Gyre wrote: ↑Sun Jul 21, 2019 4:14 pm
But the landing and packing up is still a mess. I find it pretty impossible to open the valves in the water without getting tangled in the lines, and even when I get the valves open, in the water it's nearly impossible to squeeze the air out of the kite and roll it up neatly. I always come in with a wet tangled mess. Any advice?
1. When winding up lines in the water, wind up until both wingtips come together, i.e. only leave about 1 bar length of lines from the tip.
2. Then detach the bar and hold it up in the air. Always make sure the chicken loop points away from the bridle lines. Pull the bar to one side so that the kite gets folded in half and only swims on one outer side. Put the bar on top of the tips. Now most of your bridle lines should be inside the folded kite. If the kite has already lost enough air, try to fold in the upper wingtip by about 1m, but leave the lower wingtip straight.
3. Swim around the trailing edge of the kite and open the air vent(s) in the middle of the kite. Put any bridle lines you might see between the folded kite halves.
4. Swim back to the tips. Make sure the upper wingtip is folded in by about 1m. This slight asymmetry is especially important if your kite has a zipper instead of normal velcro valves. The valve(s) must be up in the air while you roll the kite. Put the bar on the tips and the chicken loop towards the leading edge.
5. Roll up the kite. Ideally not round, but in segments of about 20cm width. If possible, hold it up in the air after each segment, so that water in the kite can flow towards the center of the kite. Hint: Water can not only flow at the trailing edge! Further up, the holes in the ribs are bigger.
6. When you reach the center, try to get rid of any remaining water in the kite. Fold it in half, close the velcros/zipper, and put it on the board.
I've done this with my Kauper Falcon 13 and a foilboard with no relevant volume. After 20 min. of swimming towards the shore, the wind picked up again, and I was surprised how easily I could relaunch the kite and continue riding. Caveat: Since I cannot sit stably on my board, I carry a second long leash, which I attach to a ring at the end of the board whenever I need both hands free for handling the kite/lines in the water.