7/16-22 Cape Cod

[Ralph Morrison]

I just got back from a week in Cape Cod. It was like the good, the bad and the ugly. The good was that I got three good days. One was in the waves in the ocean. The wind was sideshore and the waves were small but well formed. It was fun and easy, going down the line. There was a section of beach that was a nesting area for the endangered Piping Plover that I had to stay away from. It wasn't a problem because there was plenty of room. That's not the case on the bay side where they closed a popular kiting beach because of it.

I'll skip to the ugly next. I was having a great day in the Wellfleet Harbor riding a lit 10 meter. There was good swell and a smooth area behind the jetty. I fell landing a jump and my chicken loop security released by itself. As I was putting it back together, the kite tumbled, then went up and crashed ripping the leading edge wide open. As I was working my way down a line to the kite the lines drifted into a bouy becoming tangled. I had to swim in to the bouy to free it, but became wrapped in the lines. I managed to free them from the bouy but had lines around my legs and in my harness. It wasn't bad at first, but the more I kicked the more wrapped my legs got. It got to the point that I could barely move my legs. I kept my cool and drifted about a quarter mile toward shore. Eventually a boat came by and picked me up.

I told Eric Gustafson about it later and he told me about a time when a kiter fell and her lines wrapped a bouy, then the kite powered up, pulling her to the bouy, then pulling both of them under water. Fortunatly there was another kiter that was able to cut her free. So the lesson is beware of the seemingly benign bouy. Another lesson is that if your chicken loop release has a bungee, replace it if it's weak or stretching. Right now I'm very mad at Ocean Rodeo for underdesigning the release system and putting me in a bad situation, but had i known it was happening, I should have taken personal responsibility to upgrade it myself. The bad was that it blew 10 meter a couple days later and I couldn't go out.

Despite the kitemare it was a great trip. Kiting, surfing and eating great food.

[JimSouthwick]

Scary kitemare! Glad you were able to deal with it successfully. This will no doubt seem impertinent to many (coming, as it does, from a not-very-good snowkiter) but does anyone in the local kiting community carry a kite knife ( e.g. http://www.bigwinds.com/kite/category/50/product/1862 )? Several years ago, when I first started messing around with kites, I was told that a kite knife was an essential piece of safety equipment.

[Ralph Morrison]

I had a knife in my harness and was prepared to start cutting if it got too bad. As it was, my arms were free and I still had some flotation in the kite so I waited it out.

[Ralph Morrison]

An update to my situation, Ocean Rodeo is giving me a new kite and upgraded parts for the chicken loop release.

[Jason Klein]

Ocean Rodeo is giving me a new kite and upgraded parts

Sweet! I've also had good experiences with their customer service. They seem to really try to take care of the people that purchase their gear.