hey eppo, i dont give it a heap of pull but i just watch and judge on how much i need to.
safest way is to have some always launch and land your kite but this isnt always the case.
maybe practice in light winds to get the idea and see what the kite is going to do.
i never try to self land if its over 18 knots but. too sketchy
ta Mitch. Yeh have tried it a fair few times and never felt comfortable. But hey, as some have said you gotta commit.
Out yesterday, man huge big ass swell, just me and my bro at a non disclosed spot, big fat hairy swells rolling in double head high. Wind would lull to 16 knots then bang up to 24, 25, crazy man.
But my bro had his first taste of the 11m 2012 rebel in its glory. He was stoked, although it was a somewhat intense session.
Got back to shore and I swear is hit 25 to 30, on the smart bar just let it go at 12 and it lands slowly and softly on its leading edge rolling forward. Then I grabbed his rebel, not a good time for him to try the fifth line thingy as it was lifting him out of the water at the time. Lol,
But yeh, he is starting to understand how good the kite it.
Yup, I agree its not the best place to self-land. But if no-one is there, you cant leave the kite up all night!
I'm less worried about the expensive houses, which are quite a way back, but I really do worry about the people, kids, bikes, etc that use the footpath. There is quite a lot of them and very little seperation between the kite zone and the path.
It would be awful to have an accident.
Cheers
I was taught to self land by Puetz and rarely miss now.
1 Depower
2 Land kite pointing slightly downwards and touch tip on beach
3 The moment the tip touches YANK firmly and positively on the fifth and hand over hand a few times til the kite flops on the beach .
4 If it drifts - just keep pulling in the fifth - you have it under control .
5 There is point where if not confident ( you'll know ) of self landing due to too much wind - punch out from 12
Here is a video from today. Wind was light as I came in so didn't have much trouble landing but it should give some of the people an idea. (and which is why I wasn't worried about the bag slightly downwind)
