DEATH LOOPS: how to fix them and how to avoid them

Thank you. You are the gold standard on kitesurfing videos. It is clear you put a lot of effort in to your videos.

Alex, your video is really helpful for kitesurfers of all levels. But I disagree with one thing: saying “if you are a NOVICE kiter then the best solution is to go for the safety steps.” Everyone, no matter how experienced, should always use safety systems first. When we suggest they're just for NOVICE kiters, it might make others think they're not important for everyone, which can lead to more accidents. Also, manually flagging out the kite is risky, no matter how strong or light the wind is. It's something we shouldn't show anyone. Let's keep emphasising safety and good practices in kitesurfing. Thanks for bringing up this important topic.

I gave up hooked harnesses years ago after coming unhooked as a newbie several time in one session while in La Ventana. I switched to a rope slider after that since I couldn't see any reason why I'd want to get unhooked from the kite (wasn't interested, and too old, for tricks). Now that I'm mostly foiling, the rope slider is almost everyones go-to. I've had a couple situations where lines get tangled after a crash, but mostly it's been when the foil goes through the lines and the kite loops from there. I'm usually way out in the water getting dragged around, but counter steering till I can figure out the foil issues has done the trick for me. A great video, thanks!

Its been a long time!! and yet another gold standard video without a doubt, which can save your life. Thx to your videos, I had 2 death loops only in my early days as a kite surfer (ejecting the CL worked) and feel real safe flying it now, and had none in years. However, Ill give a try by generating it myself in light wind to train how to use the counter steering method to unwrap... better to have it done once when under control than having to figure it out when you approach a wall... (in light winds, with 2 miles free downwind along the beach..) thx a million for your efforts.

Thx I had not considered the counter steer option. Appreciate seeding ideas before they become an issue. I had a death loop last month on 9m XR7. I overflew a jump and the kite tumbled and inverted, wind was too strong to flag it back to normal, but no biggie- was in knee deep water, so I popped the Chicken Loop. Unfortunately the inversion turned into partial inversion with a death loop (probably helped by the dual line flag out).- could not resist its power or make any progress to resolving it. After 6-8 loops I had to punch out of the kite and then chase it down- luckily someone else caught my drifting kite, no damage. So yes safety systems worked and could not think of an alternative since I was already on one line with bar out of reach.

Brilliant video, thanks a lot. Highly appreciate what you are doing for our sport 🙏

Another great video - I recommend this channel to anyone I give lessons to. Interesting the clip with self / drift launching - the only times I've experienced death loops have been drift launching where a steering line wrapped around the wingtip. Counter steering sorted a couple, and CR release another time. When the dunes are fast approaching, time to eject!!

This video might have saved my ass yesterday. My steering line got super slack while I was trying to relaunch and it got wrapped around the bar which would've put me in a death loop situation had the kite actually relaunched at that moment. After feeling the slackness I thought to myself "is this my 10 second window before a death loop?" and checked my bar and found the line wrapped. I quickly unwrapped it and it was all good. Normally I might not have paid attention to this and just focused on getting the kite back up.

Thanks for another great video mate! 👍🏾

This should be required at kite schools, when i had my first death loop my biggest mistake was pulling the wrong lines. This explanation could have prevented it.

Brilliant explanation and huge thanks for it! Cheers

Great video as always!

Thanks!!

Another great video.. thank you

I feel very lucky that in my almost 3 years kitting I have not experienced a death loop and hope that my luck continues!

Once I got steering line wrapped after a crash in 10+ m/s and got deathlooped to the beach with trees very fast. Luckily I train all new things quite far from shore (but not too far😎), so I got plenty of time to think about my life and eject chicken loop.

Thank you, nice Video. Had a deathloop in 40 knots. Release didnt work after first 4 loops. Managed to dump it in the dunes.

I've had the bar go under my harness very early on in my kitesurfing journey. And obviously this rendered both safety symptoms ineffective. I accidently jumped, ended up in the lines with the Kite crashed and the kite was powered up in the wind ending up in the bar going under the harness. Extremely scary stuff

I've heard that after about 10 loops, the line twists from a death-looping kite will likely prevent a kite from flagging out. So I count loops if my kite starts uncontrolled looping, and if I haven't stopped the looping with advanced techniques ( counter steering or manually flagging ), I resort to chicken loop release at 5 loops. Anyone else have experience with twisted lines choking the flag-out ?

Danke!