Lucky to be alive...kitemare gone really bad.

[Erick]

Dude, I'm just very glad to read from you that first, you are alive and second that hopefully soon you will start riding again. Get well soon brotha!

[BigR]

Sorry to hear that Bill,

Glad you're alright.

This seems like an important lesson for any of us that have 1st generation Bow kites from 2006 that have never had the bridle lines changed. It is now 2008 and those bridle lines would now be over two years old. So, People, we should all check our bridle lines on all older bow kites for wear and tear regularly. Even though the lines might be 800# test they can still easily break if the braided coating on the outside of the lines breaks thru.
Why? Because the inside portion has 800# test, it has long strands, it also breaks very easy by abrasion or sharp objects.
The outside coating is like 50# test , BUT, it is very resistant to abrasion and sharp objects. Hence it protects the inner lines. However, once that outer part breaks then the wear quickly breaks the inner part.


Hopefully you'll be back on the water again soon Bill

Very glad that your kite did hit that one tree, Bill. I am confident if it did not hit the tree, you would be in the hospital or dead today. I am sure you are freaked out enough and know this, but it's a fact that the odds of your kite hitting that one lone tree were exceptionally low. That kitemare definitely ranked top ten for the 50 or so I have seen. If not for the tree, it would rank top 3 for sure (as if you want to rank high?....... not )

Just glad you are okay. I hated watching it and was feeling nothing but anger at the situation and wanted to kill the f'n kite. It was obvious you were at it's mercy. I was so happy to see you were "okay".
Most of the time this stuff is all fun and games, but we are obviously one line away from getting screwed. You now unfortunately know first hand how fast things can switch from fun to fuc#$d on a kite.

Glad you are getting better, Bill.

[bryanleighty]

so glad you are ok.. bravo for everyone that helped..
reality check that even skilled riders can get into trouble..

i'll tell you that story was tough to read.. even tho i knew you were ok.. but just having to imagine what you were thinking.. that you knew EXACTLY what to do but you couldnt physically do it.

Sorry Tom but it looks like you will have to give your "scary, looping out of control kite, cant get my QR released" trophy...

I assume your kite is a couple years old? 2 .. 3 ??

reason I ask is that just 2 months ago (about 5 or 6 sessions back for me) all 3 of my 2006 waroo kites had bridles snap.. all within 3 days.. 3 different kites..

then Dan B. had his 2006 14m bridle snap just 2 weekends ago.. i think he was 2 sessions after mine broke.

(just read BigR's comments and agree 100%.. I would bet that we will be seeing more and more bridles break on 2006 / 2007 kites thru this year..)..

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE everyone get a leash with a simple QR on it.... SS leash with QR are 20 or 25 dollars..

[BigR]

PLEASE everyone get a leash with a simple QR on it.... SS leash with QR are 20 or 25 dollars..

Also, the cabrinha leashes with the little red saucer quick release thingy at the end are very very good and extremely easy to activate.

People should all throw away their leashes into the garbage if they do not have a QR system on them

[Coach]

Raul...thanks for your post. Listen, that little saucer deal was COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY UNACCESSIBLE. When you get out of the hook, that thing goes with it due to it's location. With a leash stretched to it's maximum tension (and more, as its' stretched out from riding/crashing unhooked and reeling the kite back in), it's about four feet long. With the kite pulling that hard, the leash stretched out that far and being out of the hook/CL, it was way too far away to even reach or activate. I am a big guy, 6'3" with a long reach and even as long as my arms are, and as strong as I am, I couldn't climb up the leash while being worked to get to that release to break the kite away. NO chance. I was trying like hell. WITHOUT A DOUBT, THE LEASE SYSTEMS THAT HAVE RELEASE MECHANISMS (LIKE THE BEST AND SOME OF THE OLD SS WITH THAT RED SLEEVE AND PIN HOOK), ARE THE ONLY WAY TO GO. I had no way of getting the kite off of me other than trying to get out of my entire harness in this situation. And believe me, I tried. Too much tension to even budge the straps to release myself from the harness. And as far as a knife - - no time. I hadn't even given the knife a thought, as I was going so fast and I would have HAD TO CUT THROUGH THE LEASH. I couldn't even find the red loop safety release on the mystic harness, let alone think about using the knife. I was trying to grab the leash and hang on it to slam the kite into the water harder, hoping it would blow up. It was like being pulled behind your truck at 25mph, knowing I wasn't going to stop UNTIL YOU DID.

[toby wilson]

Glad you are okay Bill, definitely a wakeup call for me.

I wanted to make sure that your Doyle lived for you to kite another day with it!

That was one of the scariest things I have ever seen. Like others have said, just knowing that you are helpless and can't come to your bro's aid is the worst feeling in the world. I am changing my NSI leash out for a flexi right now.

[onthefritz]

Thanks for sharing your story. Sounds like a scary scenario to be in. Glad things worked out for you and you're still alive. Get well soon!

[BigR]

Hey Bill, you were using a cabrinha kite but not a cabrinha leash.
The cabrinha leashes come with that little saucer deal which hooks up right next to your harness so that is is always accessible and you don't have to grab a bar that is impossibly out of reach. Basically the complete cabby system gives you TWO QR's

Glad you are OK, sounds scary mary

What was interesting about this situation relative to most kitemares is just how much time Bill had. I would say 12 to 15 seconds. Most kitemares are 2 seconds or shorter in duration, then someone hits something and it's over.
So, given Bill's take on (no) time, I think the lesson here is that safety stuff should be very easily accessible and easy to trigger (quickly). Most of it is neither, unfortunately.

Distance definitely bought Bill a ton of time. As it turned out, it didn't matter much on the gear he had. A full two minutes wouldn't have mattered, I don't think.