Just a little more on the subject. My oldest foil (non-relaunchable) is about 4 years old and is the one I initially learned on. It got repeatedly drowned in surf. I used to just pour the sand and water out and get going again. I use it now for mountainboarding in 10-15 knots and for teaching friends to fly kites.

My second oldest foil was allegedly relaunchable. It got drowned heaps. I also use it for mountainboarding in 5-10 knots. That sucker is still the most powerful kite for size I have ever used.

I have two 3-year old Boom Vectors which I use for kitesurfing. They have taken heaps, and I have repaired them both, mainly due to some prototype modifications which were not properly sorted before I tried them out and getting clobbered by a 40knot squall. They still fly as good as new. I can still match any kiter on the water for board speed and upwind performance. I would probably agree that the latest LEI are better for tricks and may require a little less kite flying skill to manage, but for general kitesurfing my trusty foils still work fine.

On the paraglider front I am aware of several world class paraglider pilots (one set a world distance record) using gliders approaching 900 hours. Assessing the age and performance of a paraglider is not a simple porosity measurement.

Regards

Greg

Flysurfer do now honor their warranties. Apparently the guys who have had their Flysurfer kites got no help from Flysurfer and had to pay for the repairs themselves. One guy had to pay $1200 for a repair.

Ignore the lies. Ignore the propaganda. Ram airs are prone to catastrophic explosions and are not as robust as inflatables.

I must say PMU, you are quite like the little old laddy who lives alone in an attic with a million cats and piles of ancient magazines around that she brings out to peruse and snip out little articles of interest only to her quirky, sqeamish, hibernating self. That post is almost a year old! You really must not have a life and I am sorry for you. Are you horrendously ugly? Have a terrible stammer? Maybe missing a limb or two? We can help. We'll take up a donnation and send you to the appropriate self help association whatever that may be. Or perhaps just a good shrink.
Just say you need help and we'll back you up. You've paid your dues with your idiotic posts. I suppose we should be grateful you haven't gone after Jodie Foster or some other celebrity and are content to pursue attention in front of a flashing screen.....

WHAT CAN WE DO TO HELP YOU!!!!!!!

[quote="Pump me up"]... One guy had to pay $1200 for a repair.

...quote]

$1200? That's a hell of a repair job. I paid for a professional job once and it cost AUD$100. Once I saw what the pros did I did it myself. I think the biggest repair job I have had to do took about 3 hours and used maybe $10 of repair tape and thread.

A friend once shredded a paraglider and they had to ship it to the manufacturer in Austria for repairs. It cost AUD$1500 to replace nearly half the wing and shipping in both directions.

Greg

Excellant!
Since we are all getting tired of the 'cut and paste' bullshit.
Just recycling a one year old thread will keep things simpler for all involved.

-bill

Hmm - I wonder how many "leading edge blowout" threads I can find from the past 4 years...

The only facts that PMU can point to are posts from 4 years ago. Sad, very sad.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_troll

A troll's main goal is usually to arouse anger and frustration among the message board's other participants, and will write whatever it takes to achieve this end. One popular trolling strategy is the practice of Winning by Losing. While the victim is trying to put forward solid and convincing facts to prove his position, the troll's only goal is to infuriate its prey. The troll takes (what it knows to be) a badly flawed, wholly illogical argument, and then vigorously defends it while mocking and insulting its prey. The troll looks like a complete fool, but this is all part of the plan. The victim becomes noticeably angry by trying to repeatedly explain the flaws of the troll's argument. Provoking this anger was the troll's one and only goal from the very beginning.