Went to SOBB this past weekend.....first day....put the 6.8 Viper up...first turn and a power line popped, so I thought. Just got to look at it and determined that not only a power line popped but the bridle on the left brake popped. It broke right where the thread goes through for the loop. Pic below.

Next day or day after.....nuking winds....25-30mph+....put the 3.9 Viper up and was having a blast. I decided to go up onto the dune....kite powered up and buggy was in wrong position so I let go. The kite landed in the grass, seemed fine until I noticed the center baffle wasn't filling up so I landed it and somebody was kind enough to check it out....it was determined that the cell was ripped so we packed it up. Just got to looking at it and determined that it has 3 ripped cells and all of them are 2-3 foot long tears.

Very, very bummed to say the least. I don't even know if the 3.9 is fixable or a throw away at this point.

Broken bridle....

Torn baffles...

That just sucks Chris. Nothing like quickly turning a good time into NOT. Hope it's repairable for ya man and that you are able to come back out and make up for some of the downfall.

Blowing a power line in high winds almost always kills something else...

Powerzone will fix it! Might require a whole new rib but it'll be better than new.

Bummer,... I blew out 3 ribs on my 4m Core at JIBE on day 2. (I almost cried )

Being new to flying hooked in, I lost track of the kite or got distracted and head on crashed into the wet sand.

I should be getting it back from repair in the next few days

soliver - if I may ask, how much to repair the 4m Core?

This is so sad...I feel your pain, I recently lost my frenzy..its at times like these we must prove the indomitable spirit of the American individual reach down and pick ourselves up by the bootstraps....or as I like to say "time for a new kite" get out the cr card.

How old were both your kites? Because I have two foils both less than a year old and I certainly don't want them to break like that anytime soon.

Sorry about your losses.

I've seen people hammer different types of kites down - some on the first day they got them - and tear out ribs. Both open and closed cell. This spring seemed particularly bad. I had 4 friends with 4 different kites burst cells within 2 weeks. One was less than a week old and blew out three ribs
on a Neo, I fixed it up for him and the he took it out out the first time after getting it back in a high wind day and nailed it down again shredding a rib an inch or two away from my repair down the entire length.
Yes older kites do start to open up and tear as material gets weaker but most damage is either the result of an error resulting in a hard hit or catching on something (shells, driftwood, tree, post, car door, buggy, dog). and closed cell foils usually get damage a little more often than open cell but 3 of the 4 I recently fixed up were open cell so you never know.

I was there when Spencer (Soliver) damaged his kite and brought it home with me to repair for him as a favor just to cover my cost on any materials used and the postage (that alone was 23.00 one way - cheapest on small package international). Your kite is repairable. I'd send photos to Powerzone or Fixmykite to get a quote. They'll both do a good job at a reasonable price.

Mark

Just got back from SOBB....again :D. Thanks for the kind words everybody! I'll send the photos to powerzone and see what he says.