Power Kite Forum

LEI carnage on the ice

WolfWolfee - 13-12-2009 at 05:28 PM

Wow, seen a guy hit the ice today with his LEI. It was -37 before wind chill and when he hit the ice his bladder evaporated into a million pieces. I gave him a tow back to his vehicle. Anyone else ever have this problem? I don't see many LEI's up my way, sure seemed twitchy compared to my Arc, is this common?

Houston AirHead - 13-12-2009 at 05:47 PM

haha at evaporated. Makes sense. poor dude. LEIs rule!

flyboy15 - 13-12-2009 at 05:51 PM

Yea I've heard of a few stories of Lei ice fails. My guess would be a combo of plastic bladders becoming brittle/less flexible in the extreme colds as well as the icy pokey nature ahaha of well... ice haha. Haven't had any lei problems here yet. The club is majority foils and arcs, but a few leis are up too

Kamikuza - 13-12-2009 at 06:11 PM

I'm off to kiteforum.com to rub PMU's nose in it :lol:

Feyd - 14-12-2009 at 05:21 AM

I've read and heard stories about LEIs not being so durable in the cold. That compounded by valves freezing and pumps failing keeps me from expirimenting with them.

Makes sense, I'm sure the LEI companys aren't looking into sub zero durability as a design parameter.

But I know a kiter who lives on Lake Champlain that rides Slingshot LEIs all the time and doesn't seem to have any problems so maybe it depends on the manufaturer.

Good thing someone was able to tow him in! Sux to loosed a kite and then have to do the walk of shame. =)