Sail

When I'm out wave chasing the one thing I wanna know is that when I lose it an come around I got a kite above my head waiting for me - PL does it for me every time - as to performance - 5 years from now your silly scuffles will look a tad, well, silly scuffles.

Adam You're cool. Stay safe Regards

Glad to hear you're up and running - these big flexi wings are real steam engines when you get them moving. Just to confirm the point about the bars for 2 lines; the stresses on the bars are big; I hang them off a girder and bounce on them in my harness - hard. Best to use a 2 point fixing strop to spread the load rather than a single middle attachment. It's about time manufacturers specified breaking loads and conditions of use as is done with all climbing equipement. The big problem when they break is that they may not break right off but fold leaving you hanging onto a fully powered up kite looping mare and then it's downwind big time. Always good to have a QR between you and the rig. Go safe - have fun. Regards

Yep, work on your riding style, get your backside as close to the ground as you can - a couple of inches is good. If you're on sand have a look at your wheel marks - neat tramlines in the sand - you need to power up more, drop the kite low and control the power by sliding downwind - big wide gooves in the sand - no more bother with speed wobbles. Work on your powerslides. Good luck. Regards

Fantastic bunch of kite flyers, totally recommended.

I'm not saying " don't use safety " I'm questioning the use of wrist leashes. Thought experiment only: attach yourself to the rear fender of your car via a wrist leash and have someone drive down the beach at 25mph - get out of that. Now try it attached by 2 wrist leashes - this is a likely scenario when the other guys loose kite tangles yours or you're caught by; a mad 40mph buggy driven by Eddie, a runaway horse, a 4 wheel drive, a motorbike, motorboat, jetski or a nasty undertow etc etc. There are 3 things I look for in a safety system: 1. both hands free at all times ( ie no wrist leash ) 2. ability to instantly disable your kite 3. ability to jettison the whole caboodle It's easy enough to arrange: remove the wrist loops from the kk leashes - join both the leash ends together and attach a single line with an inline QR to a waistbelt or say Petzl chest harness and make sure you can easily reach the QR with both hands at all possible positions. Leash that kite at all times but not at your wrist and always via an effective QR. And hey, sky tigererer - whats a rep point - I probably will want it - but I'd like to know. Lots of peace and lots of regards

mx5alan With respect but I think you missed the point; it's the other guys tangled kite dragging you. I'd look so cool with a set of kk's hanging off the rear lines of my arc! Kind Regards

Upwind a bunch of big wings launching in hearty winds; you're wearing kite killers; two words - kite tangle. Kite killers are a useful safety technique but are inappropriate when there is a possibility of a big wing tangling your lines or passing cars collecting your wing ( Black Rock Sands ). Manacled by both hands and fully powered upon a renagade 15 mtr is not safe. As with all safety / jettison systems - use with caution and when appropriate. There are times when kite killers should not be worn.

Hangwind I've been flying B3 4.9 & 8.5 on 2 lines for the last 6 months. Use a 76cm bar with steel rings at the ends. One line goes through a ring and is terminated with a similar ring so it's captive. My leash goes to this ring then to a Witchard attached at centre of the bar; add a maillon link to this and attach via a further Witchard to the harness via a carabiner. Activating the Witchard nearest the bar dumps the bar same as on the G13 and leaves the leash attached; activating the Witchard nearest the harness dumps the whole caboodle. If you jam the swivel on the first Witchard you've a full spinning leash set up. I've flown both the 4.9 and 8.5 maxed out so that I'm unable to hold ground, jettisioning the bar under these conditions can be messy sometimes but the kite loses any effective power and just flaps about, albeit dramatically; best to normally land it with some help but as a safety get out clause it's worked for me every time. I run 2 lines on handles a lot of the time; don't use the normal 4 line handles but a pair of homemade handles like a triangle so I've a horizontal grip, I just have a short wrist leash on one of the handles. The ability to just instantly let go gives a great deal of confidence when playing with big winds, especially when launching. A partially inflated 8.5 single ended in a hoolie is little different to my fully inflated G13 flapping at the end of my leash. Don't knock it till you try it. go careful

Has anyone out there used the Harken Swivel, any comments / problems? Regards Go careful

Out of season now so should be cool. I understand the ban is only in place during high season.

If you can't SEE the knot and you can't SEE all of the leader on handles or bars don't buy it - you must be able to INSPECT the condition of your leaders on handles or bars, especially around the load point; ie, Peter Lynn or Ozone bars etc. Where rope is used in safety critical situations it's normal to reduce the working load to 10% of the breaking load; we all use our kit well above that limit and it's essential it's in good condition; visual inspection and easy and timely replacement of the leaders is an essential feature of any design. Go careful

Muppetdude and Sunset speak the truth. Practice ditching until it's on auto and get yourself insurance: £25 per annum - can't believe I'm saying this - must be another old fart. Go safe

npeac Thanks for reply. Glad you caught your kite. Keep my leash on a swivel straight into the harness and below the Peter Lynn QR. Go safe

npeac I'm trying to figure what you're saying. You popped your primary QR and got dragged by the remaining single line shackle? I've dipped out on my 13m Grilla and never, yet, had it drag me on the secondary. Let me know, sounds scary. Regards

Phil Thre's loadsa stuff already on here about AoA systems if you go down that route but...... why not try distributing a range of smaller kites at intervals along your 1km tether - should solve your problem of getting through the surface winds and will let you use a smaller diam line - less drag at the surface, smaller winch etc. Regards

Hiya batC Link don't work - I'm happy with my Gibb QR's - let's me run 2 line foils with jettison. Thanks anyway Regards

Phil As I went to bed I thought o my gosh what about power generation using oscillating B3's;probably the 8.5; just imagine the whole of the East coast with tethered Flexifoils supplying Grimsby. What is it your after, constant height or constant tension. What equipement have you to loft and what's the weight and what's it for. Richard Methinks poles and zeros may be a little premature without further info, may Zobel rest easy. Point taken about -40 and dampers - possibly gas type? Regards

Hi Phil Sounds like you know how to configure the kite with a spring feedback mechanism to control the AoA. This won't work without considerable amounts of damping. The Q of the system will be high and all you're doing is building yourself a big wind oscillator. Instead of the spring try incorporating a damper unit from the selections currently available for mountainbikes or there are a wide selection of variable damper units available for all sorts of industrial process control systems. Wot u need is some damping to lower the Q of the system. Regards

I've used the Gibb QR swivel shackle without any problems but needing a couple of non swivel QR shackles bought myself 2 52mm Probolt Shackle Fixed Eye. Now this is not a complaint about the product which I'm sure works well for it's intended purpose but is a comment on it's use as a QR on kites. 1. When loaded with my bodyweight - 70kgs - the wire ring on the strike bar pulled straight out of the bar without opening the shackle, on both units. This could be fixed by welding the ring. 2. After welding the rings I found that any tape loop or rope loop below 8mm diam jammed against the end of the open gate when under load, on both units. This could be avoided by using a 30mm x 4mm welded stainless steel ring to interface the tape or rope loop to the shackle - available from Probolt. Be very wary of using this shackle, unmodified, in any safety critical location. Just confirms the obvious point of testing everything to the max before use. Regards

Yo Gibbo Send me your email and I'll blast off a jpeb. It looks simple but theirs loadsa detail you need to get right. But if anyone says you can't single end a 2 line foil safetly stick your finger up their bum. Regards

Spooky Yep, front and brake bridles connected together at the kite. The safety leash ring jams against the identical ring held by the leader and lets the bar slide up the line on release. I keep the leaders short cause I'm terrified of tangling the safety leash around the bar or twisting around the lines on the kite side of the bar - but in retrospect I think you're right about keeping the leaders long enough to clear the bar and making the safety leash longer - my hands have been a little battered on occasion. Before letting the bar go you do need to make sure the leash isn't tangled but thats true of a lot of the jettison systems out there. Ideally I want the leash to terminate on my harness via a Gibbs QR to leave both hands free. In fact I'm hooking it up right now. I've given up using my shiny kitesurf harness with the "turkey hook" chuckle, and gone back to a lightweight Blackdiamond climbing harness. I've put the Gibbs swivel/QR on the harness loop and connected both the leash and the tape to the bar into the other side. At the bar I've a further Gibbs QR swivel. That should do. Hands free and spin all I want. Don't send me grapes. Regards

Spooky When you ditch the bar the kites do stay a little inflated and flap around especially the Bullets but there's no pull and no power. I've ditched the 8.5 under power flying straight across the window with a windspeed of 25 kmph and fell on my arse; the 4.9 falls out of the sky at 35kmph. I've spent the summer flying this way and using it as my preferred method of landing. Yes sometimes your bridles tangle a bit but hey the joy of flying clean on 2 lines makes it worth it. I've flown the 1.5 & 2.5 Bullets and the 4.9 and 8.5 Blades on the same 2 line bar with no problems. My Guerilla G13 is pretty much a big foil ( albeit without a bridle) and this is essentially the same ditch system - just differently configured - this stays fully inflated and I've succesfully ditched this at 40kmph with my feet a metre off the ground and again this is my preferred method of landing it. I did mean 20mm but hey, I guess it depends on your bar, adjust to suit. Try at your own risk but if anyone does come up with a safety issue please let me know cause I just hate getting hurt. Agree about short bars. Regards

Lazydog I used an old Flexi brake line as a leash at first but found the elastic line tended to curl and twist and occasionally looped around the end of the bar - I replaced the line with a 6 ply 5mm line from my local chandlers - it's soft and floppy and just hangs where it's put. Having the leash on the rider side of the bar allows you to spin relative to the bar during wipeouts without twisting your leash around your lines. I'm trying to find a decent method of effecting a rotating attachment to the harness so I can be rid of the wrist loop and attach the leash direct to the harness. I've attached my Gibbs quick release direct to the bar - this means no more fumbling as the release is directly in front of you rather than being somewheres under your impact vest - saves you seconds when you need them most. This systems has given me huge amounts of extra confidence to launch and fly foils in conditions I'd otherwise be shy of. Let me know how you get on. I'm sure we can tune this thing further. As an aside, these wonderful Blades fly like a dog on the Flexi bar. Regards

Fly all my Blades on 2 lines, no crossover. To arrange an effective jettision attach 30mm x 4mm stainless steel rings to each of your 2 leaders - local chandlers - Probolt. Keep your leaders as short as possible 20mm is good. Connect 1 line directly to a ring. Pass the other line through the adjacent ring and larksfoot to a third identical ring; attach a wrist loop leash to this ring. Let the bar go and the kite flips over and is instantly killed and restrained. Launch unhooked and just let go if it gets to much; collect bar and try again. I use a Gibbs QR on the harness connect - you can hook in one handed. Flip the QR anytime, anyplace, in the window and you've a depowered flappin sailcloth ready for collection and the washing line. Solo launch and recovery becomes easy and safe. Go careful. Regards