Hi everyone.
This is my first post, I am new to kitesurfing and have some safety questions about the safety system on the F-One Bandit X (2017) with monolith bar.
I am a new kiter ( 10th time out yesterday) I took lessons and hired kit a few times and then got my own kit. I bought 9m and a 12m Bandit's.
I am happy with the kites but I have had some strange / bad experiences with the safety release system.
The system has a 'mini 5th line' ... when you release the chicken loop the leash line is connected to a swivel which then goes to the 2 front lines.
I have watched a few videos online which demo the safety system with the kite falling on to the water on to its canopy with the wing tips point up and the leading edge towards you with very little power left in the kite.... I never get this result when I use the system.
Every time I tested the system it does one of these things:
1.kite fell out of the sky on to the water: wing tips pointing away from me, leading edge down.
- I found it nearly impossible to re-connect the chicken loop as the leash line has so much pressure on it.
2. the kite landed on its side or on its leading edge wing tips towards me, downwind of me:
- This I find very difficult to recover the bar and re-connect the chicken loop as the kite still has a lot of power in in and I am dragged down-wind... I also find that when I pull the leash line it is rock solid and not much line seems to slip through the bar.
3. the kite had dropped on to it's trailing edge, leading edge pointing up:
- From this point it has some how re-laucnhed on its own but it ends up flying from the leash line with the control bar out of reach, or;
- relaunched and gone it to an uncontrollable spin/looping with only the leash line attached
Yesterday I used the system again and it did the looping out of control option which resulted in me losing my board and a massive tangle of lines.
I learnt on kites which 'flagged out' to a single line resulting in a total depower, I think I prefer this and am very close to losing all trust in the F-One safety system.
I would really appreciate any advice about the setup or my technique...or just any feedback.
Steve