I went down to a lace where a lot of people have done the right thing, got lessons and have maasive trouble relainching.

Struts and leading edges are like a football, soccerball. They have a reinforced outer skin and a weak bladder underneath. A kite pump can only go to about 11psi before you will snap the handles off. Most guys after lessons arent pumping their kites up enough.

All kite brands when doing R&D use electric pumps and pump kites up to 9.5psi. Most learners/intermediates are putting in around 7psi.

When you put your kite in the water a lot, the air inside gets cooler, and as Boyle's law states the pressure reduces. If your canopy is folding in half at any time during relaunch, theres not enough pressure and it push the leading edge down into the water, and it gives you a real jerky feel until it goes to the wind window, then it flaps. and makes relaunchng harder.

Pump it up till it pings when you flick the LE. If your unsure, fold tips together, there should be resistance to snap back into the designed shape. If the canopy is a jellyfish, you kitesurf like a jellyfish, youll spend most of the time in the water, and get washed up on the beach.

I've found that your best bet is to show someone with an under inflated kite that the leading edge is not a rigid frame. If it's easy to fold, it's not inflated.

The flick it till it pings technique appears to cause more confusion than clarity amongst the inexperienced.

This makes a load of sense. When I was in my 3rd lesson the kite I used was soft and I said this to the instructor. I thought that it was too soft but he just seemed to want to push on with it anyways. I eventually got rolled in the chop at woodies and the kite was soft and flattened out. Then the instructor said we should go pump up again. I didn't want to sound demeaning but I was thinking I told you so. Half the time I couldn't even hear him anyways.

dave...... said...

I went down to a lace where a lot of people have done the right thing, got lessons and have maasive trouble relainching.

Struts and leading edges are like a football, soccerball. They have a reinforced outer skin and a weak bladder underneath. A kite pump can only go to about 11psi before you will snap the handles off. Most guys after lessons arent pumping their kites up enough.

All kite brands when doing R&D use electric pumps and pump kites up to 9.5psi. Most learners/intermediates are putting in around 7psi.

When you put your kite in the water a lot, the air inside gets cooler, and as Boyle's law states the pressure reduces. If your canopy is folding in half at any time during relaunch, theres not enough pressure and it push the leading edge down into the water, and it gives you a real jerky feel until it goes to the wind window, then it flaps. and makes relaunchng harder.

Pump it up till it pings when you flick the LE. If your unsure, fold tips together, there should be resistance to snap back into the designed shape. If the canopy is a jellyfish, you kitesurf like a jellyfish, youll spend most of the time in the water, and get washed up on the beach.

All good info Dave.....
The brands I have observed testing kites, never used electric pumps, just the plain old hand pumps we all use.
A hand pump will get a kite to at least 8PSI easily, without breaking it, which is plenty for any kite on the market.
Its more about the resistance to folding, than the ping. The ping begins at around 6PSI and up, its hard for beginners to understand which tone of ping is correct.
Resistance to folding the LE is simpler to show and understand, and my advice is pump till you feel like the pump is getting very hard to push down or pull up.

Resistance to folding the LE is simpler to show and understand, and my advice is pump till you feel like the pump is getting very hard to push down or pull up.

Great advice, Very hard, keeping it simple..... If it folds in the water and aint a foil, pump it up.

Landed and launched many kites for others recently
Most were somewhat under inflated
Interesting observation

7 psi in cold water means 5psi when youre kite is in the water alot, especially in the bigger sizes. Id rather overinflate a kite a bit when teaching someone to learn, than have a jelly fish.

If there are small waves, walk out further and use the waves/chop to assist you in bringing the kite to the wind window, dont work against them.

Another observation, when launching, the bar is out, not in. Grab the line on the windward side of your wind window and help it pivot...