Kiteworld Mag - Relaunching an SLE/bow kite

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MOVE: Relaunching an SLE/bow kite

RIDER: Jeremie Tronet

PHOTOS: Linn Svendsen

What goes up must come down, and then go back up again! Here, Jeremie Tronet takes all our newbies through the simple steps to getting the kite back into the air after a crash

• When you crash your kite on the water, most of the time the leading edge of your kite ends up lying on the surface of the water in front of you, in the middle of the wind window. If not then your kite will already be at the edge of the wind window anyway, and all you have to do is relaunch it normally.

• The SLE and bow kites have an amazingly simple ability to relaunch and have made the learning curve much quicker for learners by reducing the amount of time they spend swimming after a crashed kite. So here's how to do it:

• Try to untwist your lines if you can while the kite is down. Ideally when you set your kite up on the beach, you will have a system of remembering which side of the bar goes in your left hand (usually the red side). You must remember here if you start spinning your bar or have let the bar go at any stage that you still need to hold the correct side of the bar in your left hand again even though the kite is upside down.

• Grab one of your back lines roughly 50cm away from the bar. Give it a steady pull - this will start the kite turning over.

• Be careful not to pull the line too hard otherwise the kite will relaunch automatically right in the middle of the window where the most power is and you'll get dragged downwind. Slow and steady is the best game plan here.

• As the kite is turning through the window, keeping pulling on the back line, adjusting the tension on the line to keep the kite travelling all the way to the edge of the wind window.

• As the kite is turning through the window, keep pulling on the back line, adjusting the tension on the line to keep the kite travelling all the way to the edge of the wind window.

• As your kite begins to reach the edge of the wind window check your bar again to make sure you're hands are going to be in the correct place on the bar (with the red usually on the left) so that you'll be immediately in control as you pilot your kite up in the sky. If your kite relaunch and you are holding the bar upside down, you will have no control, the kite will do the opposite of what you're trying to get it to do (which can be very unnerving!) and the kite will crash again.

• As the kite is turning through the window, keeping pulling on the back line, adjusting the tension on the line to keep the kite travelling all the way to the edge of the wind window.