Looping Kite - Safety Discussion

[voodoospirit]

i did it on 2 naish handlepass leashes (already broken anyway)
i can t on neoprene covered leashes, too wide for my mystic knife.

[gbleck]

I ride with two knifes. One hook on the harness for lines and a folding blade with a marlin spike on my PFD. The rigging knife is mostly for sailing but it could come in handy on a leash. Sydney to Hobart race in 1998, guys tangled in the cockpit when the boat roles in a wave. Nice to have just in case. Good for taking out lines jammed in blocks too. That reminds me. I haven't sharpened it in a while.

[marekmk]

"

That right there is the reason why bow kites/Sle kites/anything with bridles and pulleys is so dangerous. I've seen that happen sooo many time with them and not once on a C kite ever. Haha people call C's widowmakers.. what do you call that? I'm glad the rider was okay. Not his fault obviously but wow."That right there is the reason why bow kites/Sle kites/anything with bridles and pulleys is so dangerous. I've seen that happen sooo many time with them and not once on a C kite ever. Haha people call C's widowmakers.. what do you call that? I'm glad the rider was okay. Not his fault obviously but wow.

I had a 4 line Takoon years ago that went into a endless spiral. After maybe 30 sec it hit the water so hard, it disintegrated, that saved my life.
That kite had no bridals or pulleys.

Have witnessed kiters losing control of there kites at launch, due to a bridal twisted on a pully.
Pulleys are dangerous, why are they needed on kites??

[FredBGG]

That right there is the reason why bow kites/Sle kites/anything with bridles and pulleys is so dangerous. I've seen that happen sooo many time with them and not once on a C kite ever. Haha people call C's widowmakers.. what do you call that? I'm glad the rider was okay. Not his fault obviously but wow.

C-kites turn faster and pivot faster deep in the wind window.....
that is a perfect recipe for the mother of all death spins.

[cyberdog1899]

I wonder who can cut a leash with the standard knives the harness comes with?

Before we start taking Rambo style knifes on the water it's worth of getting harness possible to self release. Whether it's doable to release when dragged under water at high speed it's a different matter... but in the end of the day it's called 'suicide leash' for a reason.

[marekmk]

Maybe we should all be rethinking the release,

Could it be a release on the bar that gets rid of the whole bar, with the secondary release also attached to the bar so the whole lot goes together?

[pbmaniac27]

thats why I love my 5th line C kites

none of that stupid death spiral shit once I release to the 5th. plus once I am sorted i can relaunch with no tangles

oh shit handles in my experience have usually lead to at least a few loops and a lovely serving of line spagetti. I just like having them for redundancy incase i have to cut the 5th.

[Cvaradero]

well that happened to me once with a 5th line kite, good thing i was using Prolimit Harness and they have a quick release system right at hand. Sometimes the lines can get tanl=gle in weird ways and tension makes the kite security system not to work.

cheers
ch

[kitezilla]

Cyberdog and Maremkm,

The subject of the need for a fully releasable spreader bar or a fully releasable harness has been brought up on this forum a few times in the past. I have always had an interest in the development of such an item. The closest anyone has come to this, so far, is an acquaintance of the forum member “Blowhard”, who put an automobile seatbelt release on his waist harness.

Manufacturers have never felt the need or demand for such an item, and so far, the development of the releasable bar has been left in the domain of “tinkerers”… of which I am a proud, card-carrying member. I don’t expect the situation to change in the near future, but I will continue to present ideas that may lead to a reliable product, and hope that someone in the industry will be inspired and will use such ideas as a starting point in the production of such an item.

In the next day, I will add another post to Toby’s “Releasable Bar” thread, shown below. The post will describe another mechanism, which I have been experimenting with lately, which may result in a workable idea for a fully releasable bar.


Here is the link to Toby’s thread from 2007 titled "Do you want a releasable spreader bar?" which discussed the fully releasable spreader bar. The survey showed that 70% of the 46 respondents said “yes, I want a releasable spreader bar”. (Note: I am having trouble posting this link...I may just have to "bump" it into the menu. You can find it by doing a search, and entering in the keyword these 3 words "Releasable " "Spreader" "Bar" and then, enter "Toby" as the author).




I participated on that thread and posted some suggestions on possible ways of designing a releasable spreader bar. I suggested the use of a “Three Ring Circus”, as the most reliable design for the release mechanism. In the past few weeks, I have been working on a related project, pertaining to the use of a “rope bar” spreader bar design, the results of which I have posted on page 12 and 13 of the recent thread: "Dynabar V3" by the author "Jayfactory". (I am having trouble copying and posting the link to this thread, also...what is the trick to doing a search for a thread and then posting a link to it????)

Anyway....

The “escape rope” prototype, surprised me by functioning perfectly the very first time I tried it, and therefore, I have been encouraged by this success, to apply the elements of this mechanism to the design of a fully releasable spreader bar.

I will reawaken Toby’s old thread and present my “proof of concept” design on that thread. I favor the idea of keeping the flow of relevant ideas contained in one place, rather than scattered throughout various threads.

[ScottM]

thats why I love my 5th line C kites

none of that stupid death spiral shit once I release to the 5th. plus once I am sorted i can relaunch with no tangles

oh shit handles in my experience have usually lead to at least a few loops and a lovely serving of line spagetti. I just like having them for redundancy incase i have to cut the 5th.

if there is enough friction, then even the 5th gets stuck.