This is becoming an increasingly common issue amongst kites of this vintage.

There appears to have been a large lot of bladders to have come out a common manufacturing facility where the valves were not properly attached to the latex bladder. I've seen a dozen myself in the last 12 months. Over time, when exposed to heat and with usage, they valve just peels off the latex.

My 06 Slingshot Fuel has had 6 of the valves peel away in the last few months.

Having seen a number of these abruptly let go and dump all the air from the leading edge, it's NOT a good idea to keep kiting on these til you fix them or you'll soon find yourself 1km out to sea with a deflated kite.

There is another thread that's been running for a bit that addresses how to fix these. I'd advise against the PVC plumbers' glue, but have had good success with the stick-on valves you can get from your local kite shops as well as using contact cement and adding another layer of bladder materials OVER the valve after you've put it back on with contact cement to ensure there's no chance of the air getting out.

The other thread is at:

www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=46385

So this may be a stupid question, but do I have to take the bladder out to do this repair?

Are there any websites with tips to do this, or should I just search the forums?

I have had a look at how to pull the bladder out - there is a zip near the inflate valve, but I can't see how the deflate valve gets into the leading edge and pulled through - it looks like it is anchored there somehow?

SB

So I pulled the valve out on Friday night, glued it up with the Selleys glue, put a Vitamin C bottle over it, put a brick over it, went to bed, got up in the morning and it was golden.

Got to the beach, cranking 20 knots, leading edge and two struts wouldn't stay up :-(

Got it home tonight pulled ever bladder out. 4 of the 7 struts are leaking, and the main valve is rooted as well.

I am about to sort them all - anyone have any opinions on the three remaining struts? Should I try to pry the valve off (harder than on the ones that are delaminating) or should I leave them be? Is it just a matter of time for the ones that haven't gone?

SB

PS - happy ending to the story - borrowed my mates 09 12m Rebel, had a blast. There were green arrows everywhere - was struggling to navigate around them out on the water.

Well, just in case anyone followed along, I decided leaving them on was stupid, so I stayed up until 1am doing all of the struts, as well as the inflate valve.

The ones that looked fine came off super easy as soon as they got a sniff of Metho - no question they needed to be done.

I didn't have enough Sockets (or anything else that size), so I clamped them with clothes pegs and cardboard - did the job fine.

Bitch of a job - now I have to get the struts all back in :-(

At least it is a nice sense of satisfaction to have looked inside the kite, fixed a couple of things up and know what is under there, and that my valves will definitely stay up next time!

SB

I think it is an issue with all kites, not just North. I've been told leaving them in a hot car causes problems.

I just repaired my Slingshot valves, in which EVERY SINGLE strut bladder was leaking after leaving it in my car on a 40 degree day.

But I still do it. Couldn't kite after work if they weren't in there :) Just try and find some shade, and if I have to fix the valves again, so be it.

If you poke the end of the bladder back inside itself before feeding it back into the strut it won't give you the problem of the bladder folding back on it's self... If ya know what I mean?

hi
I bought a couple of 05 North Rhino's to start my kiteboarding journey with and was encouraged not to learn on them. I ended up with a 07 Ocean Rodeo One wich has been ok and I'm getting there, well my walks of shame are getting shorter.

I tried out the rhino and felt it had a lot more power for the same size kite but I had a lot of trouble controlling it.

should I keep the rhino's for later when I am able to cope with them a little easier?
They seem to have a lot of grunt, do you guys have trouble with them or is mine just rigged badly?

Thanks

I had this problem with my 06 naish - at first it was the dump valve...
but then the problem spread and I pretty much needed to do all of the valves. Couldn;t kite for ages because the stupid kite kept going down. Interestingly the octopus connections seemed to be glued on differently and didn't leak, but I had to glue on almost every vavle before I got rid of the heap o crap and swore never to buy another. I think naish and north and maybe even ss have similar construction. Maybee somone can shed light on this issue. I think it is when the valves are glued and not heat welded to the bladder and the glue eventually disintegrates. For what it's worth I have heard from a kiteshop owner that one of the kites that dont seem to share this particular problem is cabrinha. (not trying to pimp - I do own cabrinha and slingshot kites). All I can say is that when it started with my dump valve it was only the beginning of a bad experience