Fixing inversion on the water... smart or stupid?

[The111]

Last year I did this myself.


Big mistake!

The only good thing was that I realized that 10 years experience does not mean that you are always in control...

What happened?

[twah]

This happened to me last week. I tried my first unhooked railey...and needless to say it didn't work. My leash was hooked to a center flag-out line...When i got back to the bar the right outside line was now wrapped around my 2 center lines (under). I was a little nervous but I relaunched it and slowly came back in with the bar fully sheeted out so the rear lines were slack and not pulling on the fronts.

The question I have is, if I wanted to fix it out on the water how should I have passed the bar?
The right outside line was now under the 2 center lines? If looking at my bar..the lines were in the following order...I had the left outside line straight (no problem there) then my right outside line then my 2 center lines..

thanks

leash suicide if you're going to unhook. then you don't get a tangled mess everytime you crash. and you will be crashing lots



as for the lines inverting - just relaunch and ride back into shore and fix it. if not you can untangle them easily if you know what you are doing, and it's not very windy. i've done it many times in lighter wind, with my kite on its wingtip at the edge of the window, or LE down in the water straight infront of me. the latter method can pull like a bitch but it's rather safe if shit goes wrong the kite can't lift off and kill you (c-kites that is )

or even ask someone to grab your kite for a landing and while they hold the kite safely just fix the bar.

[clydesdale]

practice it in lightwind- easy to pass the handle thru.

i did try it once in pretty strong wind when kite tumbled and lines crossed- undid my leash- started to pass it thru and gust hit and ripped whole rig right out of my hands- luckily in shallow water and had to run after kite.

id recommend doing it in shallows w/ a distance margin of safety- otherwise just ride in and land and fix it.

[Erlend M B]

This happened to me last week. I tried my first unhooked railey...and needless to say it didn't work. My leash was hooked to a center flag-out line...When i got back to the bar the right outside line was now wrapped around my 2 center lines (under). I was a little nervous but I relaunched it and slowly came back in with the bar fully sheeted out so the rear lines were slack and not pulling on the fronts.

The question I have is, if I wanted to fix it out on the water how should I have passed the bar?
The right outside line was now under the 2 center lines? If looking at my bar..the lines were in the following order...I had the left outside line straight (no problem there) then my right outside line then my 2 center lines..

thanks

Under the center lines is a little vague, since, for the line to go under, it must first pass over, and vice versa.

If you follow the line from the bar and towards the kite, and the line goes under the front lilnes first, then this is how you solve it:
From underneath and up, between the left steering line and the center lines.

[adamj2281]

just to second what everyone else is saying, the safest option is to relaunch your kite with the lines crossed, ride directly back to the beach and fix it there. the kite will fly with lines crossed...not good for the lines to do this for a long time, but fine for a quick ride back to the beach. if you want to fix it in the water, unhook your leash, pass your bar (not yourself) through the center of the lines, and then re-hook up your leash. Its easiest to do this if you set your kite on its wingtip on the water at the edge of the wind window.

Yeah I've done this a couple of times and while it's not an easy relaunch it's a hell of a lot better than self rescue or trying to weave between the lines.

[kitezilla]

The question I have is, if I wanted to fix it out on the water how should I have passed the bar?


thanks

If you really want to understand how to fix this kind of a situation, on the water, don't start out by trying to fix the situation on the water, but do it in the relative safety of your kitchen table.

Make yourself a "tomatkins Puppet Kite" and play around with it, until you TOTALLY understand where each line goes, in normal situations and in situations where the kite does a back-flip through its lines.

It will still be dangerous to attempt such stuff on the water, but with the visualization you will gain from rehearsing the situation with a "puppet kite", you will greatly increase your chances of keeping all your fingers, into old age.

Here is the link.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2321370&

If the link does not work then, just do a search for puppet kite and put in tomatkins for the author.

[SimonP]

BWD's method is the safest, I used to do this a bit with the North Rhino 07 as the rear line would often flip over the back of the kite so that it was wrapped around the other three lines. Still risky if it is really windy though.

I've only ever inverted an RPM once, when it was caught by a wave with slack lines. I could easily relaunch and kite back to the beach strapless with front and rear lines crossed over on both sides.

[The111]

puppet kite

How much wind do you need to ride with it?

[The111]

I've only ever inverted an RPM once, when it was caught by a wave with slack lines.

Yeh, I came unhooked by accident during a jump, didn't know it, dropped the bar on crash landing and it flagged far down the leash line... inverted while pulling the kite in. Otherwise I can't see the RPM ever inverting on its own.

[OzBungy]

It sounds like we are trying to fix two separate problems:
1. Inverted kite
2. Line crosses from kite rolling through the bridles.

Inverted kite can be fixed fairly easily by pulling in a single flagging line. Usually a single front line or the 5th on 5 line kite. Sometimes it takes a little patience waiting for the kite to unwrap.

Line crosses are easily fixed by riding into the beach, landing and sorting out the lines and relaunching.

The line crosses are not particularly dangerous and the kite will fly fine apart from a risk of increased wear at the cross point.

It is far more dangerous to start passing the bar through the lines to try and sort out the crosses on the water. You can end up with the lines wrapped around the bar and the safety systems disabled. That has happened to me and to other people who have tried it.

Why do something dangerous when it is much easier to go to the beach and land the kite and sort things out safely?