The Prusik Knot

And Its Kiting Applications

The Prusik knot: Where would kite flyers be without this great shiftable lockable knot. It's a bit of a pain to tie at first, but then adjusting a bridle becomes so easy!

Pulling the bridle straight unlocks the knot, letting you shift it along the bridle line. Pulling on the lines in pairs causes the knot to fold, locking it in place.

I use the Prusik on horizontal bridle loops to shift the knot left or right across the kite, for trimming purposes. More commonly, it's also used to slide up and down the bridle line of, say, a diamond kite to adjust the towing point fore-and-aft.

There are other ways, some possibly a little simpler, to obtain a shiftable knot. However, the Prusik has worked so well for me over the years that it's the one I would recommend.

The photo immediately below shows the knot not quite fully tight, for clarity:

 

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Prusik Knot

On kites with four-leg bridles, arranged as an upper and lower loop plus a connecting line, this means three shiftable knots. For example, the Dowel Rokkaku and Dopero. At least you only have to tie these knots once.

Although it seemed a little excessive at the time, I took this approach on even my smallest dopero. This is a tiny kite with a 30 cm (12 in.) wingspan. But it sure paid off, since some fiddling was required to get a decent flight out of it!

More recently, I have also used this knot on the vertical bridle loops of a large genki. It was the same deal; tiny adjustments can trim the kite left or right.

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This mountaineering knot was invented in 1931 by Dr. Karl Prusik—with one "s." At least this webmaster has finally got it right. Many others still haven't! Prusik later authored a mountaineering manual, which was the first publication to feature this well-known sliding knot.

Tying a Prusik knot actually becomes enjoyable after a while, funnily enough! Be sure to put a Figure Eight knot into the short end of the line though, since constant use tends to pull line through the knot. The short end gets noticeably shorter than you remember tying it originally. Perhaps this happens during locking and unlocking.

 

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