Good video Tom, I have a "tool" in my car which is basically a bit of rope like you have but with 4 ozone pigtails threaded onto it so I can connect the lines as they would be on a kite.
Thanks for your comment 😊 Our number one rule when teaching people to kitesurf is not to go out in offshore winds. Whilst technically it would be possible to kitesurf upwind and back to shore if the wind drops or you have an issue with your kite where you can’t relaunch it you will get pushed in the wind direction. If that wind direction is offshore, at the very least you will loose all your equipment, if the wind is onshore you should eventually get blown back to the beach. Be sure to check out our other video on self rescue techniques for when you can’t relaunch a kite. Thanks, Tom
We believe so, this method eliminates any potential sliding of the kite along the surface which can cause damage to the material. Of course knowing how to self launch in various ways is always useful as you may not always have a tether handy. Bear in mind the method we use in this video is the same as you would use for any tethered launch. A lot of our local Kiters carry a specific tether for beaches that you can’t drive your vehicle to, these vary from sand anchor set ups to bags that can be buried with anchor points on them.
We used some hard wearing rope and a stainless steel carabiner from the local hardware store.. Make sure you get the largest carabiner as the smaller ones won’t fit the chicken loop.
Great video mate. From experience I would say always keep the board on your feet. You can use it as a way of making drag or decreasing it. Helped me get it massively overpowered to come In between piers
I am a big fan of the described self rescue techniques and I used them a lot on the past. However I have done moved to a place with typically very large waves and a wicked large shorebreak that goes from too deep to stand to knee deep over about 2m distance. This means that if you are trying to come in holding a kite there is a strong possibility of you being swept into and rolled up in the kite itself. So it is not just lines you need to be careful of, the kite itself is a potential drowning trap. So I would like to add that when coming in with big surf rather ditch the kite when you enter the the surf zone and swim in. The surf will eventually beach your kite. Rather pay for a kite repair and live to kite again.
We would always recommend not kiting in Offshore winds however even if the wind is cross off you can still use the Kite to sail back into the beach it just takes a lot longer. If the wind is totally offshore you've made a serious error of judgement with spot and condition assessment. In this instance I personally would be ditching gear and swimming in, always self preservation before equipment ;-)
I learned how to surf in Hawaii in the 70s. The locals used to wax their boards in counterclockwise motions. I asked them why they did it that way. The reply was: "Cause Bro you don't want to fall off." LOL...
One of the best self-rescue videos I have seen - dealing with the board during self rescue would have been the cherry on the cake (perhaps by passing the leech through the handle or footstrap or similar. Well done!
if you're in deep water, manage your lines, get to the kite and flip it over, with one arm around the centre of the leading edge swim over to the board if it's nearby, then put the board on your feet and self-rescue back like that
I got a pretty bad ding on the side of my board, and even the core foam part is cut, I've been using it a bit which I don't think is so good, what do I do? also, does regular tape work
Hey Alex, Leave your board to dry and then follow the instructions as per the video, if the ding is deep do the repair in small amounts to fill any holes and avoid hot glye melting the foam
thanks for the info, on the blue foam repair portion. Why not just add the hot glue inside and around the cut? why do you cut it? I have a similar problem and prefer not to cut it off. thanks mate
Very useful, thank you for putting this out here. When I repair a surfboard like this, can I still paint over it like with the rest of the surfboard if I want to redesign the surfboard in its whole?
Hi there, thanks for watching, this is just for repairing softboards, don’t think you’d be painting a softboard but guess if you did you could paint over the glue.
Generally speaking this kind of repair seems to hold up very well in the water, the glue sticks well to the foam core and gives a fairly water tight repair if done carefully.
Yes and no😊 It depends on where you are surfing. Base coat is generally a Tropical wax which is a harder consistency with a higher melting temperature. In our summer (North Western Australia) I sometimes only use Base coat, its not quite as grippy but saves having wax melting in boardbags
