Ok I bought a 9m Switchblade under 3 weeks ago. I have flown it about 8 times while up in QLD where I bought the kite. I come back to Melbourne and take the kite out for its first time down here. It inflates fine and I have a great session until I try to deflate the leading edge bladder. When I release the valve 3/4's of the bladder deflate but one end (around a 1/4 of the leading edge) stays inflated and rock hard? So I feel around the end and its all nice and smooth and rounded? Weird. So I reinflate it a little to see if I can feel a twist in the bladder? No it all feels fine. Deflate again.. Same problem, 1/4 is still inflated. So I figure I'll pull the bladder out and have a look but how the hell do yoo do that when it wont deflate. So I pump it up again and leave it for a while and after a few minutes I hear something twang but the leading edge stays inflated. I deflate it and it fully deflates. I reinflate and its all good. No worries problem solved. Must have been twised. No idea how it could be twised as its only 2-3 weeks old and has only been rolled up a few times.

So I go kiting yesterday and the kite inflates fine. I am out for about 30mins and the kites starts loosing shape so I come in. I figure the kite has a small pin hole from the untwisting so I take it home and pull out the leading edge bladder. As I remove it I discover two massive holes big enough to put your first through!!! How the hell could this happen? How it stayed inflated for 30mins I have no idea unless it was still twisted and some how sealed it self enough to stay inflated?

So would this be a warranty issue and has anyone else has this freak bladder twist occur on any kites bow or C style?

Also how much would a new leading edge bladder cost? I'm am pretty pissed when a $1600 kite does something like this?

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when I bought my 12m Switchblade Daniel from WSP showed me how to pack up the kite correctly: You don't roll it up in a straight line because that's twisting the bladder. Roll in a semicircle with the bladder always following itself. Is this somehow clear what I mean ? Always did that, never had problems.

Hope this helps.
S.

BEST really helped me out when I had a bladder go after I used it only 5 or 6 times.

Its not a warranty if your bladder twists - you should be more aware of whats going on with your gear. JUST FIX THE HOLES- manufacturers defects dont include the ones your parents made.

today the same thing happened as CP except it didnt quite pop. we tried to let air out of LE and the end stayed rock hard. eventually tho it slowly went down and we were able to get the bladder out. check it out
www.seabreeze.com.au/gallery/gallery.asp?imageid=1211

quote:

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Originally posted by 4DICE

today the same thing happened as CP except it didnt quite pop. we tried to let air out of LE and the end stayed rock hard. eventually tho it slowly went down and we were able to get the bladder out. check it out
www.seabreeze.com.au/gallery/gallery.asp?imageid=1211

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Well we've got the bladder back in and as usual the bladder is slightly longer than the kite. I normally tuck this excess bladder back into the end before velcrosing it closed. I am unsure if this excess bladder is there from brand new but it may be the cause of the twisting problem.

If the excess is down in the tip of the kite it can't cause any problems. But if you roll you kite from the tip to get the air out (which I have always done) you end up forcing the excess bladder along in front of the air bubble. This excess ends up being in a section of the kite where it can cause problems. Once you allow this excees into a section of the kite where there is already a sight twist in the bladder the twist turns into a full blown knot. This slight twist would not have been a problem until you gave it the excess bladder to allow it to get knoted up.

How do you stop it from happening?...

Allow most of the air to escape from the leading edge by iy self before starting to for rolling up your kite.

Maybe open up the ends and pull the excess bladder back into the end every so often.