of control. The guy thanked me for saving his life.
I walked to his bar to look to see how he rigged his leash, as I already suspected what went wrong, judging by the way the kite was behaving.
The guy wasn't a newbie.
One problem I think people have is they get accustomed to having other people catch their kite. And they don't take the time to learn how to kill the power of their kite on their own. I know the limit of each of my kites, and only kite with them in winds I'm comfortable self landing them. If the guy would have taken the time to practice self landing in lighter winds, he would have learned his lesson on how the safety system works.

[uncleneil]

The '04 Slingshot bar has that design. I made the same mistake once and I saw someone I was teaching make the same mistake. I was self-landing, luckily it only crashed the kite into the sand. If I had put the kite to the other side to land, I may be dead.

It's a really sh1tty design. It shouldn't be that easy to make such a mistake. I bet people make that mistake with more frequency then they think, but just never realize it, because they never release the kite.

Slingshot makes good products that I like, but this design is just asking for accidents.

Actually it's a very good safety system that many companies have used since the beggining of safety releases. It's called a reride leash. It's just as easy to hook your lines up backwards and get the same spanking. Has nothing to do with common sense either. Mistakes can be made and are and will be in the future.

[bondo]

its the same on the waroo bar. placing the blame back on customers for a poor design is not acceptable - there should be no confusion whatsoever about something that is this important. For the place on the bar that you clip the leash there should be one and only one option and no room for error. If there is room for error you can be guaranteed sh1t like this will happen.