Kiteboarding or kitesurfing is becoming a rapidly growing extreme sport for land, water or snow. Commonly used traction kites are foil or inflatable, with a leading edge, where (with reference to
For safety and practical reasons of space, it is important that the lines are untangled prior to attaching a power kite to the lines, and it is equally important to make sure the lines are attached to the appropriate places on the kite prior to launching. A crossed or tangled line can result in loss of control and an unbalanced kite that can cause severe injury.
Commonly the kite pilot will wind the lines of the kite around the control bar for storage when not using the kite. Most control bars provide hooks or perpendicular finger extensions 4 at each end for this purpose.
When preparing the kite for launching the lines require careful layout, unwinding and ensuring they are untangled and uncrossed. This can take time and space at the launching area.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a line control device on the control bar of a kite, such that the rolling of the lines with the aid of the device will achieve the following advantages:
These objects are achieved by providing a preferably detachable device for managing lines of a kite, which device has a means for securing the device to a control bar of a kite and a line attachment portion of the device, the line attachment portion having a plurality of means for detachably retaining lines of a kite. The means for securing is preferably formed to have an internally cylindrical sleeve having a longitudinal opening. Opposing portions of the sleeve adjacent the longitudinal opening are biased towards each other, and are elastically flexible to allow insertion of the control bar while being sufficiently rigid to frictionally retain the control bar once inserted. The means for detachably retaining lines is preferably formed as a plurality of slits or grooved slots in a circumferential direction with respect to the sleeve, which slit or slot is formed to frictionally and removably retain a line inserted therein. In one embodiment, a stem portion extends radially from the means for securing, the line attachment portion residing at the distal end of said stem, the line attachment portion being formed as a longitudinal member perpendicular to the stem. In a second embodiment, the means for retaining the lines is formed adjacent an outer surface of the sleeve.
A preferably detachable device 30 is provided for attachment to the control bar 2. It is also possible that the device is permanently fixed to the bar, or that the features of the device which interact with the lines are provided as an integral part of the bar. However, the detachable version is preferred in order to keep the control bar free of extra structural elements during use of the kite.
The device 30 is provided with means 32 for releaseably securing the device to a usually cylindrical control rod 2. This may be any means which can accomplish a relatively easy and quick, yet secure, detachable retention of the device on the control bar. In the drawings, an embodiment is shown wherein the securing means 32 is formed as an integral extension of the device 30. The device, or at least the securing means portion, is preferably formed of generally rigid material with elastic properties, such as sheet metal, hard rubber such as Santoprene® or plastic. The means 32 shown in
From the securing means 32, a first embodiment (
Furthermore, a second embodiment of the device (
When storing the lines of the kite, the lines (6a, 6b, 7a, 7b) of the kite are gathered together by hand (
As in
The line attachment portion has slits or slotted grooves 14, preferably at least four in number, or otherwise corresponding to the number of lines of the kite. The grooves 14 allow the kite lines to be secured down, by frictional retention therein, preventing the lines from detaching at their ends during connection to the kite. However, the lines are also readily withdrawn from the grooves upon a purposeful tug by the user. The grooves also serve as a reference for the kite pilot to connect the lines to the kite prior to unrolling the lines from the control bar. The surface of the line attachment portion is preferably formed of a deformable rubber which can graspingly retain kite lines being pushed into a groove therein. The slits may a simple circumferential cut in the outer surface of the sleeve, or may be in the form of slotted grooves which have a generally V-shaped profile for guiding the line into a retaining slot at the bottom thereof. A rubber elastomer of the type sold as Santoprene® is preferable.
In practice, the invention of is utilized as follows:
A. Loading the control bar with the lines:
1. Lines should be unrolled and uncrossed and laid out as if ready for kite attachment. Alternatively, the lines should be uncrossed and untangled but can still be attached to the kite.
2. Gather the lines close to the bar-end of the kite. This forms a triangle. See
3. Attach the gathered lines 6a, 6b, 7a, 7b to the device 32 by wrapping at least once around the stem 36. Now with the gathered point on the lines secured to the bar via the device, the pilot can begin rolling the lines on the bar in figure eight wraps. It is important to roll the lines in this figure eight manner in order to prevent the lines crossing over each other near the end of the lines (kite end).
4. As the lines are rolled in this figure eight, you begin to come close to the line ends. Decide on how much line you require to be left for the next time you attach you kite. This is determined by the span of the kite. For example, a 14 meter kite may require at least 4 meters of line. Now, attach the lines into the appropriate slots 14 on the line attachment portion 38. Preferably, the right trailing edge line 7a, 6a and right leading edge line are secured on the right side and the left leading edge 6b and left trailing edge line 7b on the left side of the portion 38.
5. Ensure that the lines are uncrossed and untangled when performing step 4 above.
6. The bar is now loaded with the lines in such a way that the will not be crossed over or tangled when connecting the kite to the line ends before unrolling from the bar.
B. Deployment:
1. Unroll the lines off the control bar only as far as the slots in which they are held.
2. Untangle this section of line that you have unrolled, and attach appropriately to the kite attachment points.
3. You can now detach the lines from the attachment slots 14.
4. You can keep unrolling the lines off the bar.
5. Lastly, unwind the gathering point of lines from the stem 36.
6. You are ready to launch.
7. After launch, the device 30 can be optionally detached while the kite is in use.
This application is a divisional application of U.S. Ser. No. 11/380,060, filed Apr. 25, 2006, which claims priority under 35 USC 119(e) of U.S. Ser. No. 60/674,436, filed Apr. 25, 2005.
Number | Date | Country | |
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60674436 | Apr 2005 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 11380060 | Apr 2006 | US |
Child | 12477633 | US |