Airush wave 7m blew out!

[Bill]

Was kiting today in some pretty strong wind. Came to shore and my kite sort of blew out ie lost its Shape and sort of went flat in the wind. Had to leash out. Bladders pumped solid and bridle looks OK. Anyone else experienced that? Was very windy. I think about 40 knots although not surr

[Faxie]

Yeah, that's what you get with all those pulleys. Mostly an Airush thing.

Guess you had the trim pulled all the way?

[alfredo68]

I think you ve experienced a kite inversion.
It happened to me with my AR wave 9
Just after being launched with kite at 12 and the trim strapp fully depowered.
You have to be carefull when overpowered and your kite trimmed fully depowered and your bar fully out ( de powered). All of these at overpowered conditions.
No matter i love my AR wave tho.

[foam-n-fibre]

Sounds like what was happening on the original waroos. The solution is to pump it harder, and/or keep more bar pressure on it. Big guys who are on a big kite for the wind and who like to let go of the bar on full depower were most prone to this kind of thing. If the kite was leaking and going soft it was and probably still is very likely to happen.

Peter

[caduo]

it not about pump harder ,it s more to keep more power in the back lines and avoid to keep the kite at 12 when it s very windy and very gusty especially in side or side off conditions near the beach,some airush kites use to do that,probably other brands too,maybe thinner le or bridle.

[gibsonandpickett]

I remember the varial x kite when it first became out they inverted regularly when sheeted out very quickly in big gusts. Was very common!

[dylan*]

How much do you weigh? Wave isnt a super rigid kite so if you seriously load it up in high wind, it's possible it could fold a bit. I've seen several 3-strut kites do it, and I've even managed to do it myself when I edged really hard against an older 9m in 40+ mph. Leading edge looked sort of like those old naish sigma kites

[SonnyRider]

I think I must've been lucky. My first Wave was in 2012, a 9m, that I loved. I lived on that kite. Not once had I experienced anything you guys are talking about. MInd you I never had out in 40+. I weigh 95kgs. I have a 2018 10m and find it is a great kite.
The 2015 7m I have is a dream in high winds.

We had 2014 VX's in 10 & 14m sizes, the 10 was a dream, the only kite we regretted selling. We still have the 14m

We did have an Early VX, 2012 I think it was, an 8m, it didn't handle high winds very well, esp. when you had some rope pulled through to depower it. Once I jellyfished and nearly inverted on my, but the wind was super gusty 40+

We pump them to 8psi (we have an electric pump. If we pump by hand we pump until we struggle to fold the LE) and make sure the line lengths are correct.

Only kite I've had issues with loading it up was an 18m Vantage, I could fold that. I had to sell it because It just wasn't working for me at my weight. But was fine for the GF and other lighter people.

[Bill]

I'm 12 stone about 75 kg. The kite was about half depowered. I did check the lines after and the steering lines were about one inch longer so pretty good. Do you know if I could have done anything to put it right while still flying it? Cheers....