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avoiding the walk of shame


shanobi187
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I fly a Prism Nexus and I've gotten pretty good at getting back in the air after a crash (which thankfully are becoming fewer and fewer) The one position I can't get out of is The belly down position. I've been told there's a way, although very diffacult, to avoid taking the walk of shame and righting the kite on to it's back. If anyone could throw me a link as to how this is done or give me an idea of how to go about getting out of this I'd really appreciate it. Thnx!

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I'm not sure where one could find video about these, but there are two basic ways to bring the kite up when it's face down and nose to you (dead)...

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There's the pop launch, where you try short/fast pumps evenly on the both lines while stepping back a tiny bit... Drags the kite (a little more wear), doesn't work on all kites, and it's turf dependent so softness of sand and height of grass may effect results.

The idea of this move is to bounce the nose up and off the ground, high enough for you to pull some wind under the kite and launch.

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I haven't heard a name for this second move, so I'll refer this this move as the Digger for now... Works in soft sand only... Again, with the kite face down and nose to you, very slowly wiggle the nose to shovel up a handful or so of sand... Then, slowly draw the right line back until you're looking down the length of the left leading edge... Now slowly draw on that left line, while maintaining tension in the right one... Ideally, the left wingtip will come off the ground so the back of the kite begins to face you, belly of the kite facing away... When it's 100% or more upright that way, give a quick draw on both hands and be ready to steer the kite up and away.

What happens at the key moment in this move?

Again, more or less, the kite is on it's right leading edge, with the back of the kite facing you and the belly (face) facing away.

When you give it that quick sweeping pull with both hands, the kite will flip to it's flight position and be begging for a little tension while you steer the kite up and safely away.

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Always try these moves with care, they can take a toll on the kite if not done smoothly... Also, if it doesn't work, try a few ways of looking at the process, adjust your inputs, see if you can speak the kite's language.

Hope that gives you some stuff to play with! :D

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When I started doing some of these tricks and of course they didn't always work. The walk was long. I even watched JB, JD and RX doing the tricks but I still had to do the walk. I found that to do these tricks well it helped to have a name with only two letters :ani_notworthy: Actually I just shortened my lines to 50' and that gave me more time to practice and do less of the walk. Eventually I caught on to the above moves and life is getting better :D:blue_wow:

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Great info John, how did you get sooo smart.

Another trick to get the kite upright without wear on the kite, and avoid the walk of shame. Bring a partner and have them act as ground crew.

That would be me. lol

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Thanks for all the great info, I appreciate it. I'll try to get these techniques down, although I'm sure Spz0 loves to help me out for all the great excercise he gets. :D Also on a completely unrelated note. I can finally do an axle, albeit a sloppy one, but an axle just the same. (first actual trick) So, a MILLION thanks to Jon (Spz0) for all his help along the way, I am fortunate indeed to have a good friend to help me learn.

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  • 2 weeks later...

great recovery to have in the arsenal rx.

As for the pop launch? Im scared.... Tried it a couple times, to no success. Will not try any more. I wouldnt like having my face repeatedly smashed into the mud, so Im thinking the same goes for my Kite. ;)

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  • 2 months later...

LoL talk about training wheels. ;)

Love the stock kiddie video they made for that one. lol

The dead launch is the way to go really, from the belly down, nose towards position. Pretty hard on the spine section of the sail. I've already thrashed mine. I would recommend a lightweight tape to re-enforce the sail down the spine before perfecting the dead launch.

If you're on sand, the "digger" method that rx posted is the way to go. Looks killer too. ;)

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I can relaunch from any position - except the dead launch. I can get it to work most of the time but - as mentioned - it puts so much wear and tear on the kite that I just refuse to do it anymore. When the kite ends up in the dead launch position, thats what we call exercise time and we walk.....

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  • 2 months later...
  • 1 month later...

the pop launch is nice if you can get the timing and wind right.But I did fined that on the beach I ended up getting small cuts in the sail . A spotter is a nice thing to have.One thing I started doing is if I see it is going to come down belly down run forward a bit or push forward with my arms which usually put's my kite on its back. I still do the walk But that can be good some times just to give my kite the once over . good winds

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