With so many people claiming that self launching (I agree) and landing is sooooo easy in any wind, I thought we should have an open comp this winter.
We could get sponsored and all we need is a big storm with winds in excess of 40 knots.
Rules are simple, everyone hooked up to a park kite on the beach, siren sounds and the winner is the first person who has landed his kite 20 times
I guarantee frantic action, massive boost and bonus trip to hospital.
Let's bring back the extreme in kite surfing, all the heroes can prove their point and I will gladly watch from the side line.
I wonder if WAKSA would get involved???
Sit down Sebol and give your brains a rest.. It's easy if you have been kiiting a while and have the skills and experience.
Can you self land?
There should be no problem self landing Sebol if it's done properly. As a matter of fact, done properly it's a safer task than self launching.
Yep, I can do it and I have done it on many occasions.
I also been caught on a couple of occasions with the kite bouncing back, spinning around and hot launching straight across the window with me hanging on for dear life while doing my best sand skiing effort.
Luckily, I was never in the path of any hard object
I know that it can be done ok but to go on saying that it is safer or that it is fine in 40 knots is a big statement.
There are also lots of people with limited skills or experience reading those forums and I would hate to see them seriously hurt.
Personaly, I sort of enjoy the thrill of it so long as I have 40 metre clear downwind (just in case).
Any muppet can bring down a kite in light winds, usually with some strange technique or by luck they land the kite and bring the leading edge into the wind. These techniques I see regularly will not work in strong winds, only a real understanding of the kite and your own gear will you be able to pull off a nice self landing without using the QR, it's a dangerous practice but looks cool, which is why I suspect most people will go for it... admittedly your's truly included haha
For safety a kite should always be launched and landed with an assistant when there are others around to help, in strong wind if at all unsure and beginners should always self land using the QR.
Tethered self launch is the way to go for safty ,i could launch and land a kite 10x in under 5 min whatever the wind as long as its rideable,although you should learn both meathods ,releasing onto the QR can be a pain in some situations as the kite can spin or roll back on the beach,dropping the kite onto the leading edge is easy in up to 25 knots but in 35 knots it can also be a pain,especially if its gusty,so teathering is a better option,just tie off to something thats not gonna move.
most of my friends still think kiteing is for the meek and old, I'm not quite good enough to get them to chjange there minds
^^^^^^Sounds like its time for a change,if you spend too long at the darkside its hard to get back
better to use a choc chip cookie...
