tube kites for snowkiteing???

[vesku]

One question for all kiters:

Have you ever seen a tube exploding in winter?

If yes, what was the reason? Too cold? Over inflated? Wear and tear? Too heavy landing or steering mistake? Bad quality? Other reason?

In the three years in history of Finnish kitesnowboarding I have not ever seen an exploded tube in winter. So for me this is like an urban legend.

Enjoy and ride safely!

VESKU


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: vesku on 2003-01-11 20:25 ]</font>

[Kiterich]

quite a few people are looking to use them but primarily only people who want to make some money out of sponsorship etc. so if you want to keep some retard who has never flown a proper kite fed and watered get an inflatable.
[/quote]

I think this is some what weighted towards the benefits of foils over leis and as such, depite the way it was meant, labels all lei users as retards, not just the sponsored ones, as many lei riders have "never flown a proper kite" not just the sponsored ones. Anyway, i was only pulling your pisser so to speak - just dont like this us and them thing that goes on with lei / foils. Did you get yours back yet? That was pretty harsh - were they in the car or nicked at home?

[kpipis]

ive seen one exploding.if the cause was the cold wind thats can be discused.but i dont think that this discusion must become a foil-lei war.

[Kiterich]

too right kipis, i hate all this lei / foil nonsense. If it works, ride it. Both work but in different ways. Tube kite will not explode due to the cold - only a hard crash or damage. Warm air has a higher volume than cold. The colder it gets the less the pressure in your bladers.

[Flyboy II]

I fly my Blacktip 20 and my Naish AR5 13.5 on the frozen lakes here in Michigan. Lately it's been about 5-10 degrees F, putting the windchill in the - teens. The bladders inflate fine; the pump tip doesn't fall out as was reported by another flyer, but I use a big capacity Cabrinha pump with a seperate hose, which might help. There are two issues with the cold; it's the valve cap connection loop which can crack from bending in the cold, and please remember to vent some air before you get it in the warm car/house or the bursting will take place on the way home when the air warms and expands. I use a 5th line in the winter to eliminate launch problems and always tie my rigging safety hook to a tree near shore while setting up and carry an ice screw in my pocket for middle of the lake emergencies (once line twist locked out the safety leash and I couldn't depower. I just hook the chicken loop to the screw so I can walk down to the kite and fix whatever.

But I was so curious about foils that I just ordered a Psycho 12.5 today, mostly for water, but believe me, when it comes we'll start on the ice.

Most of my buddies use foils, but probably because we don't have a lot of water kitesurfers yet and my most reliable kiting partner is a windwing foil dealer. Without depower rigging and such, I think that they are harder to skoot on, but I haven't the time on them that I do blimps. I'll let you know my favorite in a couple weeks....

Scott
Kalamazoo, Michigan

[real_kiteking]

YO YO


my gang at the RESIA LAKE preferz TUBE´zZz


with FOIL you wont get the same LIFT you need to jump high over cars, boats, trees and people.

[Flyboy]

What the...!

[kitesnowboarder]

use whatever kite you have on the snow
tubes and foils both work fine
we can flip 16m tubes now in the snow with the right amount of wind
later

Dan Sheridan
http://www.kitesnowboarding.net
http://www.kitesurfingcanada.com
http://www.kitevideo.com
Sick kitegear, great service.
Email: dan@kitesnowboarding.net
Phone: 416 818 6787

[Guest]

Uhh the windwings are the best kites i have ever flown, once the word gets out about them im sure itll cause a bit of a stir! Oh got rid of all my blades because of them, have a 3.3m and 5.5m sweet, snow, mountainboard and waiting for summer now for the water.

[Guest]

haha...
I use a 9.5m2 AR5 kite in the winter, has worked down to -25C. A bit demandig circumstances for the kite, the man and everything else too... The problem with inflatables in winter is, that the struts are made of plastic with plastic valves and these parts really get hell when used in -15...-25C. I have had some really nice dives with the kite hitting the ice with high speed and nothing has happened.

Relauching from a hard surface is impossible with many inflatables, the ArX is not coming up again, neither is the AR5. But, the Co2 and Aero will, due to their lower AR, turn around and relaunch. With more & soft snow, the situation get´s more like on water. Foil relaunching is offcourse much easier. However, the safety systems in many foils are really shit compared to LEI´s.

Good, modern LEI`s go upwind in the winter like hell. Jumping with a 9.5m2 old LEI in 20 kts on ice with 1-2" snow without any paddings is quite... hm, let´s say, a strict school for jumping technique. 10-14 m2 are best sizes for snow, 20m2 gets too fast too big.

I funny story:
I was snowkiting in almost zero wind on a lake. Good wind above 5 m heigh, below that nothing. I was cruising around like crazy with a 19.5 m2 ArX. Two hours later a man stopped his icefishing, came to me and said: "how the hell is that thing moving, no wind and you are making 50 km/h???!? I´m an engineer and I have been hanging my fishing lines in air nand THERE IS NO WIND whatsoever and you are just going back and forth like crazy"???

Oh, I forgot: Yo Dude! Whatever rocks, let it rock! And let the surf keep on rolling...

-jupu-