Yep a good description but it takes a lot of practice and most newbs or less experienced will probably panic and grab a handfull of bar and "lookout",the other downside is as your reeling in the centrelines theres a good chance of snagging a steering line around the bar,and if you get a sudden surge its all on,i would always reccomend the teathered approach any day,hey i use the other meathod myself all the time when i'm nowhere near the teather but if its gusty it can be a pain in the arse,i would reccomend learning both meathods as you never know when your gonna need one in a hurry.
Often flick through the Seabreeze forums and never had a real need to post until now...
The image of that steel screw is extremely alarming and will kill somebody, most likely themselves as they run back to the bar and a slight shift in wind direction powers the kite, tensions the lines and spears the steel screw directly through a forehead. Any form of anchor point is not required and mostly dangerous, whether you want a chopping board or a plastic stake flying through the air at speed is not worth the risk/reward.
Please learn to self land, the kites are that easy now it is not difficult, most experienced kiters that have been around the block will be more than happy to teach you.
Wouldnt mind seeing that last image removed???
I can self land/launch but at 30-35k it starts getting pretty sketchy. Sometimes I will drop the bar and flag the kite off a mini 5th but it doesn't always work in nuking winds. Hate it when it looks like it's about to land LE down and a little gust of wind takes it and then you just prep yourself for a hot launch.
Kiting, I do appreciate your concern, but a fully de-powered bow kite has very little pull when sitting on it's wingtip, 90 degrees to the wind. I only use it if there is no-one nearby that can help me land or launch. I have seen far worse carnage when a self landing has gone wrong and a line wraps around the bar or a bridle over a wingtip. The screw is used for holding a dog up to 80kgs while on a leash, on beach sand. This sport has many inherant risks, and I try and conduct my kitesurfing as safely as possible. I have landed my Rebel many times on the 5th line, but still feel very apprehensive, disconnectiog the chicken loop and walking hand over hand down the fifth line to the kite.
I've used a screw in anchor, don't use it much these days because there is almost always someone around so its been sitting in my cage for the last year or two. I preferred it over dumping my kite in the sand due to the small shells on the beaches here. Found quite a few micro cuts from them.
If you are planning on going the way of the screw in anchor, the Wombat (www.rapidanchor.com/The_Wombat.htm) is probably the best to use. Dog anchors aren't designed to take high load, the wombat will take 500KG's so if the kite lifts up in the air, it will still hold it and its like your leash/anchoring line will give way before it gets pulled out the ground.
hey coast flyer .I agree with all before that the screw idea sounds fatal in high winds. I often have to self land and launch and kites vary in method.
friend always uses bull bar of is car when able (open beaches) with rebel to self land and it sits well on edge of window. bag of sand is good to launch to
with slingshot one one line always lay them on 30 down wind and enough sand on closest wingtip and let sit , hook safety ir wind st then powerup and shake sand out as kite launches. works well with cross off as well.kite drifts into water.
new 4 line sles are by far the easiest . launch set kite up 30/45 down, lift canopy foward of lines by metre . enough sand to let sit. hook up and pull furtherest wing tip towards you.kite rolls over as leach catches wind and launches easy . to land you only need to fly kite to the ground with clear area behind as kite settles at edge of window pull the top front line with enough force to roll the kite to wards you. even if the kite drifts along the ground you have the fornt line in your hand.
practise on a really big open area makes it easy
.most accidents happen on launch and landing
I'm surprised no-one has posted this:
Have read somewhere the idea of having a second anchor for your safety leash so that if the main anchor doesn't hold, the kite will flag on the safety instead of flying down the beach.
+1
.most accidents happen on launch and landing
I will never use a sand auger again, I used one to launch about two years ago winds were 35-43 kts according to seabrease (so actually pretty steady for frontal winds).
screwed the spike in, connected bar to spike, went to kite and flipped it over. I was sitting there at my 7m kite not holding it watching it bouncing up and down a little, before iI could walk back to my bar the kite bounced, did a complete 180 degree turn and shot straight through the wind at about 2m off the deck into a wooden rail on the otherside of the window absolutely destroying itself.
This happened in the blink of an eye with an unbelievable ammount of force. the only thing I can think of is that with the kite bouncing the bar must of jammed in the sand initiating a turn.
I am not advocating self launch and land in these sort of conditions, but dont kite unassisted in these conditions, hence there is always someone there to assist.
It's easy enough to assist launching another kite whilst your own is on the edge of the window. google it.
Kite's usually only bounce up and down while teathered when you haven't pulled enough depower on ,if you set the depower towards the max and then stand up the kite it should sit on its tip no prob with no bounce ,once your at the buisness end its real easy to reset and launch,when you come in to land haul on some depower before you drop the kite,in gusty strong winds a lot of kites with short throw still stay semi powered and thus bounce around a bit.
Also if you set the kite slightly further back in the window on stronger days it will pivot slightly forward and be a bit more stable.
90% of the time we use a half buried log theres usually plenty around, or in some spots the towbar is the go.
I'm a huge fan of the tethered lauch system - usually off the car towball.
It depends on the kite though. My old ozone instincts would get into a pattern where they would lift slightly then drop back to the sand. Each cycle got bigger than the previous one, and often by the time I would get back to my bar the kite would be slamming really hard into the beach. Never felt safe, so I didn't keep doing it.
Now with North rebel and Eclipse Kima, it is far-and-away the easiest, safest self launching I have ever done (I've used all the other techniques people have mentioned in this thread so far).
Having said that, most of the beaches around here I can drive onto and use the towball
Thanks Galah, this discussion has bought points up that I honestly had not considered. As I said before, I only use the anchor as a last resort and when walking towards the kite, always run the upper front line through my hand so that if I had to, I can grab that line and the kite will flag off it. I always wear sailing gloves, for extra protection from the lines, but also against skin cancer. When at the bar, the safety is always first on, last off. This ensures that if somehow the kite powered up, just stand there and under NO circumstances, TOUCH THE BAR!!In my case with the Rebel, it will flag to the 5th line.Just added a couple of links to the anchor procedure.
simple get on oasis active and put this in your seeking criteria you'll be surprised!
LEARN TO SELF LAND !!!
Those using screws or anchors etc..... Should seriously consider their potential legal liabilities should someone walking on the beach or a child playing be injured.
Not to mention a kiter being dragged into one of them.
If you insist on an anchor please use something soft ... Ie: filled with sand
Sandbag in 35-40 knots? it must be a hellish big bag,what do you fill it with a bobcat,i think by the time i'd filled it with sand i'd be too stuffed to kite.
It's amazing. ^^^
A sandbag correctly placed over the wingtip area,
made of the right shape and weighing no more than 10 kg,
can hold down a kite securely in 30 knots of wind.
If you don't think you can safely self launch/land in the conditions should you really be kiting???
What happens if say you loose your board and can't get back upwind to your anchor....what if well there are many possibilities....?
If you can't be self sufficient without something that you can carry with you while kiting you are at significant risk if your plan doesn't play out perfectly are you not???
when we were learning , we used to put dumbell weight in a woolies bag and put into grounded wingtip. I launched a cabrinha contra that way and flew the kite through the dumbell
nice big tear and a lesson on dumbells. (me) sand in a bag on a folded wingtip is better or sand in the wingtip with older kites new ones don,t need anything just enough sand on the leading edge to hold them down .
self launch\land is vital to learn. if it is to windy to land pop your safety 30 metres from shore if possible, and swim in along the flag out or fith line . not hard ,Kites dry . but can some one send me some some picks of subsonic screws? and 2 screws could be twice as much fun .would make a good edition to the spanner board next to kiting in a hurricane
