gabrielb wrote:...or maybe it's the other way around.
Other way around. Neutral is at 12 o'clock.
Down low is bottom of power stroke.
SHORT VERSION: Bottom line is its a big ocean and there is lots of room for all of us. There is no need to make others feel uncomfortable or put them at risk.
LONG VERSION: C36 wrote:Never fly over non-participants
Slappy wrote:Do you guys see yourselves as non-participants out there?...
Yup. If it's not my hands are not on the bar controlling that kite, I am a "non-participant" and totally at the mercy of the person controlling (or not controlling) that kite.
IKO Rule 3. Never fly over non-participantsThis seems obvious but on any crowded kite launch site, you will see people breaking this rule every day. The reason that you never want to do this is because you are endangering the persons below the kite. The kite can suddenly power up and could hit, cut, slice, drag, drop, or knock down any person within the kite’s wind window.
This can happen to anyone. Even the most experienced kiter does not have 100% control of their kite 100% of the time. The wind can suddenly gust, lull, or some other factor like a line breaking can cause a momentary loss of control, and then, the kite can injure someone. Even experienced kite launchers must be extremely careful when getting beneath a kite.Slappy wrote:...My feeling is we are all participants regardless of what gear we are riding. I have windsurfers sail upwind of me within a masts length of me quite often, and an errant mast has a far greater ability to kill you on the water than a kite via knocking you unconscious. When they do that you better believe I pay attention and take precautions but I understand we need to share the water.
Thanks for paying attention. I wish others some others would too - keeping aware of where others are, using shoulder checks before changing direction, and maintaining a safe buffer (see IKO rule 7
below) while sailing and particularly when boosting air.
C36 wrote:...in the 'danger zone' below their lines for any longer than is absolutely necessary.
Slappy wrote:This has always confused me too as the real danger zone isn't directly below the lines as the kite can't crash with speed directly below, it will move with the kiter as it travels down.
The real danger zone is one kite line length away from the kiter in a down wind semicircle. You are far safer passing under the kite at half the lines length than near a full lines length. This is how kiters ride together so easily, we actually try and be closer to each other because it's safer. Trying to avoid this makes it so that instead of 5m separation you need 30m of separation, but this seems like what windsurfers want. And since 35m of separation is crazy hard to manage out there you'll end up in that 25m tamahawk zone more often and be in more danger than if the lines were flying over your head.
IKO Safety Rule 7:
7. Keep a safety bufferA safety buffer is what you create to keep some distance between you and something dangerous. A safety buffer is both distance and time. When you are moving faster you will need to make your safety buffers bigger. You should create a safety buffer whenever you see something that you do not want to hit.
This could be the beach, some rocks, other kiters, or obstacles. When creating your buffer, you should also consider how far your kite reaches out ahead of you keeping in mind that your safety buffer starts at your kite and extends beyond that.
A safety buffer between two kites (or two kiters) is ever greater. If you have 25m lines and the other kiter has 25m lines, you need a minimum of 50m between you to ensure that the kites don’t touch each other but that still does not allow for any separation between the kites.
The safety buffer is the extra area/distance between the closest possible points of contact. Sometimes kite instructors will recommend a safety buffer of two or three kite line lengths away from an obstacle on full length lines that translates to 50m to 75m. But, in strong winds, the buffer should be increased. Sometimes, the buffer needs to be 5 line lengths and in extreme conditions up to 10 line lengths (10 line lengths = 250m).
Whatever safety buffer you leave downwind of you to keep out of danger and stay away from objects, should be the same for the guy riding upwind of you. So, if you like a 75m buffer downwind of you, then the guy riding upwind of you probably wants to stay about that same distance away from you because you are now the obstacle that he is trying to avoid.
If I am kiting in extreme winds at my limit, I can assume that anyone upwind of me is possibly kiting at their limit too. So, I do not want to let them get inside my upwind safety buffer. And, I do not want to ride into their safety buffer either. Always try to consider the amount of reaction time and stopping distance you would need to avoid an accident.
In strong wind there is less reaction time. Because things happen faster and you are moving faster, the stopping distances will also need to be increased.C36 wrote:Just ask Cash how that feels.
Slappy wrote:It was actually Lane and I that helped save Cash that day.
I remember (and it was good of both of you to help him out), so you will have a first hand sense of how quickly and crazy things can get when they go wrong.