Kite Companies You listen!

[Ned Divine]

If the kite has big wingtip battens, I prefer the dump valve in the middle.
No battens I don't care.
Let me explain. .
When rolling from one end to the other on a larger kite it is likely to get some misalignment as you're rolling, none of the edges on the kite are straight so you have no real reference point if you are rolling it straight or a little cock eyed.
If the kite has big wing tip battens unless you're somewhat careful, they may end up misaligning nsthe batte by the time you are finished going from 1 end to the other. and then the kite does not fold nicely in the bag. and you have to jerk around with it a little.

If you fold the kite in half first before rolling, the battens are ALWAYS aligned and it takes half the time to roll it.

I can still do this by opening the dump valve AND the inflate valve, it just doesn't let the air out as fast as something like a naish which has (or had...not sure) the dump valve in the center. So I have to dry hump the kite a bit more to get the air out.

I don't really care either way, but a big valve in the the middle of the kite. always seemed a bit faster , provided you had the forsight to fold the kite before rolling.

When you have finished rolling, if the battens are not aligned (they usually aren't), fish the rolled-in batten from the rolled trailing edge side and pull it out to align it with the batten with which the rolling concluded. Once the battens are aligned, you can fold the kite in two. It will wrinkle the kite in a visually unsatisfactory way in the inside of the folding but it doesn't matter, the kite will be perfectly well folded to fit in the kite-bag.