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Originally Posted by jkite
I know we have all read the recent fatalities in our sport. As an ER physician, I am pretty hypersensitive to stupid people doing stupid things; and quite honestly, hearing about a recent event at South Padre Island (my old stomping ground) and last year at Belmont Shores, I just keep wondering how in the hell this stuff can happen. Equipment has gotten better, safety devices are better... Last time I counted the O-shit quick releases on my bar, lines, harness, I lost count. Are these people just idiots, or what gives?
Needless to say, this is when my humbling experience happened. I am a pretty decent rider with about 3 years under my harness. A few weeks ago, I was out at Silverstrand in one of the marginal yet ususal non-breezes. I was up riding in a small to moderate surf, but due to lack of wind struggling to keep up wind. No big deal. My wife and kids had accompanied me to the beach and we agreed to have her pick me up downwind. I decided to stay outside of the breakers, again to keep speed up in the low wind. Then I made the cardinal mistake of clipping the edge of my kite on the water while looping it during a transition to keep speed up. No matter what I tried, there just was not enough wind to get the kite back up in the air. No biggie, just a few strokes to the surfline, I can start the kite on the beach and will be off again. Because I wanted to keep riding, I chose not to self-recue, i.e. coil up my lines on the bar, deflate leading edge and then swim in. I was out about 150 yards and making good progress swimming in. While I was swimming I could feel my lines rub up against my right leg a couple of times, but at no time did I feel that I was getting tangled up. I was able to continue good strokes toward the beach. Then the kite got pushed by one of the breaking waves and all of the sudden I was yanked backwards into the whitewash, having a really hard time getting upright. I managed to get a look at my leg and found that I had lines wrapped around my ankle. I tried to push them off, but they were way too tight. I got a good breath before the next wave, and my next thought was to my harness knife. I got another breath before the next wave and, fortunately, I was able to touch bottom and get myself back upright. I quickly pulled my kite towards me and deflated the leading edge. Then I sat on the beach to look at the line mess. It was wrapped around my ankle about 30 times and it took me well over 30 min to get my leg out of the lines without cutting them. Some lines had doubled back a couple of times, so there were about 8 different leads comming of my leg. No way I could have cut those with my knife before my air ran out, if the kite had filled with wind, or had been caugth by a rip current going away instead of towards the beach.
I have thought a lot of this experience, of what I did wrong or should have done different. The conditions were such that my guard certainly was down. I was too cheap to go after the lines right away with my knife. (But just for your own edification, try to see how many non-tensioned kite lines you can cut with your harness knife while holding your breath). The quick releases were useless, as my leg was caught in the lines above the release mechanism. I was greedy and having a good time riding; thus I did not want to spend the time for set up after a proper self rescue.
I normally don't think of myself as too much of an idiot, but I tell you what; if I read about guy drowning 150 yards offshore on a nice sunny day with only 10-12 knots of breeze with lines wrapped 30 times around the anke, I would have my doubts about the guys IQ.
Hope this helps all of us to keep our guard up, even when we are feeling confident in our element.
I was hoping that some of you would be willing to share your stupid mistakes (post anonymously if you must to keep your macho), so we can learn and hopefully avoid them.
Looks like the marine layer is getting blown out later this week. Can't wait to get out there.
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05-12-2008, 04:17 PM
Light Wind Line Tangle --> Dragging
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