Forums > Kitesurfing Foiling

Race kite - Kite loops. Is this a "thing"

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Created by dachopper > 9 months ago, 13 Aug 2022
dachopper
WA, 1784 posts
13 Aug 2022 1:02PM
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Good Morning,

I've started experiencing what can only be described as "accidental" F-16 style kiteloops when using a race kite with my foil gear. I've now got 2 decades of experience and would say kite control and positioning is level 10 with tube kites on twintips, tubekites on foils, but it would appear not with race kites on foils.

Picture this.

You've just done a tack or gybe, and a bearing off slightly with the kite high, and take a look to see the lines are crossed, and the depower is also wrapped around both the bar end, and the donkey dick due to it's length. ( before the tack / gybe ) the excess depower is flying free on the downwind side of the lines. So I unwrap the depower from the donkey dick, and spin the bar, then keep riding.

I then feel a slight upward rising of the board and so correct forward with the kite, as it's either moved a tiny bit too high, or the wind has increased. Then the uprising starts to get out of hand, so I depower a bit and immediately steer the kite harder now down, to reduce upward lift...... It's about now I feel the skin on my face pull tight, and the breakfast or lunch I've just eaten get crushed at the bottom of my abdomen as me and the foil depart the water and become part of air traffic controls' problem for the next 10 seconds.

With the board now out of the water, and all hope of staying on the foil lost, this is about the time I kick the board off and look up to see the kite is pretty close to level with me, and it's apparent I am now doing party tricks and in the middle of an F-16 style kite foil Back loop, with the kite about to power through the middle of the power zone, and me 6 to 8 meters up in the air, having the thought ....... F&*^%K it just happened again.

This is twice now in 10 sessions, and I'm not trying to get any aerial display awards here.

I think it's the dingle dangly depower line of the race kite, and what I'm doing to untangle it along with untangle the bar / lines at the same time, ending up somehow with me inadvertently and completely unknowingly holding the wrong end of the bar. Any advice here ?

It this a "thing" that has happened to you by accident?

Sandee
QLD, 145 posts
13 Aug 2022 9:04PM
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I can't stand dingle dangle depower lines flapping loose as they'll inevitably wrap around the bar or get tweaked and pull out of the cleat, so I generally use velcro to hook it up or tuck it inside the harness when its really long.



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"Race kite - Kite loops. Is this a "thing"" started by dachopper