Repair/Replace bladders on 09 13m Waroo

[rider1200]

Best has a video located under the Customer Service tab (insructional videos) showing how to remove and replace my strut bladders. My kite is an 09 but the I believe the process is exactly the same.

If you've done it before and have suggestions I'll take 'em! I've heard to coat it in baby powder though the video does not mention it.

Link to the video: www.bestkiteboarding.com/Videos?p=5&v=45

[flashpipe]

Haven't done it before, but the video makes it look pretty easy.

Some more tips at:
www.kitebladder.com/Pages/Strut%20install.htm

Looks like we might get some wind tomorrow:
www.windfinder.com/forecast/lake_ontario_buoy

Might even be good for my 9m. Still need to get something to round out my quiver between the 9 and the 15, but it won't happen this season...

Hopefully my bigger board will help. Planning to get out and do some wake boarding as well which will help.

Let me know if you might go out tomorrow afternoon!

[flashpipe]

Also, might be worth trying out a repair on the old bladder to have around just in case...
www.kitesurfingschool.org/bladderrepair.htm

[kelshipman]

Yes, use baby powder before you pull the bladder back in. And inflate the bladder 1/2 way and check carefully for twists, they usually end up in the tail area.

David has a nice trick for making sure the pointy part ends up seated properly near the leading edge, but darned if I can remember it.

It is usually a two beer job, which is probably why I dont remember the nifty trick.

David... you out there? whats that trick?

[rider1200]

Thanks for all the help! Bladder came out super easy but I couldn't find the leak by listening so I dunked it in my fish pond & found a tiny pin hole...no idea what could have caused it and it was so small it didn't leak w/o pressure on it. Dunking it put the needed pressure on it.

I didn't have a repair kit, it was blowing 15-20 and Greg was on his way over to check out our options (Sunday) so I dried it off as best I could & put an inch long piece of stretchy medical tape my wife had laying around over the hole I'd marked with a sharpie and promised myself I'd order a real kit asap. The bladder is still holding rock hard so I haven't ordered the kit yet though I'm sure I'm going to regret it.

I applied the tape with the bladder pretty pumped up. Before I put it back in the kite I used my 2 yr old's baby powder liberally & lightly rubbed the excess off. He got back at me by removing the string I needed to reinstall the bladder but I was able to get it back in easy enough using a snowplow driveway marker (tied the string to it & stuck it through). I'm guessing Dave's trick is to push the end of the bladder inside itself all the way up to the valve but I got that from Best's site so maybe he's got something better. That part is difficult to write but well illustrated in Best's video. I did need Greg pulling on the string while I fed the valve into the bottom of the strut but a better folder might not. I was just terrified of ripping the super thin bladder. Once it was in I pumped it up 1/2 way & shook it around, pumped a little more & shook a little more hoping everything would slide into its rightful place.

The kite worked great and I met some nice people in the houses next to Montana. Montana was packed so I asked some people that were charging to park cars in their driveway if I could give them $10 to launch from their house. They blindly said yes, asked lots of questions during set-up, then thanked me for the entertainment and assured me they could not see my pasty rear end when I went over the front of the board & lost the better part of my suit as I dragged along...I'm pretty sure everyone at Marges did though! The only confrontation was a finger pointed at me over the top of a bloody mary as its owner warned me not to mess up the regular kite that was impressively high in the air (and tied to his beach chair), all in good fun though. Good to know we are a welcome sight in the area. 2 landowners actually thanked me for being respectful enough to ask permission, apparently they get a lot of less than desirable people in the area.

More big jumps, fun falls, this sport gets better every time I head out! I started heading from Montana to Durand to see if I could make it to the 2 kites on the West end but I ran out of wind 1/2 way there. Not sure if it was a dead spot of just a lull. I saw a couple stand up paddlers over the weekend as well...one came into the Boats & Goats on water concert on Saturday & the other was headed East on the Lake just outside of the outlet on Monday.