This weekend while in Florida for the launch I found myself on coco beach with a kite in my hands eager to share this with my looking father I let him have a go
He was doing pretty good until he got to far to the edge of the window and the water Auchan I had not even considered a hazard quickly came into play
Now I have a wet kite and a discouraged father but I shake it out and get him back in the air ( He intends to dry it out for me ) but it ends up in the sand
It is now heavy wet and full of sand shook it out and here we go again
He flys it for some time I'm even betting its almost dry when u guessed it the water again then the sand
So storms coming I shake it out launch and air shake it and try to get it dry
Land pack up and leave

The kite is dry what and or how is the best way to get most of the sand out of the kite ?

I would let him fly it again in a second it was a blast teaching him :wee:

Well if it is an open cell foil, turn the kite upside down. Most of the sand will come out at that point. Then what ever is left, you need to shake to the middle and dump up side down again. It will take several tries, but you can get most of it out. You need to keep moving the sand to the middle of the kite , having an extra hand or two helps, I usually get my kids or my wife to help me that way I don't get frustrated.

So I shouldn't try and rinse it out

I wouldn't, that could make things worse! You ever add dirt to mud, only makes more mud. Just let it dry as much as possible, once the sand is good and dry , it will come out rather easily!

Ok thanks

Did anyone have a problem with you flying on Cocoa Beach? My daughter lives there and we visit a few time a year. I've never seen larger kites out there and would like to try buggying there at low tide. Anyone know if it's OK

I saw no signs to the contrary we were down by the ariforce base and I was careful to pick an unused peice of beach
As for large kites I had mine but never got to put it up storm and all
We were only flying a 2.5 sami and landed when anyone was coming to pass
Wind was side from south to north and it was high tide but I bet if you hit it early in the morn all you would encounter is surfers and they usually stay in the water
Nice beach for bugging though

fly the sand out....from zenith dive her straight down and apply brakes to slow her down whiile you shake her...................reverse launch a few times applying shake and bake as well...............before you know it sand is gone

Quote:

Originally posted by tridude fly the sand out....from zenith dive her straight down and apply brakes to slow her down whiile you shake her...................reverse launch a few times applying shake and bake as well...............before you know it sand is gone

My favorite method.

Dry kite

Use vacuum per cell, the last few cells (open dirt outs)

dry , shake , fly , repeat


sun and wind 15min for the outside

about an hour for the inside

I found that the salt from the ocean water would continue to pull moisture from the air and keep the fabric damp. Whenever I dumped one in the ocean, I would first shake out all the loose sand and then rinse inside and out at home and hang it to dry in the garage. Fabric would then dry to its crispy pre bath condition. This was only for open cell kites that didn't see regular duty in the water. I never put water inside an arc.

If I'm not mistaken I think I remember someone posting about using a shop vac in reverse to blow air into the kite and that forced the sand out.