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Old 07-19-2009, 04:06 PM
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ricki ricki is offline
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No, it's a very intelligent question, with an inherently bad answer, for now. There are so many different systems out there today. With old traditional C kites you just flagged your kite by one line and you were there. You had removed as much power as possible by Emergency Depowering. As long as you actual flagged it, lots failed to make it that far for many reasons making the traditional C kite less safe than current designs.

Ok, so what do you do with flat (BOW, SLE, hybrid) kites? You remove as much power as possible from your kite in the best proven way possible as fast as possible.

1. If your kite flags well off one line, do that.

2. Not all kites are equipped to be flagged anymore, no reride leash or O'shit handles. In those cases, one approach that has been discussed is to bring the kite down close to the water to the side of the wind window. Push the bar out to depower the flat kite but not enough to cause it to tumble downwind.

3. In either case be ready to set the kite free with your leash attachment if necessary.

Some flat kites that can still be flagged spin, in really strong wind they may spin a lot. I know this may drag you a bit in the water at lower wind speeds but does it ever become dangerous? I keep asking various manufacturers and keep coming up with a variety of responses.
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