Demo. For you brother. Congrats!

Yes. dead "men". As in plural. As in two turns.
Watch fast right at the beginning for the first. I was trying to turn my gopro on when I realized he was about to get it on. The second one is better. Sorry for the shaky vid bud. Wish I could have had it on a tri pod, but it's all I got. Blow up to full HD/full screen. Good job my friend. :D

"This video is private."

Dang it... Did it again. I should "publish" before posting LMFAO. Apologies. How about now?

Awesomely smooth!

Very Cool

Very nice Errol... Fo sho!

Deadmans turn is so cool. I've heard some people say it gives you no advantage in turning around quickly but that's missing the point. Everything we do in traction kiting on water or land involves being locked into some sort of crosswind. The deadmans turn defies the rules, allowing you to temporary escape this one dimensional world.

I could watch these all day.

dude was banging them out! nice

Awesome! Thanks for posting this. My girlfriend was asking if anyone caught it on video when I was bragging to her about it.

This is something that I've never tried since it's more of a trick than a tool for going fast. But no one can deny that it's cool to have your kite pointing 180 degrees away from the guy just down the beach. Anyone who is analytical would be mind blown to see someone do one of these.

After I nailed the first one it just kind of clicked. And definitely no practical purpose that I can think of, because you would use a suicide jibe for the same scenario if you actually wanted to turn downwind and retain any speed. It just looks awesome to fly a kite straight 180 degrees upwind of you. My favorite part of the video is the perfect high speed high five!

I forgot to type that you have me motivated to give this a shot on a light to medium wind day.

Bob, like Mark said, I nailed it on my first try. All he did was explain to me a little about how to do it and I gave it a shot. Once I did that, I was banging them out. I must have done 20-30 that same day right after. The feeling is hard to describe, but it just feels right. It is the hardest pull I have ever felt from a kite because you are effectively banging out two down turns in a row directly through the center of the window in under 5 seconds.

The are fun to do, and they look awesome to spectators. I will be pulling them off whenever I get a chance now. Although I fear my beach is now too soft to hold enough speed to do it anymore until the fall.

that later afternoon wind at Ivanpah is ideal Bobby - something reasonably steady. You can do it in light wind but it's not quite as easy unless you have a lighter kite that likes to fly out front so it'll get around through the light upwind part. A little more wind than light - in that moderate range is better with building up a decent amount of speed. If you try it too light then it may take once or twice to get the feel for how much pressure you want to put on the arc of steering around and if you drag the kite on the dry lake it hurts (the kite) a bit more than on sand. I've done them on fixed bridle from the 8.6 down to 5.5 so it was using my bigger kites and never tried it with smaller fixed bridles. With arcs usually my 12 - 9 size but I did do them working up buggy speed in lighter wind using my 6.5 Charger 2 because it was on short lines and I could whip it around faster. The bigger arcs 15/16 should also be possible but i would be tempted to use my lighter shorter line sets to keep the kite speed up.
You'll be able to do it no problem Bobby - just practice the first one on a dirty kite not one of your new ones.


Oh, and it depends on what you do as you are 3/4 of the way around and the kite re-enters the far end of the wind window starting to accelerate. You can then do a down turn on the kite to bring it down and around to go in the direction your buggy is pointed (which will be same direction of travel that you started with) OR as the kite starts to accelerate you can snap turn the buggy around to follow the kite so you are now going with the buggy in the opposite direction to what you started. With my smaller buggy this would usually be a nice point to snap around up onto two wheels to finish it off as you ride away.

Nice .... congrats Demoknight .... I fail to do it on last WBB .... I try few times with my 5m Gin Tonkawa but never got it to come around .....

I don't know if I'll ever be able to pull this move off or not.


Here's some more tips and video: http://popeyethewelder.com/informational/deadmans-turn

Awesome work! Wow does the video capture that wonderful moment. JIBE. Early evening, when the sun turns the entire beach gold, the smell of the sand and ocean peak, and the wind is as smooth as butter. I'm there with you.

High five demoknight. Next up, buggying backwards and doing everything you can do going forwards :-)

getting closer to JIBE so thought it would be good to give you a little to think about for this year - check out the first one on this video.
The kite does the 360 but the buggy just does a 180. You need a bit more room to run upwind to pull that kite right around behind you then back into the window again as you finish of a 180 jibe on the buggy. At one point you gotta bring your lines up over your head and then to the other side while the kite is behind you - nice!

Damn. Another thing that makes me consider buggying. Those are really awesome!

It looks like he comes almost to a complete stop in the first one when the kite digs back in on the far left of the window. I bet that would be an interesting way to initiate a reverse ride in the same direction, like a 3 point turn in a car.

We should re-name that stretch of beach just past the high-tide warning sign as "Dead Man's Bend". Just makes you want to say "AAARGH!

I wonder if you can use a deadman turn to create a new type of obstacle turn. Like try to put a cone at the center of your deadman and circle around it twice.