How To Untangle Lines

How To Untangle Lines

How To Untangle Lines

Kitesurfing Line Untangling : Video Transcript

Tangled lines are such a common problem with beginner kitesurfers, especially when coming out of a self-rescue. I’d like to share with you my technique to untangle lines in just a few minutes so you too can get back on the water much quicker.

As a beginner kitesurfer, tangled lines are a common problem, especially when coming out of a self-rescue.

After many years of teaching, I’ve developed some techniques to untangle lines in just a few minutes which I’d like to share with you in this video so you too can undo your tangles much faster and get back on the water quicker.  So let’s get started!

Once you’re out the water and your kite is secured, if they are any lines wrapped around you, start by removing those to free yourself from the lines

Next, you want to detach your safety leash from the safety line so you are completely detached from the bar.

Now bring the bar and all the lines downwind of the kite

The following step it to untangle any lines wrapped around the kite and to clear the bridles from any  tangles.

At this stage, most people will disconnect the lines, it will actually take much longer to untangle the lines when detached, so leave them attached!

Once there are no more tangles around the kite start pulling the bar downwind of the kite.

If you have wrapped your lines around the bar, unwrap them carefully. Make sure your clear any lines from the bar or the chicken loop.

Your next priority should be to free the safety line from tangles.

Once your safety line and your bar is untangled, place the safety line downwind of the bar.

Pull the bar downwind gently until the lines stop sliding

Now look for the areas with the largest tangles and start opening up those loops, the lines will eventually fall out of the loops. As you create some slack in the lines pull your bar downwind to tension the lines again.

Now find more loops to undo and repeat this process until the lines are clear of these loops

With all loops removed, You are now left with only crossed lines. At this particular stage, if your lines have even length you can detach the lines one at the time and finish untangling like this, starting with the back lines.

However, with some experience you can finish untangling without ever detaching the lines from the kite.

The general idea with this technique is to work from the kite to the bar

Grab the back lines free of tangles from the kite and walk them towards your bar. You want to bring all those crossed lines as close as possible to the bar. It helps if an assistant is holding the bar at this stage, giving you some slight tension in the lines. When you can no longer move forward look at the crossed area and think about how you can reverse the crossed lines by passing the bar through them.

You may need to do multiple bar passes like this and this skill takes some practice to master.

Eventually you will bring the crossed lines very close to bar and easily finish untangling with a few more bar passes.

In this case, it took a little under 7 minutes to untangle these lines.

If you chose to detach the lines and untangle them one at the time, it will take at least double the time.

In the next video, we will learn how the kite generates it's power to pull you.