Squall survival techniques...
 

Someone asked, so are some tips which have helped me. I learned the hard way as a beginner (~1yr experience) in 2004-2005 what happens when you are oblivious to the weather. I got hit real bad by an innocent looking rain column on a sunny day, and dragged about 100-200 yards from beyond the sand bar, unable to release due to a quick release failure. The wind went from 13 knots to 35 knots almost instantly and I was on an 18M C kite.

I made multiple mistakes and here is what I learned over the past 4 years to avoid it happening again.

PRE-PLANNING

What did it do YESTERDAY and what time? That is the first thing you should be researching (iKite) before you even rig your kite. Have you been checking the horizons during your session?

IT'S APPROACHING

Rain Columns: Remember, rain columns pull air down with the droplets, which hits the surface and flows out in every direction.

Wind Fronts: If you see clear blue sky behind a line of clouds approaching, it means strong winds are coming.

Rain up wind usually means the outflow will combine with the current wind. STRONGER wind gusts may be approaching. This is unless of course the rain is causing the current wind, in which case you should not be kiting at all.

Rain down wind usually means the outflow will meet the current wind head on. LULL or offshore winds may be approaching..

Long thin line of clouds approaching with blue sky behind it... this means more wind in most cases.

IF ITS UP WIND

If you are within a couple of line lengths of shore and can land RIGHT NOW, then land immediately.

If you are out a good distance or the landing area is congested and you don't feel you can drop the kite immediately, go out further (as far as you can) to get away from hard objects and be prepared to put the kite in the water. Look down wind and decide if you would be comfortable getting dragged there... (ie highway, trees, rocks, or empty beach? Now is the time to choose). Do not ride back and forth trying to make a decision and watching for the wind. Do something right now.

IF ITS DOWN WIND

Land immediately. Don't risk getting stuck off shore.

IF YOU CAN SEE IT COMING IT'S TOO LATE

See those whitecaps in the distance approaching? You are screwed. CRASH the kite in the water RIGHT NOW, LE DOWN AND GET YOUR HAND ON THE RELEASE JUST IN CASE. Releasing now that the kite is in the water is up to you, but suppose you release and the kite starts looping? Think about it before you pull it, check for tangled lines, leash attached, etc. You have time with the kite in the water to do this.

IF IT HITS WITH THE KITE IN THE AIR

You are getting dragged. Don't panic and hunt for the release or try to land. You won't find the release in time and your hands are already on the bar. Steer the kite into the water and KEEP IT IN THE WATER. Don't pull the release until you have crashed the kite.. Once you crash it and steer it into the water, you will usually find you are in control of the situation, and if not you will have plenty of time to look for the release.

It can't loft you or drag you when it's in the water.
In most cases you can wait the squall out with the kite in the water.
Everyone knows you are in trouble since the kite is in the water.
You can relax and find the release with the kite in the water.

Releasing is always a gamble... bar will always end up out of reach, but kite may not always die. The kite may hit someone if it releases completely, or it may not release at all. Be prepared for the hammer to come down on you or someone else.


STRANDED OFF SHORE

7) Stay with your kite. It floats, it's easy to see, and that is where the rescue team is going first. The other kiters are watching your kite also and may come for you.

I believe squalls are our #1 cause of injuries.. try to never be surprised by what the weather is doing. Be there when they come for you.

Take care.
-tom

Very, nice write up, Tom. I think foot injuries are number 1 though. :(

Guess I meant life threatening injuries :oops:

"Grave danger?"
"Is there any other kind?" :)

AFGM

A Few Good Men.

One of my all time favs!!!!

The best squall survival technique I know, is to avoid it in the first place. Avoiding them is fairly easy, have to use your head but that should hurt less than playing russian roulette with them over time. As a rule, you really don't know what a squall will do before it is on you. Spike wind, kill it, shift direction, variations of all three or leave it largely unchanged. One thing is for sure, we have some of the most violent, powerful squalls in North America in Southern Florida and on a fairly regular basis. It is worth thinking over carefully. Tom makes some good points in his post worth considering too. Best advice is to work to avoid them, pilots do and with a lot more power and stability than we'll ever have.

When you are on the beach it is sometimes hard to tell what is going to happen as Ricki mentioned above.

If you just check out the radar you can see everything that is coming your way. I've found there can be periodic holes where its rainy, then clear and everything looks safe then moments later its back and I think its been made clear that you don't want to be on the water when it hits!

Definitely Rick, I would not recommend anyone try to ride while storms are approaching and one should definitely not use these techniques to intentionally ride in unsafe conditions. That's just asking for trouble.

But it's also important to understand that kiters can get hammered on a clear sunny day with nothing obvious on the radar just as they can on nasty rainy day.

A seemingly non-threatening column of summer rain or a thin band of clouds and approaching blue sky may be the only clue that something is about to happen.

Telling yourself you will pull your release if you get into trouble to is not really a reliable survival technique. :D

Safe kiting.

I noticed you didn't call it a quick release, just a release.
It's so true. If you are getting tossed around, you aren't getting to it quickly.

It's actually sea breezing right now. "Doppler is clear .. I'm outta here" :)

Great discussion topic and excellent points. A big problem is that most people with limited experience don't understand the proper protocols and procedures in these emergencies. Unfortunately, as an instructor, it's hard to train and condition students to understand all of these things in 2 or 3 lessons. I just had this conversation yesterday with a former student - if I said "OK, today, before we go any further, we are going to spend 3-4 hours solely on QR reflex drills and try to cover all the situations of a QR activation event - OK that will be $300"...he laughed and said, "yep, that would be a hard sell!"

What I do attempt to accomplish is basic understanding and practical drills of the QR release, discuss some different scenarios that can develop...AND make them PROMISE me that when they get their own kites they will practice this in no wind, then light wind, then medium wind every time they fly the kite...so they understand the challenges, and the way different kites behave, and in different conditions...AND so that it becomes an easy reflex and does not require too much panicked "thinking".

From my own experience, the first time you get lofted you may not even have a chance to think about the QR (as Tom suggests), and if you land and are conscious that's your next big chance to hit your QR while the kite momentarily depowers, and in another second and it might be too late again.

Another thing you might want to add is about kites beginning to go into loops: If the kite loops more than 5-10 times you are probably stuck with a perpetual helicopter blade spinning until it either hits something or self destructs. Amazingly the kites and lines hold up to a lot of punishment though and will keep on looping. If you hit your chicken loop QR you should not expect the kite to depower as described beautifully in the video or brochure...the 4 (or 5) lines are now twisted into a solid rope with 1000 lbs of tension on them and there can be no differential movement of lines to flag the kite as designed. At this point you need to think about your leash QR and make some rational choices about releasing your kite to the wind.

Of course it's better not to get caught offshore in squall conditions to begin with, but as always...the more room you have created for yourself as a safety net the better. Remember DISTANCE is your friend. And in these extreme squall conditions the first thing is to be away from the shoreline or hard objects. That's why ships often head to open water in storms. It's much safer without a lee shore.

Another thing: If you are in the situation that you have to release your kite you are now reduced to very little flotation available. Kiteboards do not float much and will not be much help, surfboards are better. If you do not have your board and you do not have some extra flotation this can be a big problem in violent waves, current, and blowing water in heavy squall conditions. Some impact vests have more flotation than others, but they all usually have some bouyancy to help you. And having the proper wetsuit can be critical too.

Unfortunately, a number of folks deliberately ride in squally conditions. Stupid acts are a numbers game. Not everyone will get spanked or killed, just an unacceptable percentage over time. There are those that may have no clue, never asked themselves can that really hurt, do it because other guys are still riding or think skill and technology will always carry the day.

I just finished that article for the German magazine. The day one experienced kiter got killed and another smashed up pretty well getting lofted inland a long way, there were several dozen guys on the water. Maybe more than a hundred, not sure, as a cold front forecast to have wind gusts into 50 mph range moved in fast, all black and ugly. Wonder how many among that hundred would be willing to trade places with the guy that hit the rocks and stayed down permanently or even the 21 year old that flew over the restroom building and broke a bunch of bones? Every single one of them was in fact offering to do just that, their number simply wasn't called up. North Sea storms are different from what we have in Florida. In some ways ours are worse, more sudden, powerful and frequent. The North Sea variety often come with strong, sustained winds unlike ours that can go from 10 to 50 kts. in seconds.

People will do stupid things, we've all done them in our time. Some of us have moved on though and for good reason. Wonder what is holding the rest back? Lack of awareness and appreciation for just what can go wrong and how bad, who knows. Maybe they actually think their kite will depower through most squall winds or that it will work reliably. How many have had kite depower fail or been insufficient in extreme winds or simply react too late or not at all?

I don't want to monopolize this discussion, it is a relief to see this subject discussed and with such insight by so many. Wasn't always this way by a long shot. I wanted to repost this from kiteforum and back to you guys.

I would respectfully disagree with encouraging anyone from being close to shore, or suggesting that as a safe strategy, when a squall conditions present themselves. These comments are made with the assumption that the squall and winds are already upon you.

When these conditions happen you need LOTS of room to perform a QR deployment...especially if something goes wrong during the process. And sometimes in these situations you need to buy a little time to get ready.

3000 feet seems a long way to be dragged, conscious or unconsciuos...but he is probably lucky he was FAR FROM SHORE so that when he did get lofted he did not get slammed directly into trees/docks, rocks, etc right off the bat. Plus 3000 feet goes by fast when you are getting dragged - ask Tom Ucheuche, or Bill Eastburn, both strong experienced kiters.

I suppose we could include "what if you are unconscious?" into the discussion, but I think for the most part people need to know what to do if they are conscious.

I might only be speaking for myself, but I know one thing - I've been caught in several situations where the wind went from 12 kts to 40 kts with very little warning. The first thought in my mind is GET AWAY FROM SHORE. I will not rely on someone "being there" to catch my kite, and I don't want to release my kite if not necessary into parks, beaches, sidewalks, roadways, etc.

If I decide that I need to get closer to shore I first make sure that I am set up and can QR immediately to an outside leashed line and NOT to my suicide connection or to a centerline system (no matter how "intelligent" it is)...AND I repeat to myself the mantra - if it appears I will be dragged out of the water onto the sand/rocks/trees/grass, etc...I WILL IMMEDIATELY QR to flag the kite...and if that looks bad for even a second or two I will QR the kite leash immediately and save myself.

In my experience very few squalls have been a surprise. There was one after sunset several years ago that blended into a darker gray sky and boosted wind to about 45 mph that was a bit of a surprise. I still had landed prior to that being uneasy about subtle developing conditions. I caught the gusts driving home a couple of miles south.

The best advice I can offer is to do your best to avoid squalls, if you screw up and get caught out anyway, then Emergency Depower EARLY. If this means swimming in, so be it, you should have the skill if you are out there in the first place. Don't wait for someone to catch your kite either. You should have a good enough buffer to do this. Guys have been taken out just waiting for someone to catch their kite. Take the kite's power away to do you harm.

I strongly advise against having a kite in the air when it moves in. Too many guys, dozens have died and likely hundreds have been injured worldwide for many years for making this choice. That is trying to fly through a high wind emergency. Emergency Depower well before the winds get out of control and sort things out after.

Exactly the point..."surprises" happen, even if only on rare occasion. Whether you are a weather expert monitoring instruments that update every 5 minutes or novice kiteboarder with limited weather knowledge - unexpected wind events happen quite often and can be very localized "microbursts" if you will.

Should people be aware of the conditions developing, local weather knowledge, and take preventative action in advance of severe wind increases and shifts? Of course, absolutely.

But there are times when everyone is caught by surprise. And I think this is what is being addressed here.

E.G. Here's a graph from 16 May on Lake MI. The pattern was our typical high pressure, NW seabreeze, which presents normally a stable, predictable set of conditions, and very recognizable by those of us who ride here regularly...characterized by an afternoon shift from SW to gradually increasing NW with fairly steady velocities and then diminishing gradually after a few hours.

http://www.ikitesurf.com/cgi-bin/new...0&hid=45172604

Many expert kiters riding that day followed the expected pattern, including myself. Riding with a 7m early in the day, switching to a 10m when it went below 20 kts, and almost slogging when the wind spike arrived at 4pm. Many people were out on 12, 14, 16m kites when the spike came in at over 40 kts. Nobody saw it coming, (the sky was crystal clear blue and there were already signifcant whitecaps and waves) and it was a total scramble to land kites in serious side-on wind. I chose to ditch my board close to shore and then ended up going downwind body dragging away from the beach until several hundred yards offshore until I was in a spot where I could comfortably self-emergency land unassisted with plenty of room and no hazards. And I was prepared to kiss the kite goodbye if necessary at any moment.

These surprise conditions, whether an obvious squall or an invisible wind spike, are where having too big of a kite close to shore makes anyone very vulnerable. I've seen many people confused about how to QR, QR-ing their leash instead of their chicken-loop, or totally panicking and doing neither - and then getting worked badly. This is where having a few more moments to think things through can save someone from disaster. Easier and safer to think it through OFF-SHORE, instead of while bouncing over the sand/rocks, etc..