Repair and Maintenance

When you begin kiteboarding, it will be important to learn proper repair and maintenance of your kite. This is essential to keep your kite and board working as it should for a long time to come. Since buying the equipment for kite-surfing can be expensive, you want to make sure you take proper

care of what you have so that it lasts longer for you and meets your needs.

There are some materials you may want to have on hand for when you need to make kiteboard repairs. These include:

·       A rotary tool

·       Sandpaper

·       Quick-drying Devcon epoxy

·       Suncure

·       A knife

·       Alcool

·       Popsicle sticks

·       Paper towels

With these simple and affordable items, you can make nearly any repair to your kiteboard. If there is damage to the structure of the board, this can easily be repaired before the damage is made worse. You want to first be sure the board is completely dry by not using it for a couple of days.

If you're in a big rush, you may use paper towels and a hair dryer to be sure the board is as dried out as possible. Then you want to use the alcohol to clean the area and paper towels again to be sure it is completely dry.

If you plan to use wood pieces as filler or for joints, then be sure to clean these pieces with the alcohol as well. Now sand the area vigorously with the sandpaper. If there is an area that is seriously broken, use the rotary tool to cut off or cut out sections that you can't fix with the repair.

This is where the popsicle sticks come in because you can use them for filler and also as joints to connect pieces that are separated. Now you can use the Suncure filler or regular Suncure to reshape the sections. Be sure to do so in a shaded area. You can also use epoxy layers for smaller areas. Once you have completed the shaping process with Suncure, then you can expose the repair to the sun to allow it to work properly.

When you use epoxy, you have to allow it to cure. Give it the full amount of time as it states in the instructions before moving on to the next steps. Now when it has hardened, you can sand it down again so that you can apply a final coat of epoxy. Then wait for this layer to cure as well.

Finally, sand it down to your desired finish and you have completed your repairs. There may also be something you can do about delamination, depending on how serious the damage is. First, you should see if the board is warranted. If not and the damage is serious, it might be time to just buy a new board.

If the damage is minimal and you want to try to repair it yourself, you can re-laminate it with epoxy. Apply pressure to both sides until it has fully dried.

After any repairs like this, be sure you allow the board plenty of time to dry from repairs before taking it back out for kitesurfing/ kiteboarding once more.