BayAreaKiteboarding.com

I was at Crissy yesterday, spectating the race, chatting with some guys about this and that, and - about some youtube video where kite race went wrong with massive tangle of the kites: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUTAjW5CQjY - fabulous day!

Fast forward 2 hours - I'm tacking the waves behind the tour boat. As I'm bringing my kite up, another kite flies in right between my lines. This is how I met Dave.

As Daves kite is pulling one of my steering lines I have no choice but to release the chicken loop. Now my kite and me, we are hanging on Daves bar fully powering it. He manages to get control of his kite, but cannot depower. Thus we are violently body bragging all together on Daves 12M kite on a fairly windy day - Dave, me, and my kite. At the same time we are trying to figure out the escape plan, attempting to untangle my bar. But of course things go wrong. I follow with my eyes Dave's kite launching into full scale kite loop, then I see Dave taking off into the sky, and finally it pulls me out of the water as well, probably like 10 feet high. Dave later said that he went up as high as 30 feet.

At this point the rescue boat came by, so we wrapped all the lines, boarded and that was pretty much the end of it. No injuries reported, my kite's canopy was split in half, one of the Daves lines broke close to the bar - apparently from that mega kite loop, another line almost broke somewhere in the middle. The rescue team helped us to find the boards.

Another kite lesson learned - maintain the distance at all times!

P.S. - Thanks to the rescue team for giving us a ride, and helping to find the boards, thanks to Dave for staying as calm as the situation allowed!

I hope the folks on the tour boat were entertained by our collision, Looking forward for the video of this accident as seen from the boat!

That was brilliantly funny the way you relayed that story. Glad you and Dave got out of that injury free.

Glad you and Dave are OK, but OMG that was a funny description!

Out at Crissy in the shipping lane that is pretty much the worst nightmare situation possible. Kites can be replaced but I'm really glad you're okay.

Wow!
So glad you guys were unscathed and the rescue boat was around,
What time did it happen?

Was out sunday at crissy from 5 to 6 on a 10 m and it sure was gusty,
Sometimes going like 18 to 32 in a split second,
Suppose Dave was a big guy to be able to hold the 12 down,
Or maybe not and that's why he ran into you.. (;^)>

It happened on Sunday around 5 pm I would think.

party wake!

Not sure I understand things correctly but I'm missing the reason why you & Dave (or at least one of you) didn't fully release, including the leash? I understand it would be bad to have kites drifting totally out of control out at Crissy but it might have been less dangerous based on your description... Was it a conscious decision because of the danger of having kites drifting out / having to swim in, or because you thought you could get things back under control, or just not possible because of gear stuck or something? If a kite goes in between another kite's lines, I don't really see how to get out of if without fully releasing the kite that went in between the lines, but if there's a technique I'm certainly interested :)

Also, wondering how you got the kites back under control enough to be able to wrap the lines & get rescued?

Just curious... (plus I've been in a tangle once, although less scary, and I'm still trying to figure out the best way to get out of a tangle situation).

Most importantly, I'm very glad that you were both ok - sounds like a very scary experience.

Hmm.. I'd be curious what their thoughts were - but there are very few situations I would do a full release at Crissy... better off on a Nantucket sleighride following a pinwheel to Berkeley than free swimming in the channel in all but the most dire situations

In the hindsight the right thing to do was to release both kites right away. This would have saved us flying under kite loop, canopy damage on my kite, and the like on Dave's kite. And most importantly - saved us from the danger of getting injured. In fact releasing both bars would have given us more chances to untangle the lines.

I released my chicken loop immediately. It was up to Dave to release his chicken loop. Can't speak for him why he didn't do it right away. But I never suggested him to do just that. I actually recall thinking that releasing Dave's bar won't help since my lines are pulling on his bar (wrong). So we were just trying to keep control over the situation.

After the giant kite loop Daves steering line broke, and he probably released his bar too. There was no problem walking up the lines and securing the kites at that point.

Well I think I learned my lesson - rescue from the tangle lies in releasing the bar. I hope this will help you guys not to fall for wishful thinking too :)