Another Blip in the Flow – The Consequences of Tomahawking an Older Kite

Old kites get brittle and the fabric tears when its stressed.  And tomahawking a kite is always stressful on it.  Here are some pictures of my latest kite carnage. I’m showing my latest kiting student what can happen. This kite is now worthless except for scavenging for parts. The cost of repairing the torn fabric on the three struts as well as replacing at least one of the strut bladders is more than the kite is worth. And even if I did make the repairs the kite is likely to fail again.

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Here I am unrolling my damaged 9 meter Ozone Edge to show to my student, Fyn.

Pumping up.

Yikes! No wonder my friends where waving me in. I was powering up to go back out when one of my friends waved me back in. I didn't even see the problems at the time.

Fyn pointing out the bubble erupting from one of my struts.

The fabric in this strut is also torn. The bladder was bulging alarmingly when the kite was fully pumped up. I'm surprised it didn't pop.

More damage to another strut.

Another view of the same strut.

Fyn is marveling at how massively damaged this kite is.

Its time for a new 9 meter. For the specific wind range I’m using a 9 meter in I’m thinking of moving away from the pure wing of an Ozone Edge and going in the opposite direction and trying out a delta, like a Wainman Smoke. Frankly, in higher winds its going to be far more manuverable and grunty. And that’s what I want in the waves. In the lighter winds the Ozone Edges still rule.