KITE REPAIR:
Kite repair can be easy or very difficult depending where the damage is located on your kite. Most kites come with a some simple repair items such as sticky sail tape for sail repairs and bladder patches for pin holes and small bladder holes.

To order a new bladder for your kite visit Airtimekite's homepage. Be sure to check out their new orange bladders which are stronger and lighter.

Leading edge repairs: It is highly recommended that leading edge damage be repaired by a skilled repair shop because the leading edge of a kite is subjected to very high loading during normal use and a leading edge repair not completed properly could blow out very easily.

Sail repairs: These types of repairs are easily fixed with a piece of sail tape or some duct tape. The sail had much of it's loading distributed so any one point is under a very small load in almost any situation.

Bladder blowouts: Ocassionally, the ends of a bladder will blow out. A quick fix until you are done riding for the day is a "knot and a sock". Just tie the end of your bladder off in your kite with a quick over hand knot and stuff some material in the empty space inside the leading edge so the bladder doesn't over expand and blow out again.

A proper fix for this is using a heat sealer (ebay $20) to reseal the end that blew out or just to replace the bladder (probably time for a new one anyway).

Patching Bladders:
Most commercially available bladder patches work the same way a bike tube patch works.

Installing new Bladders

Slow Leak Bladders
For a bladder with a slow leak, the first thing you have to do is find the hole that is making the leak. Before you pull out your entire bladder and do the whole soap and water test on it, make sure the check behind the rubber gasket on the screw cap of your screw-type oneway inflation valve assembly. sand behind this gasket can cause air to sneak out and slowly deflate your kite.

If this isn't the case, then try to determine what caused the leak in the first place to narrow down the location. Figure out if it is your main bladder or just a strut that is leaking. After you locate the leak, applying a bike tube type patch is a piece of cake.

Professional assistance:

Your local kiteshop can usually help you with minor repairs to bladders and sail rips. Damage on the leading edge or damage that requires extensive sewing we recommend windfire Designs. To send them a kite do the following:

Contact Tim and www.windfiredesigns.com. Make sure to fill out the damage report and let him know of everything you want him to repair on the kite. He will do a final look over the kite to make sure he fixed everything, but kites are big, help him out. When all the paperwork is filled out box it up and ship it out...don't forget about insurance.