I have a quiver of Ions, a 9m, 12m, and 15m. I imagine these kites are pretty similar to the Atoms. My favorite Ion is the 9m because I am liking the high wind these days (not that we are getting any high wind yet this season in Florida), but the small kites are always the most outrageous. The 12m and 15m Ions also check in with ridiculous performance.

A week or so ago we had several days of NE to E so I broke out the 12m Ion at the Skyway and was trying to get some movez back down after a two month, no-wind layoff. On one mad skillz move with a rotation and a kite loop, I kept putting the kite down hard. After the session I figured I had wiped out 10 times but one of the crew, maybe Matt Otto, laughed at me and said I ate total crap more like 20 times. Each time I failed to stick the move I smacked the 12m Ion leading edge down onto the water, more often than not with a lot of power in the kite (because I am still too damn stupid most of the time to let go of the bar even when my ass is being handed to me).

After a few hours of this abuse, I noticed the 12m Ion was flying funny and it looked like it was losing air. WTF? My bro Toby caught the kite for me and confirmed that the kite was gushing air even before I ran over to check out the damage. Damn! A leading edge leak? This SUX.

Imagine my relief when it was only one of the single point inflation tubes (which are external, not internal) between the leading edge and a rib. This small plastic tubing had split because of my repeated, gnarly kite crashes. This was fixed in two to three minutes with a replacement tube and tiedowns that come with the kite--no glue, no removing bladders, no worries.

This incident seems to reflect the Flexi construction theory well--if sometime is going to break on the kite, let it be a cheap, easy to replace part of the kite like a small plastic tube or a valve plug, not stitching or bladders. I am more stoked than ever to have a Flexi Ion quiver. Lookz like I owe Daryl a sensual massage for forcing me to try the Ions right when they hit the market.

West Side!

Agreed.
This exact thing happened to my 9m Atom last weekend during a self landing in high winds. I stood there holding on to a rear line while the kite kept flipping over and slamming onto the beach. After about 17 it finally gave up and stayed face down. I was one step away from pulling the LE bladder the next day when I realized what it was.

I had a similar issue when I first got my fusions. I had only flown it a few times and I could here hissing. This came as a complete shock because flexi has such legendary quality gear (*thinking it was my bladder*). I found out that the noise was coming from one the clear tubes. This took less than 30 seconds to fix as flexi issues you about 10 of these things with tie wraps with every kite that I purchased. So I have about 40 of them ha-ha. I've only had to replace one of them ONCE and it was when I was cleaning my kites not while I was on the water. Ask anyone I slam my gear probably harder than most kiters at matanzas. This sounds like some "small potatoes" compared to some other kites I've been hearing about *COUGH* slingshot