Just a heads up for the coming season, check your line knife, had a pork belly moment last night that made me aware, if it's stashed away check it's condition, if you've changed your harness check it's got one, might be the best $10 you've spent( apart from the $200 line replacement
)
Select to expand quotecauncy said..
Just a heads up for the coming season, check your line knife, had a pork belly moment last night that made me aware, if it's stashed away check it's condition, if you've changed your harness check it's got one, might be the best $10 you've spent( apart from the $200 line replacement)
Hey mate,
Great point to make--just discovered mine's somehow fallen out of the little velcro pocket and disappeared. Any idea who might have one locally?
Cheers,
Rob
Good Call All,
Also I would like to add that I think it is important to remember how to bail your Harness and Everything!
Be it big surf or small waves you need to know this to survive if you get pinned underwater over shallow reef.
Trust me you can get hooked up on reef very easy with a kite in surf and its not pretty,
Have different scenarios played out in your head! Practise them...
If you havent surfed much but kite over reef with any size waves then you need an escape plan, you need to
be able to cope with being pinned at the mercy of mother nature , pinned to the reef!!!
Even if you are a good surfer and kite you need an escape plan!!
Examine your gear and get familair with how to bail it, the lot!
You need to be prepared to bail your harness as a surfer would his leggie!
When your bar is wedged in the reef anchored to the ocean floor after falling off a wave and you are PINNED and waves
continue to break over you then suck back out as the next wave is about to smash the reef and you are getting
RAG DOLLED you are at mother natures peril, No human is strong enough to fight the forces of HUEY.
Your safteys are not always the easiest option as you may think.
This is Where you need the escape plan,
Bail the lot!!! harness and all!!
This situation happened to me recently and has probably happened to heaps of crew over time or slightly different situations but
with the same thought process required.
I would like to see a real fair dinkum effort at a surf specific kite harness by some of the brands, no need for fancy crap, just
streamlined, smooth , dont need anything on it to get snagged eg handle pass line, no big grab handles, just somthing easy to bail
that gives you a good chance if **** hits the fan. Ive learnt that is my first saftey!
Also its good toThrow a few what if's in your head now and then.
I tied about a meter of line to my knife, then tuck it into the sheath. That was you won't lose it, or if you ever have to use is and it slips out you have another chance to recover and cut. When things are happening so quickly and you have to react, it would be easy to drop it while you are getting washed around. I also coated the cutting edge in wax to keep it protected. Learned that tip here couple years ago and it works a treat.
Hey dafish, that sounds like a really good way to prevent you from loosing your knife, but the extra meter of line tied to your knife
could also get tangled up and snag on something while using it, also a knife is no good to you underwater cause you cant see a thing, it
is not an option , a knife is a last resort option above water when you can see the lines.
In an emergency situation you have to keep it simple.
Hmm, a red thumb...awesome.
My point is that when you are thrashing around or go to reach in turbulence it would be easy to lose the one shot you have at grabbing the knife. I can't say for certain if it is a better option or not, I have never had to use it. But I have practiced it and I can see how easily it could slip out (they are quite small) in a moment of having to work yourself out of a jamb.
Carry on good folks
Select to expand quotedafish said...
I tied about a meter of line to my knife, then tuck it into the sheath. That was you won't lose it, or if you ever have to use is and it slips out you have another chance to recover and cut. When things are happening so quickly and you have to react, it would be easy to drop it while you are getting washed around. I also coated the cutting edge in wax to keep it protected. Learned that tip here couple years ago and it works a treat.
This is the go IMHO, I posted this last time I gave a heads up on checking your line knife, I've used elasticated chord instead of string, losing your grip on a line knife when you least need too
Select to expand quoteRobbo2099 said...cauncy said..
Just a heads up for the coming season, check your line knife, had a pork belly moment last night that made me aware, if it's stashed away check it's condition, if you've changed your harness check it's got one, might be the best $10 you've spent( apart from the $200 line replacement)
Hey mate,
Great point to make--just discovered mine's somehow fallen out of the little velcro pocket and disappeared. Any idea who might have one locally?
Cheers,
Rob
Kim at surf n sail has dakines, sharp as I accidentally cut through when rigging up once, had me scratching my noggin for a while trying to work out how I did it, till I looked down and saw my knife hanging between my legs
Hey Cauncy, the elastic is a good idea, what sort did you use and how long is it? I might swap my line for that.
Shock cord is pretty cheap from bunnings or any sailing shop. That should do the trick. Not sure about stopping the metre or so of extra line getting tangled/knotted. I guess if your pouch is big enough you can just tuck in with the line knife... Actually, loosley looping it and then feeding into some 9mm poly tubing would probably keep it in check pretty well. The when you pull it should feed out of the tube easily and tangle free.. Think I might give this a crack.
Select to expand quoteaustin said...
check everything, its on this weekend and won't be stopping for 6months 
Bring that forward a few days
Select to expand quotedafish said...
Hey Cauncy, the elastic is a good idea, what sort did you use and how long is it? I might swap my line for that.
Just off the shelf shock cord, you can get it at most marine or hware supplies, I tuck it to one side of the pouch and the knife last to the other side,the thin diameter is best IMO
Select to expand quotePhoney said...
Am I the only one who kites without a knife?
No definitely not, I didn't bother at first, until a guy called mike Pearson died just up the coast from me, a very experienced poley and kiter , a knife possibly could of saved Him that day,
He died when I was just thinking about learning.. Wife made it a condition that I would always carry a knife when kiting. Didn't know she cared!!
I check it every time before launching, never used it yet fortunately.
Thanks for the tip. I do loosely wrap the cord in loops and tuck them in the pouch, nothing dangly there. But the shock cord is a better idea. As far as the dude that died, it's always tragic to hear those stories and it always makes me think on what I could have done to prevent that. I had a leg rope wrap around a reef on a big day and was tombstoneing, the current and white was was so strong I could not get to my leg to pull it off. I wore two big ones and could barely get a breath between them when the leash came off the reef on it's own. My adrenalin was pumping for a good half hour after that. It's a ****ty feeling that I don't want to ever happen again. Not sure how it would be if lines got caught up, but I would think you would have a better chance at reaching them unless they were wrapped around your ankles. I also know how to get out of my harness in a hurry, something I happily practiced.
I tied a "monkey fist" to my hook knife as I fear getting (even more) tangled if I attach the hook knife to a leash. The monkey fist never gets in the way and gives a good grip of the knife. It is also very easy to find under water, it would be impossible to find that tiny tab of the knife in an emergency situation.
Select to expand quotecauncy said..Phoney said...
Am I the only one who kites without a knife?
No definitely not, I didn't bother at first, until a guy called mike Pearson died just up the coast from me, a very experienced poley and kiter , a knife possibly could of saved Him that day,
If I only kite in bays (flat water & chop with no submerged rocks) and never in waves, should I still kite with a knife?
And if so, would one of those small retractable utility knifes that you get in a pack of 5 at $2 shops do?
Select to expand quotePhoney said...cauncy said..Phoney said...
Am I the only one who kites without a knife?
No definitely not, I didn't bother at first, until a guy called mike Pearson died just up the coast from me, a very experienced poley and kiter , a knife possibly could of saved Him that day,
If I only kite in bays (flat water & chop with no submerged rocks) and never in waves, should I still kite with a knife?
And if so, would one of those small retractable utility knifes that you get in a pack of 5 at $2 shops do?
It's up to yourself, More of a risk in shore conditions than flat water, IMO if you think you may run the risk of wrapping lines around yourself then a proper line knife is a must, my kite lines are 380kg Kevlar coated ,you ain't gonna chew yourself through
Select to expand quotePhoney said..
cauncy said..
Phoney said...
Am I the only one who kites without a knife?
No definitely not, I didn't bother at first, until a guy called mike Pearson died just up the coast from me, a very experienced poley and kiter , a knife possibly could of saved Him that day,
If I only kite in bays (flat water & chop with no submerged rocks) and never in waves, should I still kite with a knife?
And if so, would one of those small retractable utility knifes that you get in a pack of 5 at $2 shops do?
Phoney, since you asked. Short answers, yes, and no.
Consider that the actions of others may be involved. I once had a friend fly their kite between the lines of my kite; when they bailed the lines came racing across my bar very fast and almost looped around my thumb. This is just one of the many ways you could get tangled up.
A hook knife is not expensive and it is harder to cut yourself/others/bladder etc with a hook knife than it is with a utility knife.
Not meaning to do the old 'one up man/women ship' but I carry two. The inaccessible one at the rear and an after market line cutter on the front left on the strap that's connected to the spreader bar. I'm an anxious little fellow, and can't help feeling if I was rolled in Melbourne's massive 3m bay waves, that I wouldn't be able to access the rear one.
Hey don't judge, idiots like me keep the economy afloat. If not themselves.
Select to expand quoteSaltySinus said..
in Melbourne's massive 3m bay waves,
3m!!! Where? where?!
The default thinking of people regarding hook knives is being tangled up in lines while tumbled in the surf. I doubt if that is a serious risk.
More likely, and the time when I used my hook knife, is when you have a powered kite tangled around an arm or leg and no way of stopping it. In my case I wasn't in deadly danger at the time, but there was no way I was going to hang around and see what happened.
It has to be a hook knife. They're made for the job. They're cheap and easily replaced. Most harnesses are made with a pocket to hold a hook knife. The last thing you want in an emergency us a sharp unprotected blade. You will cut or stab yourself.
I think I'm on my third line knife in the Mystic shadow. tucking it under the spreader bar where gravity can help it fall out is a pretty average design oversight. The old warrior harness had it on the top side edge of the harness. Being a sparky I got a very lightweight cable tie and tied the material bit where the tension strap goes through the spreader bar. Very easy to break and won't fall out.
