I had a session recently when I was out with a 9m Airush Varial X from 2012. The wind was pretty strong... was riding with full depower and with my arms fully extended most of the time. I happened to end up in the middle of a frontal where the wind speed probably was above 40 knots/s. I know that I shouldn't have been out there in the first case, but I was and it wasn't much to do at the moment.
Anyway, the strong wind made the kite to collapse in the air. The centre of the leading edge was sort of being bended downwards and the wingtips got bended slightly upwards, the shape of the kite was more like a sigma than an arc.
It was pretty impossible to manouver the kite when it got deformed, all I could do was to ride downwind in an attempt to make the kite go back to its normal shape.
I ended up doing a massive wipeout before I got back on land.
The kite was pumped to 7+ bar.
Was wondering if this would have happened with any other kite in this wind? Anyone who has experienced the same thing?