not 50 pumps on a large kite to get to 8psi, 50 pumps to to "loosely inflate" i.e. you are pumping your kite up to 1 bar = 1 atmosphere or 14.5 psi or 0 psi relative to local air pressure. The kite when loosely inflated will not hold its shape at all but it will have air in it.robertovillate wrote: Someone suggested it takes 50 pump strokes to inflate a big kite...Not sure what kind of pump he's using but I would say more like 100+ strokes to get proper pressure in a 12m or larger kite.
Then to get to 8psi, you want to pump 8/14.5 times however much it took to loosely inflate, or 28 more pumps more for 78 pumps to get to 8psi, it's a convenient way to calculate air pressure of your kite without a gauge. If you kite is in fact loosely inflated at 50 pumps and you pump it 100 times you are putting in a pressure of 14.5 psi. That is an extremely hard kite.
Most kite manufacturers ship terrible pumps with bad leaky valves or pumps that only last a week or two before they start leaking. I've had great luck with this $11 pump from walmart the "air head" pump, best hand pump I've ever had.