I use an inflatable LEI kite on the water and my 7.5 HQ Apex for landboarding. The operation of the 4 kite lines on the LEI kites seems intuitive but is different in some ways on the foil.

Question:
Why do the 2 safety releases, on the center lines and on the chicken loop, on the Apex flag out to the outside rear bridle lines - the same lines that add power when the bar is pulled in during normal use? It appears that the method to ¨kill¨ the Apex is to stall it instead of depowering it. Doesn´t that involve putting it initially into a powered-up phase before it stalls?

I realize HQ knows what they are doing. I just want to understand better the foil.

The back lines can't add power to a kite with loose front lines. Don't think of it as pulling in on the back lines but releasing the front lines. The kite is almost fully flagged on the primary safety.

As Bob has said. In reality, you do power up the kite for a split nano-second but the top lines are dumped out so quickly that it makes it nearly undetectable. The safety system on the Apex is similar to the safety system developed by Ozone for the Frenzy - originally called the "Re-Ride Safety" system. It is an awesome effective safety system that allows you to instantly kill the kite without having to dump the control bar.

My expirience has been in some wind conditions the primary safety isn't enough. The flag out isn't complete.

Both the HQ and Ozones can still drag you by the brake lines after you pop the hat. It's usually manageable to a point but sometimes the redundency of 2 safety releases comes in handy.

I have never been pulled after deploying the primary safety release. There is the option of hooking up a leash on both of these foils though so you can rig that way if you wanted.

Also, you have the secondary and final release on the chicken loop at all times in case the primary release fails for some reason.

Thanks for your helpful comments Bob, Kent and Feyd.

Some further comments and another question:

Although it is advertised as a ¨leashless system¨ last weekend I had an inadvertent release of my chicken loop from my harness and altthough I managed to hold onto the bar I could have easily let it slip and lost the kite. I have no idea why the chicken loop released but it did. No prob.though - I always wear a leash.

I did a quick study of the amount of center line loosening that occurs on a release and it is about 4 ft. with the ¨top hat¨ device and another 4 ft. with the chicken loop safety to a leash. I guess it would make no sense to release to both as 4 ft. is probably adequate but it is comforting to know there is more if the top hat release isn´t enuf.

It appears the point of the re-ride release is to be able to retrieve the end of the center lines and replace it without coming out of the chicken loop. That, apparently is the reason for the loops on the leader lines - to attach to the bar while you are replacing the top hat safety. Clever idea but no mention of it on the setup DVD.

Question: I haven¨t flown my Apex enuf to figure this out but it seems that I experience a frequent lack of increase in power on pulling in the bar suggesting I am stalling the kite. I have positioned the center line adjustments to the shortest knots but it doesn´t seem to help. Maybe I am flying in less than ideal wind speeds but I don´t think so as it happens at 20 knots. Any tips?

Thanks in advance.
Fred