Dude... So i went (or attempted at least) flying this past weekend with my synergy... the winds were a little crazy (going from lulls below 10mph to gusts above 30mph) but i really wanted to get some air so i went out anyways. I got on my harness and got the lines all setup... Launched the kite and... "dude... there's something weird..." I noticed that the bar was waaay further out than it normally was.. I look down only to realize that my spreader bar had like 5 inches of space between me and the back of the spreaderbar pad.

What ended up happening was I didn't hook the spreader bar in correctly so the strap was slowly letting itself out on one side. I was attempting to pull in the spreader bar and fix it while flying (not very safe) and as i was doing so the kite was a zenith but I got picked up 2-3 feet... fully depowered and trimmed. lol... too much wind. At this point i had like less than an inch of strap left so it was about to come out and that woulda been nasty. So i flagged out, packed up... and went for pie instead.

Anyone else have some sort of story that has to do with equipment failure or user error like the one above?

yeah i had a harness separate about a mile out on the water

got back in ,,knife & zip ties + 20min. right back to the session at hand

another day cruzin the surf break with super nice onshore breeze pop over the waves back and forth. as i look down and notice the main line and immediaely think tat gonna break! and within seconds it breaks and the rig is now in the dunes up a tree. thankfully i was only in the break. (suicide leash )

it happens and things break ..learn to swim

yea one time a long time ago the winds were cranking. i was in such hurry to put my buggy together i forgot to tighten the back wheels. i got about 100ft and a rear wheel came off.
DOH !!!!!!!!!!!!

I had a harness failure last yr during Hurricane Dollys swell. The harness failed in it stiching! This failure sent the safety hook through the palm of my hand. I had to ditch the kite and swim in from the 3rd set out in major rips. I collected all my equipment on the beach and promptly drove to the ER. 5 stiches! I laid off the kiting for 3 days! I just flew one handed and alot of liquid skin. When the crap hits the fan it happens quick! The shop replaced the harness with a Dakine that ripped in the seat 3 weeks later. They replaced it again. One month later same rip. I just started sewing up the week points. That harness is now dead! I went back to using My PL seat harness with little problems or wear........aj

yep,

i was using a windsurf harness back in 1999. they arent designed like they are now with the better spreader bar clips on both sides. It was a single sided entry with a plastic buckle. Anyways, I was moving at high speeds on the drylake and the harness spreader released and the only thing that was holding it in place on one side was my RIB.
buggied back to camp, and drove to the hotel First Aid, got taped up and continued the rest of the week at NABX.

buggy memories

i always check my straps or spreader clips are in place correctly before going on a ride.

When I got my first arc 13m guerilla 1, I used to just kite jump. This was before I got my board. One day the winds were 26 gusting well into the 30s. I went for a pendulum and was really high. When I landed I hit the safety because I had never been above the 25' mark. The problem occurred when my bar hit a tangle as it was flagging out causing the kite to go into a death spiral. I was being dragged toward the street at the far end of the field very quickly. My best friend had to run and grab a spar to dump out the power. After that I bought a zero7 bar so I won't have to worry faulty safety releases

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Originally posted by bugymangp yea one time a long time ago the winds were cranking. i was in such hurry to put my buggy together i forgot to tighten the back wheels. i got about 100ft and a rear wheel came off. DOH !!!!!!!!!!!!

HAHAHAHA!! i did that too!! after 15 minutes of riding--i stopped and said to myself"wow! this buggy doesnt seem normal today" then i tightened up the bolts and off i went lol

This is fun, I was just re-telling this story yesterday:
A few years back at NABX it was a good wind day out using a 2.5 Raptor all day and then late afternoon winds smoothed so I went to the 3.5 Raptor to try and push one run to max speed even though the 2.5 was still hitting mid 50's. Did the usual run angling off a bit downwind as I reached a high speed and started to work the kite a sine and really started to pick up speed and zipped up into the low 50's and getting into the mid lake wind trough and got into a gust and the lines went tight, kite strained with power as I was now accelerating like mad taking a quick glimpse seeing it whizzing up into the high 50's and still accelerating with the power when I got slammed by a gust within the gust and the kite shoots way in front collapses and I fly by it trying to make a move to unhook as I see it pop open behind me pointing the other way. The split second thought was "I'm dead" and then all kinds of cracks and pops as right away three of the Q-Power lines snap and one of the PVC handles snaps in half! ..... I lived thanks to the failures.

WOW! lol dude those are some insane stories. AJ, that definitely makes me want to check my harness every time I hook up even more so after my little mishap. flyjump i've had a similar situation where i couldn't stop and was getting pulled towards the road... i was boarding and i got lofted which ended in a crash. I was able to get myself down nice and soft but the problem was stopping myself from scudding straight into the parking lot. I pulled the emergency release and started sprinting straight back because it was starting to flag out over the top of some metal handicap signs.... luckily the kite had no harm done, amazingly. I would have thought it woulda gotten a slice from the sharp metal sign!

Buggy wheels falling off... man i wish i coulda seen that rip. LOL.

Hey markite, that was an amazing story dude... mind if i pass it on? You totally did luck out. WOW.

Jeez AJ you're a bit of a walking disaster

Took my Phantom out on the Zero7 bar the first time and crossed the lines during setup (muh) but only noticed when the kite went up. It flew fine but I put it down by holding the self landing handle then popping the safety.

Unbeknown to me, the safety leash had, at the factory, been put on to the self landing handle pig tail and not the ring - so the kite flagged a bit but the jerk as the kite blew downwind was enough to rip the pig tail out of the handle ... Phantom, bar and lines floated gently downwind with my fat arse in hot pursuit! Must have been a sight - rolly polly me in a big ol' nappy seat harness hauling ass after a black and blue balloon drifting away
A bunch of drunk 4x4 donut-doers grabbed it for me and thankfully just held onto it till I got there ... no harm done.

Dragged out the Zero4 bar, re-rigged and spent a happy hour or so zooming around scudding, jumping and playing. Wasn't until I went to land that I noticed the safety release had popped halfway undone :eek:

Not really a fail but ... when I broke my wrist, I got a buddy at the beach to pack up the kite - we got a 'club house' across the road so he grabbed all my stuff and took it there. I thought he did well to pack up an arc, considering he'd never seen one before ... until I noticed the spars were missing went back to the beach and sure enough, there they were right next to my slam site ...!

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Hey markite, that was an amazing story dude... mind if i pass it on? You totally did luck out. WOW. Sure, one of those moments that sticks in the back of my mind every time I'm ripping down the lake in gusty winds and I see the kite get a bit dodgy - time to ride unhooked :-) Here's a pic of the memento I kept from that near death experience. Mark

Wow markite, I vote broken handle for the win.

today the top of my left flexifoil handle snapped off and i had another pair of flexi handles that snapped right in half as well as some hq handles--its a shame the handles broke today--i was in the middle of a grass run where i HAD to be approaching 50 or more......and dont even mention kite killers--ive broken plenty of those, but the newer hq are very solid....... i only broke 1 pair of handles today not 3--that would be a record

were they the flexi pro link handles or the regular handles. I was reading on the former flexi forum now kitecrowd, that they had a lot of breakage problems on the regular handles and used to replace them free of charge but it didn't sound like that was an easy replacement anymore. I see that they were a solid handle and susceptible to breaking a lot more than a tube construction handle would for the material used.
I have a set of the pro handles, heavy suckers, haven't used them yet.

they were the hollow ones--i have 2 sets of the prolink and they seem indestuctible --havent had a single issue with them-- well worth the money

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Originally posted by kitejumper i was in the middle of a grass run where i HAD to be approaching 50 or more......

Approaching 50 or more in a buggy? Nice

I have a passion for creating as much power as I can from my foils. As I am sure you all do too. So I have broken every set of handles I have bought. Luckly I work in the construction buisness. I bent up some 7/16 rebar welded loops onto each end. Now I only break pigtails. But I keep a few in my pocket when I'm playing.
Dave

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Originally posted by rocfighter I have a passion for creating as much power as I can from my foils. As I am sure you all do too. So I have broken every set of handles I have bought. Luckly I work in the construction buisness. I bent up some 7/16 rebar welded loops onto each end. Now I only break pigtails. But I keep a few in my pocket when I'm playing. Dave

lol Now that's hardcore.

Yeah, I've seen them,and the heavy leather gloves he wears when flying!

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Originally posted by rocfighter I have a passion for creating as much power as I can from my foils. As I am sure you all do too. So I have broken every set of handles I have bought. Luckly I work in the construction buisness. I bent up some 7/16 rebar welded loops onto each end. Now I only break pigtails. But I keep a few in my pocket when I'm playing. Dave

hahaha!! very good!! glad im not the only insane power kiter--after seeing forgivens past avatars, we can throw him in the mix.....lol

I always wanted to fly as a kid... powerkiting was the door to living my dreams.

Ok so this pails in comparison to markites story, but a couple of years ago i was out cruising around on skis on slick hardpacked snow in a large field near my home. I was flying a Slingshot B4 which is a FB with a third line. They have a regular bar with chicken loop setup. The winds were cranking up into the mid to upper twenties which was plenty with a pair of skis on snow that was like glazed, frozen concrete. Not exactly ideal conditions, and not exactly the right kite, either. This was my first year of kiting btw. Anyway, I'm pretty well powered up and in control most of the time, when suddenly the small metal loop on the bottom of the bar that holds the chicken loop snapped. Basically now im flying the kite just hanging on to the bar with my hands. These kites have a third line that you can pull to kill the kite. Well, try as i might, i couldn't hold the bar with one hand and hall in the third line with the other. I was zipping along skipping over frozen drifts and hangin' on for dear life. Flying the kite up to zenith just left me with the bar outstretched above my head, especially with the winds gusting harder now, (or so it seemed) so i just kept trying to make my way back which of course happened to be pretty much downwind from where the malfunction occured. I did eventually get back without crashing....just barely, but I still had to get the kite down. It wasn't pretty, but I ended up flying the kite over to the side of the window and letting it drop onto the snow and then hauling it to me by one line. Yes, i ended up with a big snarl of lines and a tangled up mess, but i survived without getting hurt or damaging anything and gained a lot of respect for the wind that day.