I was out yesterday in The Netherlands while an absolutely insane >50kts windfront was coming over. I was riding my 2020 7m pivot and I noticed it was reacting very poorly to steering input, requiring really a lot of force to prevent it from directly shooting up to 12.
Could this weird behaviour be due to the kite deforming in high winds? I pumped it up to 10psi, but I just saw that Sam Light inflates his RPX to 12 psi, so I guess you need to pump a kite extra in super strong winds?
While I enjoyed being out in those conditions, I was constantly fighting the kite and it made the entire session feel a lot sketchier than I would have preferred
I think you have unrealistic expectations of your kites wind range. As wind speed increases, the strength does also, and it does it exponentially, thus, a doubling of the wind speed results in an exponential increase in the force of the wind. To keep the physics simple, a 40 mph wind is not twice as strong as a 20 mph wind, it is actually four times stronger.
What tension did you have in the lines when the weirdness was happening? At 50knts which is on the daft side of life you will get distortions. For example with a windsurfing rig, which is much more rigid than a kite, in extreme conditions you will end up pushing with the front hand and pulling with the backhand; unfortunately you can’t push with kite lines.
7m three strut is too floppy for 50knts imho, you did well to get through the session.
my 18 in gusting 30 knots is barely steerable, because I am fighting for not being pulled to another continent.
but once I send it, it flies
So, did you sent it? how did he behave in the air? Normal?
If you have to press really hard the board to control the power of the kite, you are at the limit. Sometime even the kite collapse if not pumped really hard.
Its all about kite size, technique &/or also how much depower you have dialed in.
If you’ve sheeted out & depowered, don’t expect your kite to turn nicely. But on medium depower so the back lines have some tension, with really hard edging you should be able to maintain control.
For example, yesterday Bully was on a 5m Reach & v powered, boosting & waveriding in full control, whereas Sam was on an 8m RPX, it looked a bit sketchy in the proper gusts, but he was fine & boosting with full control (see his insta video) - I took my ancient 6m Park & it was good, just not boosting that high