Video - Dragged by looping kite

[ricki]

Wonder what it looks like, check the following out. This was down on a lagoon in Brazil recently. The Slingshot kite was wrapped by another kite. The other kiter dropped and disconnected his bar sending the lot off downwind to drag the SS rider wherever. Don't know the particulars up to that point but something like this cost the life of Silke. Coordinating what you BOTH are going to do instead of just letting your bar fly off is often best if you can manage it in reasonable safety.

The SS guy was dragged for about 80 seconds. He dropped his bar to the leash but it failed to Emergency Depower as the other kite had made his lines about 10 ft. uneven, left to right. Eventually the SS guy was able to unbuckle his waist harness and let it fly off without him. Can't readily do that with a seat harness. Cutting away might be your only option assuming opening your leash Quick Release doesn't free you from the dragging kite. For chasing kiters or boats, if any, what they might be able to do is varied and questionable. Jumping into the looping kite as was done in Texas from a waverunner might work. That guy stopped the kite but suffered some cuts for his efforts. As draggings go this one wasn't as fast or violent as some. Still, if you are being pulled and held underwater it is plenty violent enough. Looping like this has killed riders before.

The clip is at: http://www.kiteforum.tv/video/Looping_Kite

[Todd RT]

Yikes, looks like that rider came out unharmed.

I tell ya' what.. 80 seconds is a LONG TIME to deal with an out of control kite. Try holding your breath for 80 secs!

I carry a hook knife, which would obviously have stopped the looping kite. But couldn't the rider have simply flagged the kite? Or do you think the lines were too much of a tangled mess???

[kiteboardinggear]

Pretty scary moments for him I am sure. I think he's unharmed though.

[ricki]

Yikes, looks like that rider came out unharmed.

I tell ya' what.. 80 seconds is a LONG TIME to deal with an out of control kite. Try holding your breath for 80 secs!

I carry a hook knife, which would obviously have stopped the looping kite. But couldn't the rider have simply flagged the kite? Or do you think the lines were too much of a tangled mess???

Yes, I understand he was ok. Might have gone ashore over the bars, hit something, etc., so luck prevailed. I thought this was a lagoon in Brazil, it actually is in Egypt. 80 seconds would likely seem like 15 or more minutes I would guess, not fun either.

Anyway, once your kite is looping the outcome becomes uncertain. Most of us tend to hold on and try to work it out. Trouble is, it can't always be worked out, that is the kite stabilized. It is not uncommon in these cases for the Emergency Depowering of the kite to be disabled. If leader lines wrap bar ends, bridles wrap kite ends or bind in pulleys, or ???, all that depowering can vanish. Went through this myself only in December. Cutting out isn't all that certain either. At the speed Karolina is moving in the second video it seems unlikely she could manage to do much more than be dragged and periodically get yanked out of and across the water.

The best approach assuming there is no one at risk downwind is to release the kite entirely, early. Several guys have been taken out by looping kites, some over 3 miles of dragging at high speed, some over far shorter distances. If you can't release the kite for whatever reason, hope you can cut out or something else breaks, someone catches the kite, etc.. Sometimes we get lucky, not always though. Avoid looping, there are lots of things that can cause it, some more obvious than others.

[ricki]

caDLkoOJODY

One explanation for what might have happened is:

"If you click on Youtube in the bottom right corner of the video, you can see in the high quality version at Youtube, that Karolina was leashed suicide style to her chickenloop with a clip which could catch a steering line if she pulled one end of the bar near it. Then she seemed to have no way of releasing her handlepass leash if being pulled backwards. She has probably corrected those two mistakes now."

and

"I believe it's small kite 5-7m. Leash caught one of the steering lines. Wind speed? Doesn't look too windy, maybe 25knts..."

http://www.kiteforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2357124

This is an example of a smaller, faster kite in stronger winds. Some of the more severe looping accidents have happened in high wind, approaching 40 mph +. In those cases the rider is yanked violently across the water in sudden power jerks as the kite cycles through loops. I once saw someone do this at Hobie probably eight years ago with a traditional C kite in around 20 to 24 mph. Despite the lower wind speed, he was still yarded about 10 to 15 ft. horizontally at high speed out of the water with each loop. In that case his wrist leash wrapped around the line winder on the far side of the bar. Good thing wrist leashes are out.