Who gives a rat's about speed, just get out there and have fun!! Egga.

Yes as I understand it they have a suicide quick release that lets go of one side of the kite. The problem with those things is that a) they lose control of the kite so it can get damaged or do damage and b) Its a chore to rerig. The upshot is that kiters will be reluctant to use it. By the time the necessity to use it is unmistakeable it can be too late.

Effective depower is the most practical safety feature as I understand it. That handles the normal wind variation pretty comfortably. Squalls are dangerous though. You know how you can be sailing in a steady 15kn then a squall comes and gives you 10 min of 30kn. On a windsurfer you just get knocked over. On a kite you get dragged/lofted. Kiters just have to be a little more cautious about the weather than windsurfers.

ditching the kite's not really a problem, it's who / what it collects once it's disconnected from you that's the problem, and so you become less enthusiastic about ditching it until it's the last resort or not at all

anyway, i'm sure i read somewhere on kiteforum that "using your quick release is geigh"

Explains why that guy got splattered on the side of a brickwall when he was kitesailing in the end of a hurricane over in America & got out of control........

sboardcrazy said...

Explains why that guy got splattered on the side of a brickwall when he was kitesailing in the end of a hurricane over in America & got out of control........

No, the explanation for that is that he was someone that should suffer at the hands of natural selection and we'd all be better off.

If you actually watch the footage, you will note that he is not the only one that has a kite in the air at that time. He IS however, the only one dumb enough to try and lift himself over his mate's lines by beach jumping which was where he came unstuck. He did not do as he should have and either a) not gone out that day, b) got one of his mates to land his kite as soon as it looked anywhere near as bad as it did at that time, or c) pulled the quick release to flag the kite out when it became evident that the kite should have no longer been in the air.

D