Landing a Kite Safely

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Landing the kite safely is also very important to not get hurt, since most of you will be on land to land the kite.

Traffic at the Beach

Being still on the water, you should observe the traffic on the beach. Wait until there are no other people launching and landing their kites, or if someone kites close to shore and there are no swimmers or bystanders.

How to Approach the Beach

Once clear, ride slowly to the beach and spot a person who can land your kite. Fly the kite low so the person on the beach can immediately catch the kite. You don't want to be accessing the beach with a kite sitting in the zenith.

Giving Signals

Make the person on the beach aware of you and give them the signal that you want your kite to be landed. The signal is putting the hand on your head. Make sure the person on the beach sees it, then approach the beach. If no one pays attention, turn, and ride away from shore, then turn again and try again to get someone's attention.

Watch the Conditions

Before you enter the beach, check the conditions, if winds are gusty, change direction, or get stronger. Look at the water if you can see stronger winds approaching, mainly visible due to white caps. Check for dark clouds as well. If you feel and see something bad is coming, either be very quick with a low kite and a person on the beach to grab it quickly. If not, rider out to the water so you have more time to react if it gets very strong, but don't ride too far if winds maybe turn offshore. You can also before someone caught the kite release the quick release.

Be Ready to Release

Being close to shore, you should be ready to immediately release your quick release. Either if suddenly wind changes and make the situation dangerous, or if someone wants to catch the kite and misses it or falls and releases the kite. So have one hand ready to release if something happens.

Landing the Kite

Fly the kite low so the land helper can catch it quickly. Don't fly it fast into the helper, fly it slow.

Unhook Immediately

Once the land helper caught the kite, immediately unhook your chicken loop from your harness. And never let go the kite out of your sight, until you have the kite in your hand. Dangerous stuff can happen if you look down still being hooked into the chicken loop and suddenly the kite starts to power up again.

Secure your Kite

Get to your kite and turn it and lay it down onto the beach, with the leading edge facing the wind. Secure it with your board, sand or other weight so it can't fly away.

Wrap Up Your Lines

To avoid line tangles with others and get the lines out of the way of bystanders etc, immediately wrap up your lines on your bar.



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