BayAreaKiteboarding.com

I had an intense incident yesterday at 3rd that ended fine but could have been much worse. Sharing here as a cautionary tale and to get feedback on what I should have done differently.

It was blowing about 25 and I had ventured farther out towards the channel than I ever had before on my 9M. I tried to do a jump transition which I have landed a few times, but I can’t do them consistently yet. I think I turned too hard during the pop in an attempt to slow down and help with the direction change, but instead I ended up doing a partial back roll. Both the kite and I hit the water. The kite was siting awkwardly on the water, at one point standing up on the trailing edge. I think the kite did a complete roll on top of the water before I was able to get it back to the normal launch position and back up in the air.

At this point I could see the control lines were twisted, which wasn’t totally surprising considering the partial backroll and kite roll, but then the kite started death looping. At first I thought maybe the bar end was hooked on my harness or the middle lines were wrapped around the end of the bar, but I ruled that out pretty quickly and steering didn’t seem to have any effect. I figured the lines were twisted to the point where the steering inputs weren’t getting through. I went through a couple of cycles of the kite hitting the water, taking off again, looping and launching me a good 5 to 10 feet up in the air before the kite hit the water again. I thought about punching out, but having seen this excellent video on death loops, I was worried it wouldn’t help or would make the problem worse and force me to cut the kite completely loose.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naFKEWEHn6k

At this point my board was pretty far upwind of me and without the kite it would be just me floating alone pretty far offshore. There were a few other kiters that I had passed periodically in that vicinity but no one was nearby at that exact moment. I was worried it was too long a swim and it would be hard to spot me without the kite or board. So I decided to try to work out the twist before giving up and punching out. Eventually I was able to sort out which way to spin the bar to get rid of the twists and the kite started flying normally again to my great relief. I started body dragging back up wind and after a few tacks I was able to spot my board and get back to it after several more tacks. I made it back to shore, no worse for wear with all my gear, which seemed like a pretty unlikely outcome.

Here are some of things I would do differently:
1. Not venture so far out by myself
2. Don’t try tricks I’m not totally comfortable with while far offshore
3. Start wearing an impact vest for extra buoyancy in case I have to ditch the kite and swim
4. Keep a whistle and small flare or other signaling device on me.

I think #1 is probably the most important and that alone reduces the need for the others.

Anything else I should have done differently? I’m wondering if I should have tried pulling one of the control lines harder to kill the kite loop? Or maybe I just got lucky and I should have punched out right away before the control lines got even more twisted?

I was in this kind of situation, for me it was helpful to fully trim the kite. Now, if I loose lines tension in a strong wind and kite falls badly I fully depower kite first then try to relaunch.

I had similar experience at Alameda: the wind dropped, lines get slacked and fall and dropped the kite. When I tried to relaunch the kite I have noticed that center lines got wrapped around the bar and the bar was in kite loop position. The kite was at the edge of the wind wind and has not started death loops yet. I did exactly the same as the video said (I watched it several times before), pull the farthest end of the bar and untangled the center lines, then relaunched the kite. This video is must to watch, because it is just a matter of time when this situation happens.


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Make sure the impact vest is coast guard approved. After spending 2-3 h bobbing in the bay, you'll want the "coast guard approved" floatation which will keep your head above water (when your legs are cramping from dehydration and fatigue). Dress warmly as your body will chill quickly floating in the bay, especially after the sun goes down.

sflinux wrote:Make sure the impact vest is coast guard approved. After spending 2-3 h bobbing in the bay, you'll want the "coast guard approved" floatation which will keep your head above water (when your legs are cramping from dehydration and fatigue).

I'm glad you posted this! Many seem to believe that an impact or floatation vest rated (at best) 50 newtons of floatation is going to be effective in non-calm, choppy water, which is NOT true as you (and myself) have experienced.
Based on your statement, you must be using a seat or boardshort harness with a wakeboarding style USCG approved vest.
My main issue is many don't seem to realize that the majority of kiters use a waist harness and currently NO manufacture makes a compatible vest that is USCG approved. The waist harness compatible vests currently sold by the kite brands are not certified nor rated.