Utah Windriders Association

Here is video of guy hooking line to him to catamaran mast and flying kite in 10mph wind.... bad time to try to loop it...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moEltUCv4rM

This video has been floating around. If you go to the vimeo post the poster who was there explains that they were trying to demonstrate that being tethered would provide enough resistance to create apparent wind. The loop wasn't the bad idea. In fact you can see that he successfully completed one loop. The loop created even more apparent wind.... enough to create lift. The bad idea was using a tether that wasn't strong enough and snapped. The other really bad idea was that the guy didn't complete the second loop. You can't blame the guy for panicking a little but if you're in the middle of a loop for goodness sake finish it. Had he held on to the loop the kite would've traveled all the way to 12 o,'clock and he at least could have sort of glided down. As it was the kite was way over to the side of the window producing no lift/resistance to his fall so he effectively free fell the storeys to the water. He was locked out. Fortunately they had a safety crew who acted quickly and he came to...

So if you're going to loop then loop. Half loop= bad. Trust me I've tried. :-!

I think when the tether broke and he started traveling downwind, there just wasn't enough wind hitting the kite to let it finish the loop.