As the name suggests, the Death Loop is a very dangerous situation that can happen to virtually anyone due to gear failure or a line getting wrapped around your bar or hooked through your harness in some way. Year after year many kiteboarders around the world get hurt or even die because of the so called “Death Loop”, and in many cases, releasing your safety system has no effect. It can even happen to highly experienced kitesurfers if caught off guard.

For this reason, Anton Chernyshov from Advakite.com put together a great video tutorial demonstrating a number of techniques to quickly and safely get your kite back under control without ever having to release your safety system.

We highly recommend you watch the entire video tutorial below, however we’ve also summarized the various techniques in case you can’t watch the video for some reason.

Surviving the Death Loop Video Tutorial

If you are reading this tutorial in an email or RSS feed, please click here to watch the video tutorial.

Examples of Situations that can cause the Death Loop

• Centre depower line (front lines) wrap around the bar
• One of the steering lines gets hook around the bar end or clip
• Steering line wraps around your harness hook

Activating your safety system may not help, as the depower system is locked around the bar or the steering line is hooked on your harness. It also makes the situation worse, because now the bar is out of your reach, making it impossible to rectify the situation. Your only option left is to cut away from the kite entirely.

How to Stop the Loop of Death

To stop the kite, simply grab the farthest steering line and pull it hard. That’s it… the kite will stall and fall out of the sky. If you are battling to pull this line, wait for the kite to hit the surface of the water, as it will be much easier to stall the kite while it has briefly stopped moving.

Securing the Kite Afterwards

Once you’ve stopped the kite, pull the steering line in even more to ensure your kite remains depowered. Then you have several options:

1. Untangle your lines and carefully relaunch your kite. Make sure the lines are completely free before attempting to relaunch the kite. You can untwist the lines once your kite is in the air.
2. If you are worried about your lines being tangled or there is a dangerous obstacle ahead of you, you can proceed straight to the self rescue. First wrap the steering line you already pulled in around the bar about 10 times to secure the kite in a depowered state. Then proceed with the self rescue as normal.
3. If you are in shallow water, you can just walk up the steering line towards the kite. Be sure not to get yourself entangled in any loose lines and don’t wrap the lines around your hands or fingers in case the kite does power up and relaunch accidently.

Practice

We don’t recommend practicing death loops on the beach or even in the water, as you could potentially hurt yourself or someone else. But you can practice preparing for the various scenarios using your bar and lines at home as demonstrated in the video. Repeat a few times with your eyes closed in case your bar is under the water when you’re in a tricky situation.

If you have questions or you’d like to share your own experiences, please post them in the comments below. And please share this information with others, as you might save someone from serious injury or death.

PS: A big thank you to Anton Chernyshov for taking the time to make this great video and for sharing his knowledge and experience with everyone.

Surviving the Death Loop was published by inMotion Kitesurfing.

This is a guest post by one of our community members. The author’s views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of inMotion Kitesurfing.

With the increase in water pollution around the world it’s hard not to think about where you next want to kiteboard…

Everyday countless articles are posted about the Fukushima disaster, plastic killing marine life and the devastation of coral reefs which are easy to read, feel angry about and then to move on from. If you don’t play and/or work in the ocean it’s easy to forget, but for some of us it hits deep. What can we do? The problems are too big to solve, but yet our livelihoods are slowly being destroyed.  

My own experience with water pollution might come as a surprise, but I guarantee I’m not the only person who has had to deal with these situations. All over the world it is happening daily and by the time you are finished reading this article you might think twice about your next kiteboarding holiday destination.

Let’s start back in 2009 when I moved to Nicaragua. I went to set up a kite school based out of San Juan Del Sur with the Surf Ranch boys. They had this big idea to set up an action sports resort where you could rock climb, skateboard, paintball, kitesurf & surf. I loved the concept right from the start and was excited to be part of the team. When I arrived in Nicaragua and met the boys I was shocked to find out the ranch was not built yet and there was nothing more than paint-balling set up!

I’m not sure what felt worse…. my foolishness for jumping on a plane so quick or the fact I was now stuck somewhere new and dangerous with no job, very little money and only survival in mind. I was stressed to say the least!

After some time and a lot of socializing I found a guy named David who owned a surf shop in town. He said he had some old kite gear in storage that he wasn’t using and I was welcome to work with him in the shop. Dave literally saved my ass because by this point I was completely out of money. Within about a month I had a couple of lessons booked and ended up finding the perfect location on Lake Nicaragua to teach from. The Barrios family owned a large piece of land right next to the Costa Rica border where they also had a wind farm. Their private beach on the lake was large and clear, making for a beautiful spot to kite from. I developed a wonderful relationship with the family and to this day we stay in touch. Everything was coming along nicely with my kite school until I started getting eye infections every time I went in the water. I’ve never been prone to this sort of thing, so I began to look into why it was happening.

What I discovered is not as shocking as it is disturbing. None of the cities or villages in Nicaragua have sewage treatment plants. They pump the sewage directly into the lake, and for a population of nearly 6 million people, this is just downright gross! Upon finding this out, I sent emails to different government officials addressing this issue. The only reply I received was from one of the officials who wanted to learn to kiteboard and he was asking about lessons. We got talking via LinkedIn about the lake pollution and he told me there were no plans in place to treat sewage in the near future. After hearing this I decided it was not worth risking my health, so I packed up and looked for a new place to set up.

2010, and the Yucatan, Mexico, was my new home. Miles and miles of untouched beaches and year round wind… a kiteboarding paradise. I had never heard of Merida before I moved there and when my cousin offered me a place to stay I was excited about the new adventure. Shortly after I got there I researched the local kitesurfing community and discovered there was a competition being held the following week. I messaged each one of the people attending the event explaining I was a kiteboarder new to the area. I was welcomed to the competition and I ended up making really good friends with some of the local riders who supported me in setting up the first official kite school in the area. It was a bit of a slow start but soon I was so busy teaching locals from Merida I could hardly keep up. Eventually I began receiving more and more clients from abroad and realized there was a distinct lack of places for them to stay and be comfortable in while traveling. My next step… rent a luxury villa on the beach from which to run my school and accommodation for traveling kiters. Between the local clients and my all-inclusive packages my school was doing well. Then people started getting sick.

At first I thought it was just a serious flu going around but in time I began to see the correlation between the amount of time people spent in the water and when they got sick. Clients who booked rooms in my villa were leaving early, my students were too sick to finish their lessons and I was losing too much money to continue. Finally after seeing an Angelfish dead on the beach with bulging eyes, my partner Nick began researching the water quality in the area and stumbled upon some unbelievable reports right on our kite spot via Google Earth.

The report was longer than many others we found describing the hypoxic and eutrophic conditions. Eventually we found multiple articles talking about two things, one the sewage being dumped directly in the sea from many local businesses and two, the oil leak Pemex had not fixed on the pier. Apparently the local gas company had a small leak on a pipe leading out along the four mile long pier in the centre of Progreso. The amount of money they were losing from the leaking oil was not as much as the cost to repair the leak properly, so after a couple of years the water became toxic. In fact Pemex’s checkered history with oil spills started as far back as 1979 with the Ixtoc I oil spill. An area which used to be rich in sea grass feeding populations of manatees was dead. The pods of dolphins no longer passed by in the mornings and tropical fish were washing up with eyeballs popping out of their heads. Time to leave…. Again!

Closing down two schools I put my heart and soul into setting up was difficult to swallow. The thing that makes me upset more than anything is the reason it happened. I am still constantly being asked by people about traveling to Nicaragua or the Yucatan for kiteboarding and although both places are great for their own reasons I would use caution when riding there, especially in Nicaragua. My reasons for closing down my schools may come as a surprise to you, but with the clean water situation becoming such a big problem, I feel it’s my duty to tell the truth.

The reality is, picking up garbage here and there is great, but the bigger problems seem beyond our control. It’s sad…

When looking for the best spot to learn or improve your kiting, I recommend taking a look at the area on Google Earth. Zoom in and you will see if they have any toxic reports wherever you see a fish bones on the map.

Currently Nick and I are based on Barbados, available privately. It’s where we believe the water will stay clean and blue for the longest.

If you’ve had any similar experiences with water pollution at the spots you kiteboard at, please let us know in the comments below. We need to expose these issues and create awareness. We’d also love to hear your ideas on what we as kiteboarders can do to make a difference.

Written by

Jessica Winkler

PS: If you are as worried about our kite spots as we are, please help us spread the word by liking and sharing this article.

How Water Pollution Killed Two Kiteboarding Schools was published by inMotion Kitesurfing.

While the Envirosurfer infographic targets the surf industry specifically, many of these effects and dangers are directly applicable to the kitesurfing industry as well. We use similar materials and techniques in the construction of our boards, the fast growing trend towards kitesurfing strapless (see the level of wave riding on the KSP Pro Tour) means we are using more board wax, and we use the same wetsuits and sunscreen that surfers do.

Click the image for the full sized infographic.

Created by Envirosurfer. The eco-friendly surf shop.

While you may argue the exact numbers in the report, there is little doubt that we are producing and consuming a large amount of potentially harmful products in our industry, so it is important that we create awareness and asses the way we use and dispose of the products we use as kitesurfers and surfers.

Let us know what you think of this and share your own ideas on how we can protect the environment, in the comments below. Please help us create awareness by spreading the word, or sharing this article.

Thanks.

The inMotion Kitesurfing Team

PS: If you enjoyed this article, help spread the word by clicking the “Like”, “Tweet”, “+1” buttons, or sharing it using the share icons below.

The Toxicity of Surfing Infographic By Envirosurfer was published by inMotion Kitesurfing.

But first let me just say this… kitesurfing is hands down one the most insane sports on this planet! I’ve tried many extreme sports and some not so extreme sports, and this is honestly the one I would choose to do every single day of my life. Now if only the wind would blow every day… well maybe in Cape Town… Anyway enough of that, you’re probably dying to know how to go about getting into kitesurfing.

Will I Be Able to Learn Kitesurfing

Girls make great Kitesurfers!

Well the good news is that anybody can learn to kitesurf. From the age of 10 through to 85, Boys, Girls, Men and Woman are all enjoying this thrilling sport! In fact, as long as you are mobile, you can learn to kitesurf. Contrary to common belief, you do not have to be extraordinarily fit or strong, and girls make great kitesurfers too btw. Naturally you will get super fit and strong if you kitesurf regularly, but this is not a requirement to learn. The bad news is that you can’t just go out and buy a kite, head to the beach and figure it out on your own…

Learn to Kitesurf the Responsible Way

Unlike many sports that you can teach yourself through trial and error, kitesurfing is a sport that requires the supervision of a qualified kitesurfing instructor. This is in the best interest of your own safety and the safety of other innocent beach goers and kiteboarders. Besides, do you really want to risk ripping that sexy new kite you just bought because you don’t know how to set it up correctly or launch and land it safely? Investing in a few lessons with a kiteboarding instructor will be money well spent, as you’ll not only become a safer more responsible kitesurfer, but you’ll also learn much quicker.

Some of the critical things you need to learn before you attempt to kitesurf on your own are:

• Safety, rules and regulations on and off the water
• Weather conditions and how the wind window works
• How to set up your kite correctly
• How to launch, land and fly the kite safely

More on this in upcoming articles…

What Do I Need to Get Started

All you need to get started initially is a few lessons with an IKO qualified kitesurfing instructor. You will find a list of recommended kiteboarding shops and a list of recommended kiteboarding schools or instructors on this website.

Tail Grab – Well Almost…

So head on over to either of those pages and contact your nearest IKO certified Kitesurfing School to ask them about their lessons. The school will provide you with all the training equipment you need, so you really just need to come with your baggies / bikini, sunscreen and loads of excitement.

Once you’ve completed the course, or you’re in the final stages of your lessons, you can consider buying your own gear. If you can afford it, I highly recommend buying your gear as early on in the course as possible, so that you can practise on your new equipment while still under the supervision of your instructor.

To get started with your own gear, you will need at least one kite (your local shop will advise you on the different types of kites and the best size for your weight and local conditions), a kiteboard and a harness. The bar, lines and pump come with your kite in most cases.

How Much Does it Cost

Well, the truth is kitesurfing isn’t the cheapest sport to take up, but trust me when I say this, it will be well worth the investment, and the best decision you will ever make… A brand new rig will set you back in the region of R 18 000 ($ 2 600) depending on the gear you choose. But you don’t need to buy brand new equipment to get started. Your local kitesurfing shop should be able to set you up with second hand gear that could cost you as little as R 7 000 ($ 800 in the USA). The beauty of this route is that you minimize your start up risk, and by the time you are ready to upgrade, you already know you are addicted to kitesurfing and the investment will be well worthwhile. Also, you will have a better understanding of what equipment will suit your needs best.

Wow, that’s Expensive!

Not really… I know the equipment might sound quite expensive at first glance, but let me put things into perspective for you. If you’ve ever taken up any other kind of lifestyle sport such as scuba diving, skiing, snowboarding, wakeboarding, sailing and even deep sea fishing or angling, you’ll know that this isn’t a lot of money to spend on something that’s going to bring you so much pleasure and keep you fit and healthy at the same time.

Wave Riding – Off the Lip!

Here are some numbers to get you thinking:

• Scuba Diving will set you back roughly R 20 000+ for a full set of entry to midrange gear
• Snowboarding: roughly R 8 000 – R 20 000+ for entry level gear, but largely dependent on where you are in the world
• Deep Sea Fishing : R 10 000 – R 30 000 depending on your requirements

Now the real difference is that once you have the kiteboarding gear, you hardly have any other costs to go kitesurfing, apart from the petrol / Gas to get you to the beach and your sunscreen. In contrast, with scuba diving you still need to pay for your dives and cylinder fills each time you want to dive, and there may be extensive travel and accommodation costs involved if you don’t live near a great dive spot. With snowboarding, you will need to travel to a skiing region, pay over the top accommodation expenses and buy a not-so-cheap ski pass. And fishing? Well if you don’t own your own boat, then you have to pay for a fishing charter or hire a boat for the day. If you do own your own boat, then I’m sure I need not tell you what it costs to maintain that bad boy…

You see, not so bad after all? So do yourself a favour and book your first double lesson, and see if you like it, how much you love it! Your first double lesson will cost you roughly R 800, so you have nothing to lose, but R 800 perhaps… You won’t regret it.

In coming articles we will break the kitesurfing course down into its individual modules, which will give you a better idea of what to expect and we will also be bringing you plenty of gear reviews and helpful advice and tips about kitesurfing.

Also, if you’re curious about how kiteboarding started, who invented the first inflatable kite, and where the sport is headed in the future, check out at our history of kiteboarding article, and definitely watch the video.

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See you on the water!

Beginners Guide to Kitesurfing: Getting Started was published by inMotion Kitesurfing.