A Death Loop and Lessons Learned!

Hi Folks
On Friday I was kiting Melville Beach and had a scary little moment. The wind was onshore and blowing about 14-18kn due to some cloud and an impending rain front. I was about 50m off the shore and dropped the kite in the water during a lull. The kite was directly downwind and managed to fall on it's back and fill with water. As a result I couldn't steer it round to the side to relaunch. I decided to back-launch it by giving the front lines a big tug. The kite launched perfectly but one of the steering lines, with it's foam cover, had drifted round and got caught underneath my harness hook (I was standing in waist deep water). The result was that the kite went into an immediate death loop and started dragging me towards the shore. I immediately went for my safety but even though the hook disengaged on the chicken loop, because the foam cover on the steering line (Airush) was now being forced hard up behind the chicken loop by the tension on the line, the loop did not release from the hook. A lot of stuff goes through your mind when you are being dragged towards the road and your safety doesn't release let me tell you! With nothing left to loose I decided to grab the right hand steering line and try to flag the kite as much as possible. I didn't know at this stage what was preventing the safety from releasing but luckily I chose the right one and as I started hauling it in, it released the pressure on the chicken loop and it released! When I got to the beach the line and foam cover were still stuck behind the hook.
I ended up with the kite about 10m from the beach.
I suppose the lessons learnt are, If you are going to back-launch, make sure your steering lines are clear and that any changed condition, like an onshore breeze (not usual at Melville), has it's own dangers.
I am not sure of the purpose of the foam covers other than buoyancy but I might think about removing them?
Cheers S

I started reading your post and got to the 8th and 9th word then lost interest pretty quickly.

Why people even kite there has me beat... No room for error, just a matter of time before someone does a superman onto the house roof/road/Old Gumtree ... It's mainly euros and noobs which is a recipe for disaster in that location.

Glad you didn't polax yourself too hard.

Oh Waveslave..... Are you there??? Please analyse this event for us...

Removing the foam pads from the lines won't stop the lines getting caught up in your harness hook. That's your problem. That's the bit you want to fix. I'm glad you weren't injured but remember to do line checks (for snags and tangles) whenever you are launching a kite - even if you are already in the water.

The foam floats are intended to keep the bar buoyant so that the bar doesn't sink and snag on underwater debris.

Lines can only get caught around you or your harness if they go slack, which is the first cause of your problem here.

The lesson to learn here is if your lines ever go slack you must make sure they don't tangle anywhere. If the wind was stronger and the same scenario happened, your kite would've started to launch and deathloop without any input from the pilot. This is how some people ended up drowning unfortunately :(

As mentioned above, the floaters are irrelevant here, so are safety systems (apart from the hook knife).

If you ever have slack lines again my advice is to be very quick to check and fix tangles before the lines go back in tension, but it's not easy and it takes experience.

Avoiding dodgy winds and on-shore winds is also something to consider.

Christian

I swear the last few times I went to melville, I would always see atleast one person death loop onto the beach and luckily have a random guy setting up catch their kite before it goes into a tree.
I would avoid kiting there, last time I went a noob crashed his kite (from behind me) right in front of me and when I went to stop and change direction he relaunched into mine... Fun times..

Glad to hear your ok but I think it really come down to you not reading the conditions.

From where I sit it looks like Pilot was at fault and not the gear.

I recon I would have reached for the knife...But who knows when its actually happening.

Yeah was never a fan of that Cab setup, apart from the complexity of the method needed to re-assemble the chicken loop, that "leashless" idea was a possibility that was probably exploited by many more other than you. I think that was the first year cab promoted the short leash, which I think is the best leash for 80% of riders that never unhook.
The next best idea that has not gained universal appeal yet is the elimination of the hook. Kitesurfers who never unhook, do not need a hook, its just another thing that can catch lines, or let you chicken loop come off, and ruin your day.

WS is not talking back up leashes, he is crapping on about his illogical idea that all leashes are death leashes. He promotes no leash as the safest option, but then claims, illogically again, that he does not do "runaway kites". Best advice I can share is ignore him and wear a short leash.