Dealing with a real world death loop in 30 knot conditions

[@kitesurfcollege]

Hi Angus. Thanks for sharing your death loop, it makes a great case study for other kiters. I'm currently making a new death loops video. If you would be happy for your example to be included please do let me know. All the best, Alex.

[@enjoiful]

Did you ever make this video, Alex? We all love your training content.

[@kitesurfcollege]

Thanks very much. Yes, here's the new death loop video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gqHLnYd-raZ2j5Ysi=aaa49gqer1oufPaA

[@numnutsdevice]

really good to see this being shared as a real life example - thankyou

[@huzcer]

thanks for sharing. not easy to handle that in high winds even when you had an idea of how to equalize the lines. at least downwind was clear! stuff can be replaced.

[@notyouraveragewindsurfer]

thanks for sharing this man! glad you are ok

[@tornadobillyahlers3072]

thanks for sharing this...glad you were ok and only lost a board

[@MichaelBrown-mf9df]

Damn! That was nuts! I hope i never have that happen to me. Glad you survived that one.

[@cascaderetriever7618]

Survived? There was nothing life threatening here. He should have punched out sooner.

[@Luckmus]

@@cascaderetriever7618 Dude, do you kiteboard in real life or are you a theorist?

[@cascaderetriever7618]

@@Luckmus he was literally body dragging. Is body dragging in open water with a looping kite a life threatening event? Lol. If so, sell your kite and get a wing. 🤭

[@Luckmus]

@@cascaderetriever7618 Have you ever been in a deathloop?

[@jl789nz]

​@@cascaderetriever7618 "he was literally body dragging" is the funniest thing I've read in while. Also, you comments make you sound like a bit of a dick. Not saying you are, just that your comments make you sound like like. Anyway, stay safe out there guys.

[@Greg-ii6nq]

This is such a valuable video!

[@fbueno]

Thanks for sharing. Glad you're ok!

[@jeffgaufin2606]

Thank you for sharing.

[@kobisorkis3165]

Thanks for sharing the experience and pull quick release faster or earlier Next time bro...

[@TheChupacabra]

So much salt water to puke up. The way a whale feeds on plankton. Glad you regained control, scary stuff. Thanks for sharing

[@swichkite]

Yeh its an experience that's for sure glad your all good, i had the same thing happen on a 5 line Naish torch C kite off a jump i got loads more hight than i expected and pussy out of the second heliloop under flying the kite, but the main lines went over the bar and wrapped around the float on one side so i had no safety and i was heading at a load of concrete, the important thing is not to panic and try and recover things kinda go slow when the shit really hits the fan, i managed to get the kite over to the seaward side after a few Nantucket slay rides by grabbing the other float then i managed to grab the main line under the cleat and pulled back over the bar just leaving a few spins! good vid though thanks for posting

[@titter3648]

You had the bar the wrong way for a while there and tried to steer the wrong way against the loop as a result @0:30 to 0:32. But having the line wrapped around the bar like that it probably did not make mush of a difference.

[@havidztoo7979]

We all need to know this stuff….been in similar conditions and it’s a nasty feeling!

[@jankowalski2652]

Thanks for sharing!

[@tjthrillajaw]

Cool! Thanks for sharing!

[@kippywylie]

In about 2016 with old school foiling gear my steering line somehow looped around my foil mast in the Columbia River at Mosier near Hood River. Super gusty 15-30+. When I looked down I saw there was no way to release the safety because lines had tightly wrapped it. The kite was in a violent death spiral and the pull was sending me underwater with only split second gulps of air. My guardian angel was watching because very fortunately a steering line caught the trailing edge (sharp) of the foil and was cut. Long swim & walk home

[@madsteeez]

I've had something like that happen too😅. Was only like 14kn so i somehow managed to unwrap the lines from the foil but got some bloody bruises on hands an arms

[@SKiP.BEEbPBBB]

Thanks for sharing mate. Do you nkow what happened at 0:04 causing the steering line to wrap aroung the bar starting the deathloop? It looked like a usual crash nothing serious. Anyways, great reaction trying to countersteer. It is not easy to stay calm in such a situation.

[@slappysurf]

I think it was wave action slacking the lines for a bit allowing it to get caught.

[@BaldEagleJ]

This happened to me once. But as the wind was not that extreme, I managed to get the tangle off of the bar.

[@chrismacklin1094]

I’m learning so this video is helpful. You mentioned 30knot winds.. what size was your kite?

[@slappysurf]

LF Solo 6.5m

[@shreddagorge]

Glad the outcome was OK, and that's likely because you didn't panic. Some folks don't realize once that kite loops enough to tension all the lines, the safety release won't always do its job!

[@pje911]

Very true. it looks like pulling the safety here also somehow allowed the steering line to untangle because enough pressure was released. A friend of mine was in a similar situation. He pulled his safety and the kite was on the water. Then a gust pulled him 8-10 meters into the air on his leash. The sudden and unexpected jolt resulted in him breaking his back. He managed to get back to the beach, but due to the pain decided to stop off at the hospital. Where they kept him. He was very lucky not to have been paralysed. After an operation he is back surfing :-)

[@dirkdeluxe]

Glad to see you healthy.... I think you were Lucky that the safety worked. If he are more and more loops the lines might be so twisted that the safe does not work properly. Why didn't you assemble the Kite and restart it again?

[@slappysurf]

Even in calmer conditions I find that trying to reset the bar is very hit and miss. In these conditions I consider it too sketchy and just opted to rescue.

[@davidterlicher1985]

@@slappysurf totally agree, smart call. Better to take a hit to the ego than risking worse

[@clairesuperpony3262]

Thx for sharing. I would release immediately after having recognized that sth is wrong. This would give me time to think about the issue but I can also understand your reaction. Your strong lift could have ended also worse. Also in your other video with the crossed lines I think I would have released immediately while arriving at the beach, it is never a shame.

[@slappysurf]

It's usually the right call to punch your release in these kinds of situations but each kiter will have their own limit of when it's time to eject. As for the other video, there are a few extra concerns with releasing the kite there as it's a busy spot, off shore wind with only rocks downwind, and the premier boosting spot is right where your kite would end up once you've released.

[@clairesuperpony3262]

Agree, everybody behaves differently and it’s almost impossible to understand the situation correctly whatching the video only :-)

[@davidastrauss]

My first thought was also pull your release!

[@Magnificozas]

Intresting how you managed to swim back with off shore wind

[@slappysurf]

The wind was fully side-shore with about 3 km of clear water downwind.

[@joaopaulolopes8224]

So in this case, we first should try to balance the lines tension and wrap them on the bar, instead of using the safety release?

[@slappysurf]

No, this is not a tutorial or recommendation. The safest way to deal with this situation is to hit your release right away as soon as the kite starts to loop on it's own. I chose to try and equalize the steering on the kite so that I would have time to unwrap the wrapped line from the bar and continue my sessions instead of self rescuing.

[@DmitriyLaktyushkin]

Another Dmitriy already posted a link to the video that shows what to do. Punching out in this case was safe, but it's a bad habit since releasing does nothing for line in hook or centerline wrap and telling the 3 apart may not be possible when getting washed. Just practice reaching for the farther line and don't worry much about matching length, the kite will backstall in the scenarios where you shouldn't quick release. Do release completely if centerline wrap happens close to land in wind like this.

[@hexofficial69]

When you do self rescue, you should roll up your bar, that you dont get in danger in tangling lines

[@slappysurf]

I consider my self rescue technique much safer, faster and easier. - line crawl to kite without kicking ASAP (wearing floatation helps a lot) - secure kite with secondary kite leash - remove all 4 lines (a kite without lines presents almost 0 danger to anyone) - kite sail a bit to let your lines even back out - if you are close to the beach and not putting anyone else in danger just sail to shore with your lines trailing and deal with them on the beach - otherwise roll up your lines then kite sail to the beach, with un-tensioned lines rolling them up is quick and easy and leads to much less of a mess once you re-rig By rolling up your lines first you risk having a situation where the lines can slip causing the kite to power up and now with rolls on it you have no safety and must full release. You also risk entanglement during the roll up, and in a situation where your safety will be useless. You also spend a lot of time fighting the kite to roll up your kite in higher winds, by the time you've rolled up your lines I might be already on the beach with my method. With my method I'm holding the LE of the kite in my hand in under 1 minute, and once you have a good grasp of the LE of the kite 95% of the danger is gone.

[@kyleweiland6876]

The kite shouldn’t power up if you wrap the safety line first. Not wrapping you lines is dangerous. No kite company will agree with your method.

[@nextit91]

@@slappysurf does it mean you fully release? or you line crawl with the leash still attached to the bar?

[@slappysurf]

@@nextit91 I do not fully release, Once I'm at the kite I disconnect all 4 lines and then sail a bit to straighten out my lines then either wrap them up or finish sailing in with them trailing.

[@sebas0608459]

interesting method, i do understand that speed is sometimes necessary, especially if obstacles or shore break is near. i usually do this when the kite is close to some obstacles (e.g. ppl on the beach). But i must admit the.risk of getting tangled is there as well, shredded a wetsuit once when i got tangled in a line a sudden wave caught the kite...

[@kosmikmusa]

Scary. Was it 9m kite?

[@slappysurf]

It was a LF Solo 6.5m

[@suelsilva2053]

I think could be the kite/bar the problem.. this never happened with another kites.. Just with my LF solo.. 2 times.. but.. when realized what is happened.. when the kite loose presure.. you could take the Control again

[@EvanCrompton]

Congrats on your level head and trying to problem solve but I know I would have pulled the safety after the first loop 😅

[@wtfollow3594]

Should you let bar out after first uncontrolled loop?

[@scottklandl488]

U also switched hands after the crash and pulled on the affected side

[@slappysurf]

I didn't really "switch hands" so much as grab the bar while it was reversed when it was underwater and not visible. You can see that I had switched the bar around to correct orientation by the time I get yarded. When you are being dragged through the water at high speed and the bar is under murky water most of the time you pretty much have to choose a side and pull on it to figure out which side is the artificially short side. After you've figured it out you can react accordingly. Pulling on the side that is pinned also will often free the wrap as you are reducing the angle of the thing pinning the line allowing it so slide around the bar end. That's how I've dealt with these situations in the past but the conditions were too strong to allow for that here as I was getting pulled too aggressively downwind to get the line around the bar end.

[@LSR303]

I looked at the first part in horror, knowing what went wrong, but in a real life scenario it is very different obviously. Thank you for the interesting follow-up with the knowledge in hindsight.

[@anandaplays1490]

I litterly had to handle this yesterday it was really fucked up but eventually I made it totally save back

[@deniscoke7965]

Never ever try to launch a kite when lines wrapped, especially when it loops every time. From looping to the left, I can tell your left line is hooked around the bar and you need to just unhook it there. It’s actually very easy fix…😜 Done it hundred times at least! If you can’t stop it from launching and looping over and over again, you have to act fast and fix the lines when the kite is back in the water and you have less tension in them…🤙

[@slappysurf]

You make some assumptions from watching the video that you simply can't make when you are out in those conditions in real time. Firstly there is a total of 2 seconds between the first time I get to see the bar at all and the wave re-launching the kite. Secondly you use the term "left line" but that's not very helpful in these kind of situations to think in terms of "left" and "right" lines. You should be thinking in terms of "orange" and "black" like I mention in the commentary. This is because the bar is under murky water 80% of the time and "left" and "right" only work if you grab the bar the correct way. If you pay attention you'll even notice that I pull the "right" line to equal the tension but I have the bar backwards and the "right" line in that case is the wrong line! I also doubt you've experienced a wrap in conditions such as these, there is little time to "think" and you just have to react. I've had several bar end wraps in the past that I managed to get unpinned without much fan fare (not hundreds though, I question what bars you fly if you've had hundreds of them). This case was different primarily because of the power the kite was pulling me at (the murky water didn't help either). When you are getting yarded downwind at 5 m/s things are a little different.

[@deniscoke7965]

I don’t wanna argue here,just trying help as I see easy fix, which you turned into a proper kitemare…:) Left is left and I don’t care if it’s orange or pink. You must know how you rigged your own kite unless your gf is setting it for ya!? If you wanna talk about assumptions: you probably don’t assume you might be talking to someone who’s been kitting for a while and on top of that I was teaching it for years too. That’s why I confidently can say it happened to me/my clients for hundred times but someone like you-guessing from your skills, who haven’t even been out there so many times, must be hard to comprehend that! So yeah has nothing to do what bar I fly but what I saw is someone having no idea what you are doing but still feeling like an expert and doesn’t wanna hear an opinion. If you can’t handle the heat, you better leave the kitchen. Aloha

[@slappysurf]

@@deniscoke7965 Oh Denis, starting off with "I don't wanna argue" then proceeding to argue and on top of that signing with aloha (you might want to look up it's meaning). I don't think you are picking up what I'm laying down so it's probably not worth anymore effort trying to make it any more clear. I do find it odd that you claim that I "haven't been out there so many times" when this is my public channel with literally hundreds of videos of me being out there at times in some truly gnarly conditions.

[@deniscoke7965]

My bad, I am sorry, I wrongly assumed you didn’t spent more time in the water after watching only one video, where you come across as a complete newbie! You felt like a bag of potatoes towards the kite(first mistake) after beginner steering mistake causing slacking the lines and wrapping your left line-for you the orange one, around the bar. All of this above could have been already easily prevented! Learn how to fall folks! After set of mistakes you have already done, you are trying to launch the kite with evidently stuck line, grabbing a bar wrong way and after keep smashing it, you sissy out, pulled the release, completely killed everything, demonstrated one of the worse self rescues I’ve ever seen and not to forget: you lost your board you moron…😂🙈 Keep it up bro, you did everything the exactly opposite way!!!

[@deniscoke7965]

Btw aloha is not only as a greeting to start a beautiful convey…🥴

[@gastonbarouille767]

I love all of those "seeing the video on their sofa" comments....😅😅😅😅

[@garys2971]

facepalm

[@6whiteshadows]

Actually, this could've easily been prevented. Always check your bar for wrapped steering lines before you relaunch the kite after a crash.

[@blubb9004]

Yeah easily said from in front of a computer. Nice

[@6whiteshadows]

@@blubb9004 Was my phone actually. And I kite about 3 times a week

[@boredmalcontent]

My advice, though you didn't ask for it, would be to stop filming your activities - it seems to invite chaos?

[@tibberooijackers8708]

Bro, just do self rescue

[@tibberooijackers8708]

You’re right, I saw a few video’s where they explain you should pull the other line in order to stop the loop and then you should look what the problem is.