Kiteboarding Magazine

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2002-08-19 15:00:00 | 57 views | 0 Comments

''The Safety Leash that converts from ''4-line Fixed'' to ''Shackled Chicken Loop'' in 15 seconds or less.''

Corpus Christi, TX    August 10, 2002

At the Boards over the Bay event in Corpus Christi, I was talking to the guys at the Zero Gravity Kiteboarding School about how safe our sport is ………. or is not. We'd been running 38 kiters through heats in straight onshore conditions two afternoons in a row. Thank God, we got through it without anyone getting hurt. Silke's tragic death in Germany was brought up, as well, and the fact that it could have been avoided if kites didn't have that pesky tendency to get away from even the best riders. The real solution, according to Lou Wainman, is amazingly simple yet difficult to engineer: A kite that ''plays dead'' the second the rider let's go. Until such a water-relaunchable kite is invented, our focus returned to wearing a leash, and making leashes safer for the riders and bystanders alike.

The design parameters of the Zero Gravity 4-line Attached Riding / Release under Load system are:

- be safer for other kiters and bystanders, by attaching the rider to the bar

- be safer and more convenient for the rider, by attaching the rider to the bar with a quick-release system

- a quick-release system that is 1) easy to reach and 2) will release under load / in an emergency situation

- allow for riding 4-line fixed (hooked and unhooked) while leashed

- allow for depowering of the kite, even when riding 4-line fixed, in emergency situations

- allow for spinning the bar / clearing twists, while leashed

The solution is amazingly simple (see attached photo). The internally bungeed webbing strap with a release-under-load shackle on the end is the heart of the system. It slips on in the center of the spreader bar, between the posts of the hook. The only other requirement is that the 4-line fixed power strap is run through the Center Hole in your bar, so that there's a loop to attach the shackle to (metal ring, or simply a ''bowlin'' knot, as in the attached photo.)

In order for the system to work optimally, the webbing strap must be long enough that only with arms fully outstretched in the ''superman'' position will the chicken loop be engaged (depowering the kite.) With bent elbows, the depower mechanism will not kick in. Only in an emergency, when your arms get pulled straight out in front of you, will the kite depower.That way, you can ride as if you were riding 4-line fixed. It works both hooked in and unhooked. For example, you can do Raley's and S-bends, which depend on being unhooked, fully powered in 4-line fixed mode. Only if you eat it bad and get fully outstretched will the kite depower. You should be able to hang on and recover, with the kite depowered, in situations where you'd otherwise have lost your kite. If you can't handle the power surge and you are headed for a ''bad place'' (rocks, docks, or other hard objects) you can reach over and pull the release on the shackle, letting the kite blow away. Of course, this should only be done in a true emergency.

To give credit where credit is due, the webbing strap was stitched together at Pro Kitesurf Gear in Corpus Christi by Jeff Howard, who's also responsible for R&D for AiRush accessories. So don't be surprised if you see this strap with an AiRush logo on it in the future. The system as designed by Pete Nordby at the Zero Gravity Kitebaording School.