deffinetly seal them because if u get a puncture or your deflate valve opens the only the thing keeping your kite alfoat will be your struts if not say good by too ur kite cause it will sink!!

What would the be the point of having them if you did not seal them??

when im in the ocean i seal them off, just to be safe, and it means i can deflate my kite on the beach roll it up then do it properly at home without sand everywhere getting blown into the kite.
but when i kite on the river i dont bother, i pack the kite up on grass, its onshore breeze and quite safe, i can also stand.

i never seal them... only time i would bother is when kiting offshore reefs etc

wish my havocs didnt have them cause the plastic clips have chafed the panel making little holes, so now i have liltte patches where they all are. thats a piss off.

i don't mean to be a negative nancy... but steve, your sign off of see ya and good winds... does not farken work.... we have not had good wind for ages... maybe you should try.. cya and pray for good winds.. or.... cya and sacrafice a virgin for good winds.... and seeing some of the guys working in the dolls shop, surely you got an oversupply there... or cya and if we get good winds i'll eat my own poo....

Hey Steve, you should have a ride because I don't get that spongy feeling...

if your not gona seal ur kites off,take the clips of and give them to me... id love to seal my kite off.. stops damage to the struts from massive crashes as the struts arnt as re inforced as the LE and all the force pushes the air into the struts. and when a valve opens up ur kite still floats.. trust me swimming in with a completely deflated kite is not easy!

I have flown my 13m Ozone edge clipped and unclipped and there is a difference in how the kite performs it feels soft if you don't clip them up ....it is only subtle but I think the bigger the kite the more important to close the valves ....my 9m edge will be here in a couple of days so I will be able to confirm this.

I was going to reply to this topic earlier and say that i never bother to clip up my clips as they all end up coming undone anyway (08 Airush Flow 7m) but i didnt.

Although when i went out today, i clipped them up simply becuase of what i read on this post.

But i was right. They DO indeed come unclipped. And co-incidentally, i had a hose pop off of my c rap-a rse one pump system and i had to do my first self-rescue today at safety bay. I'll abreviate by saying it was an entertaining and educational experience trying to drag a fully deflated and waterlogged kite 100m back to shore. I havent even started to untangle my lines yet.

Does anyone else have this problem with the clips coming undone? Or has anyone ever had hoses pop off before? Apparently it also happened once to the guy who sold me the kite.