the shock

[Rosa]

many experienced kiters may have gone through the experience of doing a jump and then as their landing they may feel some small static running through their leg or hand (depending on what hits first) and in some cases i heard from first hand kiters a shock like putting your fingers in an electrical socket!

after witnessing an electrical arc going form an airborne kiter to the water!!, I've formed a thesis on what is occurring.

generally as air particles move around they generate positive ions. so the more the wind moves the more it generates (winder better conditions) and as your kite moves through the air the lines, canopy, blatters (think of the balloon and cloth static experiment) collect these ions and move through you because your grounded to the water. but when you jump you store more of these ions and become like a small battery or capacitor and when you touch the water..bang! discharge

another reason not to kite around bad weather the ground return part of the circuit from clouds comes form the top of the cloud and goes to the areas around it (sometimes miles)

http://library.thinkquest.org/20698/media/how1.jpg

NASA did an experiment similar this: they dragged a cable through earths atmosphere to generate electricity. their adding this design to later satellites (although this had to do with earth's magnetic field, some of the data said alot of energy generated was static electricity). Refrance NASA's "Tether Experiment"



anyone got stories to tell?...

[ricki]

It's been some years since I've experienced this in Florida. I concluded sometime back that lightning may start at any moment down here when this effect shows up. It also means you are real close to storm clouds, don't do that anymore either. Best advice if you have this especially in Florida, get your kite down fast!

In more temperate, higher latitudes this may not always be the case. That atmospherics and static discharges may differ. Wrote an article about this a few years back for The Kiteboarder Magazine reproduced below:

You are flying along and suddenly you feel something painful jolt up your arm. The shock may be intermittent or continuous, annoying or downright painful, you may just hear a discharge whenever you jump and so on. One of the most common causes apparently is IMMINENT lightning, very close to where you are waving around a potential 100 ft. lightning rod on a flat surface. Doesn’t sound real good does it?!

During the recent Velocity Games in Texas, Mother Nature catered a nearby storm that lit up one of the heats. Shannon Best described it as a painful sensation as he flew his kite but he was not going to be the first off the water. It was getting pretty intense however. Once another guy bailed Shannon landed pronto. A nice squall cloud moved through shortly thereafter.

The causes of these static electric discharges could include many factors such as the naturally occurring voltage gradient from the ground up to the sky to something called the Electret Effect that involves semiconductor properties of kite line. Worrying about insulative value of bindings, bars, gloves, booties is generally a waste of time and may have minimal useful effect. Immanent lightning can do wonders for the voltage gradient and give you that special sense of urgency IF you react well and early enough.

Avoiding lightning – Checkout the forecasts, always be aware of the weather around you and moving in, KNOW weather patterns for your riding area. Lightening can strike more than 10 miles from a storm cloud and can develop temperatures of 50,000 F (much hotter than the surface of the sun!), 100,000,000 volts and 30,000 amps. IF you see lightning and hear thunder within 30 seconds you need to land and secure your kite pronto and move to safe shelter. Wait 30 minutes after all lightning, thunder activity has stopped (the 30/30 Rule). The 30/30 Rule triggers when the lightning is within 6 miles. Strikes out to 10 miles have been documented so don’t screw around. Pain in the butt? Maybe but almost 70 people are struck each year in the USA. Why join up?! A large part about kiteboarding safety is developing hazard awareness and avoidance. Here's a heads up, the rest is up to you.

More about static electricity, lightning and kiteboarding

More discussion about the technical explanation for this phenomena appear at:
http://fksa.org/showthread.php?p=1282#post1282