Check yer danged kiteleashes

[stone]

I'm getting tired of hauling in people I find forlornly treading water looking in the direction of their kite vanishing towards the horizon. Four times already this season at third I've brought in a kiter who was like, my leash just broke! First words are always, "can you see my kite?"

Here's the deal. If you're riding the same leash you did last year, it's a candidate to fail on you. Salt water is narsty shit. Just ask any sailboat owner. If you're still riding the leash you got last year do yourself a favor and attach it something that won't move and try to break it. If it breaks, congrats, you need a new leash instead of a new kite.


*Yes, by posting this I am so setting myself up for losing one of my own kites. I've poured some rum into the ground to appease my Loa.

**Tomorrow I'll be attaching my "good" leash to the wall of my building and yanking on it like a motherfucker. My neighbours already think I'm weird from the post-session times in the elevator. "Why does he smell like one of the homeless? Honey, ignore him and maybe he won't ask us for money."

***If you see a kiter lose their kite after being separated from their board, please bring the board back to the kiter. A kiter with a board can be brought back to their kite with tandem riding downwind. Besides, the board gives the swimming kiter a bit of floatation.

[consumer]

helo

I am trouble understand. I link bored lish with reel lish, but you say no? How I kitesurfing without lish on bored?!?!

[Loscocco]

put a reel leash on your kite leash to keep you leash attached to your leash..
and as Tower of Power would say. Keep your monster on a leash!!

[antwerp]

I'm afraid I was the one who lost my kite on Saturday. If it was you who saved my kite (black Slingshot Rev2 09) or my board, or me, THANK YOU. Although I love the Revs, I think I'm going to try my old North leash which seems to require a little more effort to release. I had posted the following on ikitesurf over the weekend, and someone mentioned that I should post it here as well.

Dave

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http://www.ikitesurf.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=16041
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I didn't get a chance to personally thank all the kiters and windsurfers that either helped or tried to help me today at 3rd. My secondary release (kite leash) inadvertently popped on me when I was trying to untangle my lines and relaunch my kite, sending my kite downwind towards the bridge. I was roughly 3/4 mile from shore and had one person carry my board in, another dragged me in, and I saw at least 5 people trying to grab my kite. My biggest concern was that my kite was either going to hurt someone trying to rescue it, or end up on the bike path or the road and hurt someone there. Incredibly, someone was able to drag my kite into the lower launch and I found it wrapped up on the beach. Thank you, and to everyone that helped. I've dragged people and boards in before, and I know it's at least a challenge from that distance. I can't imagine how hard it was to get the kite in (so again, thanks). It seems like when someone goes down at 3rd, there are at least a half-dozen people around looking to help. Although you never want to rely on it, it does make it a nice place to kite.

For anyone interested in what caused this situation, I'll give some background. I've been riding fairly regularly since 2007 and was practicing unhooked on a directional. I got too powered up and couldn't hold the bar, so my kite released onto the leash. As I've done before, I swam to the bar, got the lines sorted, hooked in, relaunched but noticed that I somehow had one steering line looped around both center (power) lines. I then dropped the kite and tried to unhook and get this untangled. Sometime during this process, my leash came undone, leaving me completely detached from my kite. Had I known there was even a slight probability of my leash failing, I would've just tried to fly the kite in tangled. However, I've self-rescued from similar distances before so I figured I'd try to fix it first.

Again, if anyone's interested, my takeaways are (1) use a different leash, and (2) just fly the kite in tangled, b/c there is the possibility that the leash fails, and that puts other people at risk. My guess is that one of my lines (which were a mess in the water) pulled against the float on the leash, and inadvertently opened it. In the future, I'll be switching to my old leash which requires a bit more effort to pull and be much less aggressive about trying to get things untangled in the water.

Anyways, thanks again, and my apologies for all the trouble. I'm hoping I can repay the favor to someone else who may need help in the future.

[Bullroarer Took]

Was the board a Liquid Force?

[antwerp]

No, mine is a 6' Airush Converse (no straps with a padded deck), which I'm sure was a pain to drag in.

[stone]

antwerp -- please don't take my peevish rant personally--I never think twice about helping anyone out there. I was just coming from feeling like there've been too many kites released on the water lately, so I'm projecting leash failure. The released kites I've seen have been from multiple manufacturers (SS, OR, Cab, RRD, North), so can't generalize, except to say that from a cynical point of view the leash that comes with your kite only has to outlast the warranty. Last year I switched to a mystic handlepass leash that looks and still feels solid.

The nwkite folks have a recent thread on SS leash failures, might be relevant to you: http://nwkite.com/forums/t-18575.html

[rvv]

helo

I am trouble understand. I link bored lish with reel lish, but you say no? How I kitesurfing without lish on bored?!?!

LMAO!! Kevin nice!

[reyrivera]

Maybe kite companies are justifying using cheap carabiners because of cost?
I have had issues with stock leash carabiners getting unclipped after a crash because the water impact opens up the carabiner. I always have to modify newly bought leashes, does not matter which brand.

Here's some possible mods to your leashes:

http://www.kiteforum.com/viewtopic.php? ... 4&p=606569

antwerp -- please don't take my peevish rant personally--I never think twice about helping anyone out there. I was just coming from feeling like there've been too many kites released on the water lately, so I'm projecting leash failure. The released kites I've seen have been from multiple manufacturers (SS, OR, Cab, RRD, North), so can't generalize, except to say that from a cynical point of view the leash that comes with your kite only has to outlast the warranty. Last year I switched to a mystic handlepass leash that looks and still feels solid.

The nwkite folks have a recent thread on SS leash failures, might be relevant to you: http://nwkite.com/forums/t-18575.html

[stone]

Hey Rey, one of the reasons I like the leash I use is that the neoprene sheath is overlong so it usually scoots up over the carabiner so a line that might happen to be sliding over it is kind of encouraged to move along instead of sliding into the carabiner.

But I'm not suggesting any cheapness on the part of the kite companies, just saying that things wear out, and while you're likely to notice wear on your kite/bar/lines, you only notice the state of your leash when you pop your primary release.