Safety Meeting: halting the death spiralling dirt superman

4Stringer/KipWinger · Since 27 Apr 2005 541 Posts Hood River Addicted

Arrived at the sandspit at the peak of the wind yesterday. As I was about to pump-up, I looked upwind on the spit. A guy was in dirty superman position getting raked downwind on the sand by a death spiralling kite. Those in the area responded by running toward the kite with the intent of stopping it. I happened to get there first and reached up to try to grab the kite by an end and flag it. I caught a handful of lines. Suffice it to say it wasn't what I had-in-mind. The kite was still at almost full power when one of the lines wrapped around my finger. Within a couple seconds I was able to stop the pull by grabbing the fifth line as someone helped by yelling "FIFTH LINE" repeatedly. It ended okay, but my embarassment in creating another potential big problem left me thinking about how I could have responded more safely to the situation.

I'm thinking that I should-have run upwind of the kite and gotten a better view of it before reaching out to grab an end. Generally, what is the safest way to stop a death spiralling kite on land?

Hein · Since 08 Mar 2005 1314 Posts Possessed

don't grab it.
tackle it.
and bunch up as much
of the canopy as you can

forrest · Wed May 23, 07 8:13 am

Dude, Kudos for even trying to help the situation. I would say you did what you had to to keep someone from getting all kinds of fubar'd.

I suppose that a front line is better than a steering line, fifth line (if there is one) is better than a front line. But, if you can't get to the kite, then you really don't have any chance of stopping it shy of tackling the guy and hoping your additional body weight will help the situation.

I'm glad you still have your fingers. Smile

shredbarbie · Since 17 Sep 2005 97 Posts Hood River, OR

Great job 4stringer. I saw this happen and awesome job stopping the kite. It being that the kite was sort of low to the ground during the spiral, I probably would have run downwind of it and stopped the whole kite with my body by tackling it, but that's risky with timing and I'm not sure you had enough time. Stuff like that happens so fast, that it's hard to 'plan' it out.

You definitely saved that guy.

I also have to say kudos to the work party from Sat. If we had not cleaned up the logs on that beach, I shudder to think what would have happened to him.

Hopefully the folks at the Port will read this and see that the efforts to make the sandbar safer have already come into play.

Also, I talked to him after he got up to the parking lot and asked him if I could post this... His mistake was attaching his safety line to the wrong part of the kite, hence not being able to depower / detach. Thankfully an easy lesson learned, since he didn't get hurt.

A good reason to always carry a knife. I carry a long jack knife (bought at Windance) put tape around the end so it doesn't randomly slice thru stuff, and attach it to my harness with elastic cord so I don't drop it during a panic situation. I am not sure what this guy would have done if someone would not have caught him to help him. E.g. worst case scenario where he was alone and death spiraling down the beach unable to detach.

Again, Kudos to all kiters during the cleanup and to 4Stringer. Dangerous situations happen with kiting, and through everyone's efforts a bad accident was avoided. That is the whole goal, so great job.

-Kirsten

pdxmonkeyboy · Wed May 23, 07 11:11 am

A 12 gauge shotgun would have stopped the kite. You could also grab long steak knives in both hands and swing them wildly while lunging at the kite.

bulae99 · Since 12 Jul 2006 1692 Posts XTreme Poster

Bottom line is that you stopped a bad day from becoming deadly. I was amazed at your quick unselfish move to stop the kite. Way to go!! Very Happy

J.P. · Since 10 Mar 2005 638 Posts Addicted