Pulling a 12m foil out of the sea...

Ok, so here's a lesson learnt. If you're flying a large foil over water, make sure there's enough wind to keep it flying

Was buggying at Bodega Bay at the weekend, and having some fun in < 10mph wind buggying along the narrow strip of hard sand at the waters edge, with the wind coming off land. At one point the wind completely dropped resulting in my 12.5m Blaze dumping in the sea.

I've pulled in kites from the sea before with some slow but steady pulling, but this was an altogether scary experience! The kite was half inflated sitting on top of the water so the wind was still pushing against it further out into the water. The other half was busy submerging itself and collecting all sorts of seaweed, sand, and a few gallons of seawater. To make things worse, it felt like the tide was going out, since the kite was gradually being pulled further out.

Digging in my heels and putting my weight against it I thought I could gradually pull it in, but oh no. With every wave it was dragging me through the sand, and getting heavier by the minute.

At one point I thought I might as well ditch it because it was a loosing battle. I didn't have a stake handy, so I dropped the handles and ran towards it, and lucky it didn't go much further out. I had to wade out to get it, and then pull it back in.

Getting it back on the beach I was surprised most of the weight was because it was full with gallons of water! The material must be pretty water proof.

After tipping out all the water and shaking out some sand, I got it more or less flyable, and within about 30min I had it flying again, and it was completely dry in about another 10mins.

The interesting thing though - the kite held together pretty well, despite getting some serious pull against it in all directions from me tugging at it, being filled with water and sand, and the waves pushing it in all directions, and it still looks new nows its dried off. I was worried that the seams would pop under the load, but it still looks pretty good.

A hard lesson to learn

:wow:

Kites build up static electricity and then be come a magnetic and are attracted to water like lightning :wink2: :wink2: :D

And if you believe that ..........

Actually, the park I fly in has a big tree way upwind but the wind shadow is over a small pond and it almost looks like that's what happens.

Use a foil for surfing. It's liberating. What I do is carry a large mesh laundry bag while surfing.

When you pull your foil out of the water 1)roll up your lines on your handles, 2)find the middle of the trailing edge, 3)slowly pull the trailing edge out of the water, 4)keep going until just about all the water is out of the kite, 5)stuff in your mesh bag and carry to a convient location to dry it out, 6)go back out surfing, 7)repeat as needed. Simple.

I've never ripped a foil kite pulling it out of the surf and never had a kite hurt after crashing it in the surf.

Scott