Video of Ram Air Inversion Disaster

[foilholio]

If I had to pump up a lightwind kite I wouldn't bother.

[PullStrings]

only takes 1 minute for a 17....pumping is effortless these days...it's no big deal....never a bother even for over a 100 times a year

[PullStrings]

Man you stopped flying foils at the wrong time. The Speed 3 was dogshit compared to the foils out now. I had the S3DLX 21m and I absolutely hated that kite. Also preinflating is for pussies

Wow...dogshit, hate & pussies !!!!!
I stopped when you started to kite
What were you up to in 98 when a lot of us were already riding ?

[14ToeSide]

Hey PULL, where have u been??? Didn’t think you landed here anymore? Woooo Whoooo

901CAC74-83C0-40FF-8373-778DB497F768.jpeg (46.22 KiB) Viewed 2141 times

Where has STARSKY been????

[cor]

Despite the LIES of ram lovers, ram air kites have innumerable problems caused by a lack of internal rigidity. One of these is a tendency to flop, twist, and invert, leading to DISASTERS like this:

*watches 5 year old video*
*checks definition of "Disaster" on Wiki*
*watches video again*

umm kay... yeah, wow. What a "disaster". Quite close to an apocalypse I would say.

Still wondering if PMU is paid by for spreading this clueless propaganda shit or if he is just bored af and just likes to put ppl off. Probably the latter.

[PullStrings]

[joriws]

joriws if you can do it more power to you. I think it's just too hard to keep water from getting into your air intake holes. Show me a viddy of you doing it I will definitely be impressed.

Sorry on forgetting to upload the video. I found the video today while cleaning my computer and uploaded it and as on video there was topic quoted as a pic I also updated the old troll-topic to raise awareness of foil self-rescue techniques. There are a lot of deep water pack down videos on YT, but AFAIK no single downwind sailing video.

As after the lull wind game back maybe 4kn, I sailed downwind with boost from foil kite to reach shore sooner as this was May and waters were cold. Most likely I could have been able to use full kite as sail area by setting it better up on its back and unwrapping lines and tightening the front-lines. Full relaunch, maybe but I did not do it that time. But kite captured air nicely into the bag and accelerated my drifting towards the shore line. Much easier than swimming without a board as door TT was way upwind of me already. Friendly kayakers brought my board to shore.

[edt]

Nice! tks for sharing. Now that I know it's possible I'll keep it in mind.

[Pump me up]

I also updated ... to raise awareness of foil self-rescue techniques.

It's sad that "joriws" felt compelled to share his propaganda after all of these years.

Ram airs are simply NOT SAFE for self-rescue. After 45 min they can be deadly. Here are some examples:
ALL ram airs eventually become hopelessly waterlogged, un-relaunchable, and unable to support body weight.
eg http://www.kiteforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2346569
eg http://www.kiteforum.com/viewtopic.php? ... 90#p608890
eg http://www.kiteforum.com/viewtopic.php? ... 6&p=617396
eg http://www.kiteforum.com/viewtopic.php? ... 2&p=704984

The following is an example of "diraklib's" experience with ram airs in wind dropouts:

"the SA-19 is huge and can whack you silly if you let it get down wind of you in a low wind launch. It is downright scary - be ready with the QR at all times if not up and riding!!! I can't say I agree with claims that you can ride the SA-19 in anything lower than a steady 8 knots. I made a personal choice to not ride the SA-19 any more. It went down twice in lulls and managed to bow-tie on the way down - there was no way to relaunch. I was not as lucky as others that self rescued. My kite was full of water by the time I dragged my very tired and frustrated a$$ to shore. It sounds simple, "wrap the lines around the bar, fold the kite in half, roll it up on your board and paddle in"... noooo... there are lines everywhere under water that wrap around your feet as you are trying to manipulate the kite. You just pray that a gust won't pop the kite up and slice of an appendage. The kite ... is just too scary when it goes down. My attitude now is - if my LEI won't fly, I shouldn't be on the water. Anyone interested in a slightly used SA2-19m??? Cheap???"

For the full epiphany, checkout http://www.kiteforum.com/viewtopic.php? ... 9&start=40

The following is the experience of "pmaggie" with ram airs in wind dropouts:

I rode foils only a few times, so these are really my two cents. The problem I experieced with foils in very light wind when they suddenly fall. In my home spot, in very light wind days, sometimes the wind really goes to zero for 1 minute or so. When this happen, both foils and inflatables suddenly fall. In this cases, my inflatable, since it's far heavier than a foil, fall directly into the water with no line tangling and I just have to wait for a gust to relaunch (when possible, that means about 7 knots for my Core 17). When a foil falls with no wind, being very light, it's common that its lines roll over it and became completely tangled. At that point, it's not that easy to relaunch.
The other big problem with foils in very light wind is when the wind completely stops. With an inflatable, you just get your kite and swim attached to your little floating boat. With a foil, you have 20 sqm of tissue to carry home with you!

For the full story, checkout: http://www.kiteforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2376332

Here is the experience of "FredBGG" with a line failure:

The other day I had a front line fail.
Wind was slightly off shore...
I really needed a tow to the beach.
I had the kite safely on the 5th line folded in half (flysurfer Foil)
I waved down two kiters.... both expert judging by their riding.
Both refused to help.
One even yelled if you can't relaunch it's your problem.
Anyway after a difficult ordeal in the surf and current I got back to the beach.
I had to rest a bit but my board was still out there.

For the full admission http://www.kiteforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2362065
The problem here isn't with the other kiters, it's with Fred's choice of kite. If Fred had an inflatable, he would have been able to "self-rescue" by grabbing the tips and "sailing" to shore. The other kiters refusing to help is understandable: Fred opted for less safe equipment. It's his problem and he shouldn't impose on others to make up for his equipment deficiencies. Also, towing a ram air to shore is like towing a sleeping bag full of water - difficult and dangerous.

Ignore the lies. Ignore the propaganda. Ram airs are inferior compared to inflatables.

Pumpy..........

[JakeFarley]

Well, PMU's references are from pre-2015 or so. There are a lot more ram air/foil kites out there now, especially since the advent of foiling and manufacturers coming out with kites that are more user friendly, such as the Soul. Needless to say ram air/foil kites are a different "beast" when it comes to learning how to handle them. Inexperience in predicting the wind, launching, re-launching, hesitation to self-rescue when the kite is down in the water in low winds, and just plain misfortune (dropping kite in surf), etc. results in problems retrieving the kite. Once you learn to "tame the beast", the advantages over inflatables are there to reap.

I purchased my first foil kite, Flysurfer Speed 5 21m in 2017. I ride it in flat water exclusively. I've had it down in the water a couple of times, but not due to loss of wind. I've had some close calls when the wind lulled to around 7 knots, but was able to keep it out of the water and body drag back in. The one time it went down in the water was due to operator error in 11-12 knot winds. I botched a jump where I swung under the kite and it Hindenburged. The kite bow-tied and fell into the water. After several attempts to get it to straighten out and about 15 minutes trying to relaunch, I decided to self-rescue. Since the winds were light I decided to pull in one steering line and wrap up the lines once the kite was laid our flat (sort of). After I pulled in a good length of the steering line, I noticed that the kite laid out completely flat with no bow tie. So I let out the steering line slowly and was able to successfully relaunch. The other times I had issues were with launches when I first got the kite, but they were due to trying to side launch in very low winds. My Speed 5 will stay inflated for over 30 minutes and the only downside to that is it takes longer to pack down (had a close call when a storm approached, but got it packed down just before it hit).

So with more kiters flying foil kites now, I have not seen any major problems relaunching them mentioned on this forum in the last 3-4 years (I'm sure PMU will correct me if I am wrong).