Someone asked on the Show Kite Forum last week about the anchor knot I demonstrated at my Big Kite Workshop in Gettysburg. I call it the “Spanish Knot” because the Gonzalez Brothers showed it to me – and because I don’t think it has a better name.

If you let all your line out, then it is easy to attach the end loop to the anchor. But usually, we don’t commit all our line and need a different knot system. Generally, I’ve been using Larksheads to connect a line to a carabiner. But they tighten down or may slip if you don’t add a second knot to hold everything. Undoing the knots can be tedious.

The good news with the Spanish technique is that it is easy to take a kite off the anchor, and the knot slips free to completely disappear. The bad news is that it’s a little bulky. So if you plan to attach two or three kites to one carabiner, this may not be the way to go.

Here’s how the knot works. Give it a try and decide for yourself.

If you know how to “Daisy Chain” a line, then you know the basics of the Spanish Knot. You make a loop and then pull a second loop through, and then pull another loop through that to shorten up bridles or loose line.

For anchoring, start with a line folded where you want the anchor to connect. Let’s call the connection location “Point A”.

Make a loop about a foot above Point A.. Then pull a second loop through that. The center of the second loop will be “Point B”.

Note that Point A is in one strand of line, and that Point B is in two of them.

Even up the three loops and slip all three strands that make up Point A and B into a biner. Notice that the line holds efficiently without sliding up snug on the metal.

When you have the kite down and are ready to disconnect your anchor, simply slip the three lines out of the carabiner. If you then pull the single line at Point A, it will undo the slip knot and disappear!