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Explosive Decompression! - No puncture.

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Beardytello
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Explosive Decompression! - No puncture.

Postby Beardytello » Tue Jun 18, 2019 9:09 am

Sooo.

I was out enjoying myself last night (kiting, not masturbating) and in the middle of a turn my kite just completely crumpled and dropped out of the sky, its a newish Blade, only been used about 7 or 8 times.

I assumed some sort of catastrophic failure and commenced rescuing myself, got to the kite and it was at about 3psi (guess) from the 8 that it was at when I started.

I wondered if maybe it was a slow leak but there had been no symptoms upto that point, I'm a unit so if it had gradually dropped I would have noticed wing fold at around 6psi easy.

It's basically like in the middle of a turn something dumped most of the air but not all.....

Pumped it up at home and left it, no issues.

Anyone got any ideas?! I'm confused and a little concerned for my next session.

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Re: Explosive Decompression! - No puncture.

Postby kite_hh » Tue Jun 18, 2019 10:05 am

I am not familiar with the blade, but does it have a one pump system?

If so, maybe one of valves on the struts was closed. Not closed deliberately, but maybe just twisted or something.

So your kite seemed properly filled, but once that strut valve got twisted by you turning the kite it opened up the connection from front tube to strut and you experienced a severe loss of pressure.

To check if this makes sense pressurewise you can easily reenact the situation on land by (this time) deliberately closing the strut up and then opening it, when done inflating.
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Re: Explosive Decompression! - No puncture.

Postby Beardytello » Tue Jun 18, 2019 10:54 am

kite_hh wrote:
Tue Jun 18, 2019 10:05 am
I am not familiar with the blade, but does it have a one pump system?

If so, maybe one of valves on the struts was closed. Not closed deliberately, but maybe just twisted or something.

So your kite seemed properly filled, but once that strut valve got twisted by you turning the kite it opened up the connection from front tube to strut and you experienced a severe loss of pressure.

To check if this makes sense pressurewise you can easily reenact the situation on land by (this time) deliberately closing the strut up and then opening it, when done inflating.
It does have that yes, your theory definitely has legs...but I would be surprised if a strut took that much air, it went from rock hard to wobbly jellyfish lol! But definitely one to test out to see just how much it takes.

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Re: Explosive Decompression! - No puncture.

Postby nothing2seehere » Tue Jun 18, 2019 1:29 pm

I'd have put the culprit as the Maxflow valve. Have heard about similar problems with Liquid force kites (same valve). Not heard about it during a turn though. Normally in a crash.
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Re: Explosive Decompression! - No puncture.

Postby rogue_kiteboarder » Tue Jun 18, 2019 3:22 pm

Check the lengths of the one pump hoses. if one is too short, it may have slightly pulled off the valve during the turn letting the higher pressure air out, only to seem fine under no stress/low pressure.
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Re: Explosive Decompression! - No puncture.

Postby Beardytello » Tue Jun 18, 2019 3:33 pm

nothing2seehere wrote:
Tue Jun 18, 2019 1:29 pm
I'd have put the culprit as the Maxflow valve. Have heard about similar problems with Liquid force kites (same valve). Not heard about it during a turn though. Normally in a crash.
I was leaning towards the valve, the fact it was almost instant and quite a lot of pressure but with no follow on symptoms made me imagine the valve blowing out half the air randomly. One to look out for anyway!

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Re: Explosive Decompression! - No puncture.

Postby edt » Tue Jun 18, 2019 4:24 pm

Never seen that happen in a simple turn. I've often had kites loose air in the middle of a turn, but only after a really hard crash, where you just slam the kite into the ground and either the inflate valve or a strut valve pops open, you relaunch and then the kite instantly deflates. But after getting back to shore it's always easy to see where the valve came out.

Never seen it loose all the air then suddenly start working again. If the valve pops out it should stay out. I'd be really hesitant about ascribing a cause to this. Valves, maybe, maybe it's some weird hole that closed up again, maybe something about the boston valve coming open could be anything. You are probably right to be concerned, try looping it hard again just like last time near shore, try to get it to happen again, maybe the next time it happens you'll be able to find the cause.
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Re: Explosive Decompression! - No puncture.

Postby Beardytello » Tue Jun 18, 2019 4:31 pm

edt wrote:
Tue Jun 18, 2019 4:24 pm
Never seen that happen in a simple turn. I've often had kites loose air in the middle of a turn, but only after a really hard crash, where you just slam the kite into the ground and either the inflate valve or a strut valve pops open, you relaunch and then the kite instantly deflates. But after getting back to shore it's always easy to see where the valve came out.

Never seen it loose all the air then suddenly start working again. If the valve pops out it should stay out. I'd be really hesitant about ascribing a cause to this. Valves, maybe, maybe it's some weird hole that closed up again, maybe something about the boston valve coming open could be anything. You are probably right to be concerned, try looping it hard again just like last time near shore, try to get it to happen again, maybe the next time it happens you'll be able to find the cause.
Yeah, it's weird AF!

I had not long crashed it but not overly hard, just bailed on a backroll and it hit the deck, but it relaunched and I set off again fine so I'm assuming it didn't lose the air then, unless that dislodged something (valve most likely rather than strut) , then it started leaking air not instantly but fast enough so that on my turn it buckled....that actually kind of makes sense.

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Re: Explosive Decompression! - No puncture.

Postby tautologies » Tue Jun 18, 2019 6:33 pm

Its pretty easy. You have a valve that is not attached right. Probably needs to be reglued. Once you pump up the kite, and there is built up air pressure on the valve attachment and the dacron and kite stays inflated, and when you move it around, it gradually lose pressure, and the more pressure you lose, the more air goes out so at some point there is not enough pressure and the rest goes out.

Note it could be on a one-pump system too, but the most probable culprit is how the valve is attached to the bladder. So pump up, not super hard, and then gently move the valve a bit, and I am willing to bet you'll hear the infamous hiss.
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Re: Explosive Decompression! - No puncture.

Postby edt » Tue Jun 18, 2019 6:36 pm

yeah but if a valve is loose it doesn't let all the air out in seconds, takes at least 1 or 2 minutes. If it all comes out in 30 seconds it's usually a plug coming loose. I still think it's really weird and might be something nobody has thought of yet. I would try to reproduce it.
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