Modern Fuel Products X3
Includes three vacuum bags and a kite pump adapter to shrink your kites for travel. https://modernfuelproducts.com/
From Modern Fuel Products:
The X3 kit is designed especially for kitesurfing, kiteboarding, and snowkiting. Using our uniquely designed vac adaptor with your existing kite pump, you can easily reduce the size of up to three kites to take on your travels without the need of a vacuum. Our extra strong and durable kite compression bags are designed specifically to fit kites up to 16m fit into travel bags and provide extra protection from damage, dust, dirt, and moisture. Clothing can also be placed into the kite compression bags, saving more space.
From TKB:
The X3 Kite Compression Kit includes three large vacuum bags and an adapter that allows you to use your kite pump to suck the air out of the bags to shrink your kites, making them easier to pack. The bags are made out of a heavier material than we’ve seen on consumer vacuum bags made for traveling and feature a large one-way valve. We used the bags to compress three kites we had laying around the office, a 7m, 9m, and 12m.
Using these bags is really simple. You stick a kite in one, seal it like a zip-lock bag and pump the air out with your kite pump. Modern Fuel Products claims you can fit up to a 16m kite in one of these bags, but the largest kite we had on hand was a 12m. Even the 12 was a tight fit to get it into the bag’s opening, so a 16 will be more of a challenge, but it probably is possible.
The adapter that comes with the kit allows you to use your kite pump to pump the air out, but you have to hold it against the valve on the bags as it doesn’t fit tightly.
It’s easy to quickly pump the air out of the bags. As you pump, your kite gets smaller and smaller. Our guess is the using the bags made our kites about half the size they were originally.
Before
After
There’s really not anything else to say about this product. It’s easy to use and does what it’s supposed to. You can purchase the X3 Kite Compression Kit from Modern Fuel Products.
Pros:
- Makes your kites smaller to make them take up less space when traveling.
- You can also use these bags to shrink your clothes or wetsuit.
- Adds a layer of protection for your kites.
- Makes a kite small enough that you could fit it into your carry on luggage.
Cons:
- Makes the kites really rigid when you pump the air out of the bag.
- Doesn’t make your kites any lighter, and weight is often the challenge when packing kiteboarding gear for a flight.