Today I was flying my kite, and it took a bit of a hit and then the one of the 1 pump valves burst open. and deflated my kite. It was great, fun swim in. But Now I have water In the bladders? I'm not sure what to do about it? Do i have to send it in or what. Wind's going to be sick all weekend, so i dont want to do that. Any ideas?
throw the kite away or pour the water out, option 2 is a lot cheaper and only takes 5 min pump up the kite, get your wife/partner/kite caddy/child to hold one end of a bladder so the water is above the valve and then deflate the valve. do this for all the struts and then the LE. pretty simple.
Put a bit of air in the bladder, rotate kite so that the valve is lowermost (might have to have a friend hold up the wingtips), release valve, squeeze bladder and the water should come out.
Repeat as necessary to get all the water out. You may need to do a bit of twisting to get the water to run down towards the valves.
Once most of the water is out, a couple of cycles of pump and deflate in the sun should get the remnants out because the water should evaporate into the bladder air. If you're worried about salt crystals from the seawater then perhaps a bit of fresh water in the bladder, swirled around will dissolve it and then get the salty water out as above.
Has happened to me... remove bladder (i use a kite line to pull through with bladder as it makes it easier to re-insert bladder). inflate and hang bladder carefully and drain as much liquid out as possible of valve while releasing air, repeat this exercise. When you have all out except for baby condensation droplets, tie line loop over valve and pull back through the way you inserted it. Make sure you dust exterior with talcum powder as this helps bladder re-align itself when you first inflate it. Hope this helps... p.s my wife suggests that you shouldn't drink so much beer and that will help keep your bladder from filling up! lol Good luck with it.
Is it bad to still fly if there is a bit in the bladders? Like there not fully dried out. Beacuse I'm thinking of goiung to noosa river for a sesh tomorow, but I wont be able to get them fully repaired by then.
its a kite, if it cant handle a bit of water then i think you have a big problem on your hands, the weight issue is the only negative to having water in the bladder and of course its all squishy but who cares. the residue will come out over time and ya sure if you dont kite regularly then it makes sense to speed up the process but its a good reason to go out at least 5 times a week-roll on school holidays and its gonna b one kiting mega fest. off topic again
Have had happen to me quite a few times so I have developed a bit of a method.
(i) Taking into consideration its a One-Pump: Inflate the kite completely. With my old SS fuel I used to pump it up just enough that I can bend the struts. (ii) Close the strut valves. (iii) With the leading edge down, grab a strut and bend it so that all the water drains through the tube. Once its empty, close the valve. (iv) Repeat for the remaining struts. (v) Once the struts are empty, its time for the leading edge. With the struts still inflated, roll the kite up the opposite way you would if you wanted to store the kite with the struts inflated (i.e. the struts are on the outside). Roll to the centre. The dump valve should now be on the bottom and the water should drain. Get someone to hold the rolled end up and then do the other side. Alternatively, get your mate to do the other end simultaneously.
The whole process should take about 15 minutes.
If you have enough water in the leading edge, it will affect your steering...may as well get it out sooner rather than later.
Agreed. My friend Dan tells me they are made in the same sweat shop but with much cheaper material. Apparently Naish kites are more about color than construction. His brand new Naish blew up just the other day and he was forced to borrow Shane's Cab Bow kite and loved it .... he does'nt like to admit it but he's wondering what he ever saw in Naish. Dan now looks down at his Naish Sol and wonders what else he might be missing out on as well.
