Kitesurfing Deathloop in OBX
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It’s a kiters worst nightmare, that moment when you crash your kite and it gets tangled and starts to deathloop… Some of the worst kite accidents happen because of this and we had our hearts in our mouths watching this one! We’re really glad Jerome Loman survived this one and got his kite back OK. If you want to know what to do in a deathloop situation check the link at the bottom of this post, for now though we’ll hand over to Jerome to talk us through what happened!
“My first deathloop in +30knots condition. 5 min in the session after driving from New York to OBX ;(
I have had one experience in light wind with 12m. I was able to spin bar faster than loop to unwind line for depower line to work…In + 30 knots sounds like you should depower kite as fast as possible, and if it starts deathlooping release quick!
Basically kite inverted, then I pulled some back line to turn it back around, probably would have resulted in back line wrapped around front line but would have been able to get back to shore easily. Anyway in the process bridle line wrapped around wing tip so kite started deathlooping, I tried to grab a back line to get the tension out of the rest of the line but it was already too late as there was too much twist in line. Did a quick release but the line wouldn’t depower as it was wrapped in twist.
At this point I am getting dragged and considering my options. There was a kite instructor not too far on jetski but I guess he didn’t spot me. Decided to release kite but couldn’t’ really find my leash release while getting dragged. I decided to roll on my back to pull it out, got hold of it and pushed out, nothing happened… I was getting dragged underwater. It happens very fast but for a second it was pretty scary.
Anyway I ended up managing ditching it. I was even lucky enough to get back to kite before it hit land. One line got around some buoy…
Ended up super far downwind, after making it back I pumped a smaller kite and enjoyed a decent session with a small rib injury.
I guess tomorrow I will use a short/seat harness!”
To learn how to survive a deathloop check out this MUST WATCH video!
