Harnesses, Leashes and Connecting to Power
Water kiting requires the rider to go out over-powered. A large amount of energy is needed
to get out of the water and up on plane, on a board with insufficient buoyancy. Much less
power required to maintain oneself once up and on plane. Hence the use of de-power systems
as the major function of that 4-line rig.
Kite maneuverability is not the issue on water that it can be on land. Maneuverability induces drag.
Drag reduces power, Reduced power puts you down in the water. Most riders don't have the kite background
to appreciate the performance potential of more maneuverability, so slower, stable, "constant-grunt",
bladder-style sails work fine to grow the water side of the sport.
Risk: Being over-powered means occasionally (sometimes on purpose, sometimes not) getting booted into the air.
Water absorbs most of that energy upon re-entry. Riders shackle to their kite, and not their board, for safety and
self-rescue issues.
Land-based traction does not have those specific starting requirements. Getting rolling on bearings required much
less power to start and to maintain velocity. We go out under-powered, but utilizing faster, more-efficient, more
maneuverable, ram-air foils (typically) and by "zooming" the kite vertically near the edge, we can increase power and speed.
The faster an airfoil moves through the air, the more power it can generate and the faster you can go. Velocity-Made-Good.
A gift from the gawds of wind, to us.
The penalty of being overpowered, a much more serious situation on land, is greatly reduced.
Going out under-powered on land does not result in sinking.
Now, that being said, allow me to try to tie these thought together in some cohesive form...
I do not believe in leashes on land. I believe in skills.
I have a strap between the tops of my handles. I wear a chest harness with a simple downward facing hook.
Don't recommend chest harnesses. Seat and Waist harnesses are safer. The hook height is above my center of gravity (butt)
and it doesn't release if I fall. It drags me. Twice in 14 years of buggying. But I accept the risks and the consequences for my personal comfort.
I like my brake lines so slack that full-reverse on the handles just backs the kite up. If it collapses while backing-up, the brakes are on too much.
That's the set-up. The circumstances for my philosophy on harnesses, leashes and power connections.
I know that I must practice what to do when things start going wrong. I've been there. There's often only a spilt-second where the correct action can save the moment.
I don't want to waste that moment trying to think what-to-do.
So I practice these three steps for "When-Things-Go-Wrong":
- First: Full-reverse on the handles. That stalls the kite but doesn't stop the buggy.
The mistake here is to turn the buggy upwind with the kite falling into the middle of the down-wind window, behind your back. Don't let that kite power-up. Pop you right out.
Called an O-O-B-E. (Out-Of-Buggy-Experience) Trick is to lift your handles up high over your head (to keep your lines away from your wheels) and spin (not turn) the buggy downwind.
That'll use up most if not all the energy.
- Second: Grab the bottoms of both handles in one hand and reach up with your other hand, grab the brakelines and pull them.
This reverses and inverts the kite. Most problems are solved here, but sometimes not. So...
- Third: Let Go. Completely Let Go. The kite is up-side-down and back-wards. It's not a kite, except in name... It's falling cloth.
So it's not going anywhere far. And all the energy stops working on you. The leashes don't really let you separate from the kite.
You release control, but you're still connected. On land, sometimes just de-powering is not enough. It might be the connection between rider and kite that needs to part.
Releasing a kite that is powered-up is irresponsible
Part of using harnesses is knowing when not to. While I "wear" my harness all the time, I "use" it only when appropriate. To transfer energy and relieve strain.
On gusty days, I'm out of the harness more often than in. During high-speed turns and going in and out of the pits area - Not in the harness. But I wear it all the time.
So leashes seem to be a desire to find a "magic" way to replace skills. A false sense of security that lulls us into complacency. "Nothing bad has happened yet... So why worry?"
I fail to see the logic in that. I fear it might be the science of marketing shouting down the process of building skills.
These of course are only my opinions. I'm often wrong..... But never in doubt.
The Coreylama
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