Urgh.. I've had it with beginners flopping around the beach crying poor me
when their kite does not relaunch easily and getting frustrated at the sport overall.

You need one of these guys!



Pump that sucker up to 5PSI at least! Go over to your wing tips (about a third way back)
and try and bend the wing tip. You should notice how hard it is to bend it back (not overly
impossible), but just make sure the wing tips take some effort to bend back.

THEN GO OUT AND ENJOY!!

Just another friendly message from your friendly ex-noob Lofty

Another trap for young players:

When you pump up your kite, and then faff around for the next 10 - 15 minutes laying out your lines, doing your hair and make-up etc, the air in your kite will usually have cooled down a bit after coming out of a hot pump. This can make the difference between a rock hard kite and a semi-floppy kite. So go back and give it another pump just before you launch.

I'm sure there's a dirty analogy I can make in there somewhere.

If you pump your kite up hard it will perform better, BUT when it gets munched by a wave it will go pop because there is no where for the air to go.

On a hot day the air can expand a lot, and a 9 psi kite can go pop.

Some Gauges can be out by 3 psi and are not accurate

5+ psi is good, some use 9 or 10 psi but thats asking for damage, I use about 6psi, if you drop the kite into a wave or slam it hard there is less chance of damage as there is room for the air to move around when the kite is getting munched

FlipFlop said..
My instructor got me to pump the kite up and flick it with my finger as I was doing so. He told me that when you flick and get a large drum sound reverberating through the bladder you're at a decent pressure so this is how I'm doing it.

That tip about folding back the wingtips is a good extra test, glad to know it, cheers!

Kami is right though. Pump gauges are a hit and miss affair. The wing tip test is the true way to know if it's been pumped hard enough.

Loftywinds said..
Urgh.. I've had it with beginners flopping around the beach crying poor me
when their kite does not relaunch easily and getting frustrated at the sport overall.

You need one of these guys!



Pump that sucker up to 5PSI at least! Go over to your wing tips (about a third way back)
and try and bend the wing tip. You should notice how hard it is to bend it back (not overly
impossible), but just make sure the wing tips take some effort to bend back.

THEN GO OUT AND ENJOY!!

Just another friendly message from your friendly ex-noob Lofty

Hey Rails...
At least you dont have the next pic of him on the down stroke

I pump until the wrinkle in the center strut is gone! Then do the ping test. When it goes from thud to ping you are good to go.

I pump my 3 struters up hard as a 16 year old school boy whose just discovered internet porrn!

Rails said..

Geesus! Same kite as me, Looks like me. Arrghhh!!!