Core Section 3 experience

[tadas85]

Yesterday had a downwind on Core Section 3 (9sqm) in a mushy waves with directional. Crashed kite into waves 2 times while down looping, both times I was not able to relaunch and had to be towed to shore since mid strut turned over leading edge making it impossible to relaunch. I pumped my kite to 7bar not exceeding 8bar as Core recommends. It never happened before with my old RRD religion kites, I was able t relaunch even on a worst conditions. Have you had any similar incidents with Core where mid strut was bent over leading edge?

[daspi]

"Center strut bent over LE"? You mean the kite inverted? This can happen with any kite. I ride a quiver of Section kites and the relauch has always been exceptional. Never inverted. Rolled the kite a few times, but it will still fly fine after. Had all kind of scenarios but never thought it behaved unexpectedly. Maybe clarify what happened.

[tadas85]

Basically on onshore / side shore conditions, while turning and riding a wave downwind I went with a kite too low and touched water with an edge a bit, while loosing tension on a lines quickly pulled bar the other side to get lower edge pulled from water. But small waves (0,5m-1m) pulled kite into water fully. I have not engaged QR. When both times I have reached shore and secured kite found out that only mid strut inverted over LE. Normally on other kites I got whole kite inverted. That was a bit of new experience for me, since I recently switched to Core sections quiver in full. Basically 2 times dropped kite into water and both times had to be swimming to shore without a chance of relaunch. But as you say, maybe my skills are a problem not a gear.

[Kash]

In my experience Section relaunches well, but I had a different accident. After a kiteloop, my 6m section refused to take a C shape and became flat almost looking like it was inverted. I had to bodydrag to shore because the kite was just not controllable, it was kicking me downwind. When I got to shore and landed - everything seemed fine, the only observation was that it was probably underinflated, which caused this (I had to use a hose that was not 100% compatible). Probably like 5-6 psi..

[Onda]

Never had any issues with my Section1, but don´t know the Section3.
Don´t use the pressure gauge, it is generally useless due to very low accuracy.
When using a normal kite pump (not SUP!) simply pump as hard as you can. The pressure will then reach between 7 and 9 PSI, depending on your body weight. The leading edge has to be really firm!

[daspi]

What you are describing is still a mystery to me. How can one strut invert? Maybe one strut was pressed down by wave/water and wind but a kite is really only inverted when it takes off inverted and powers up (really bad for the kite). On the water surface and inversion is not yet an inversion. The kite can roll on it's back but that is still no inversion. Maybe we have a definition problem?

I had it that the kite looked like deflated with canopy sticking to the water and water on top of it. Basically flattened the kite down on the water. I this situation if you have no line tension and waves pushing you toward the kite, it's really tough to get the kite back to catch wind to relaunch. Especially if the wind is on the lighter side. This stuff can happen in waves. But like an other poster mentioned, pump the Section pretty hard. The small diameter leading edge needs it. I pump mine pretty hard too.

Don't be discouraged. The Sections are fine kites.

[tadas85]

I have no doubts about core section it is a huge step forward compared with RRD religions which I used more than 5years now. I will stay with core for sure, I would assume inversion of strut to the other side was just a random incident happened on a same downwind session. I don't have a video or pic with end result, but made a sketch how kite looked when I brought it back to shore:

https://ibb.co/NZL1rZ2

Not sure if it clarifies. On a first incident I had to deflate some air to get strut back in normal position, not to get kite exploded. But yeah, this could happen to each kite.