Sand is the enemy: Kite Bladder Repair

In the last couple of months I have had to apply numerous patches to two of my kites due to a bit of sand or grit getting into the main bladder. While it only takes about an hour to make repair such leaks, it is disheartening to have to remove the bladder, find the miniscule holes and repair them (and hope you have found them all!) I thought it might be useful to share what I have learned about kite bladder repair in Alaska:

Remove your bladder on a clean surface (spruce needles only add to the problem)

Remember to securely fasten your retrieval lines to the end of the bladder before pulling it out.

Tie off the lines you use to pull the bladder back into the kite. You have no idea how hard it is to retrieve an errant line that has been sucked back into the sleeve!

Inflate the bladder up to a pretty good pressure when searching for leaks. Some tiny holes require quite a bit of pressure to register.

Once you find one hole, look around for a few more (in my experience, they come in batches)

Don't put the bladder back into the kite until you have left the inflated bladder out for a few hours to make sure there aren't any more holes.

Make sure there is no grit in the bladder by gently tapping it and holding it to your ear. If you hear some bounching around in there, bounce it down to the deflate valve and let it out.

Check your pump to make sure there is not grit rattling around in there...because that is probably how it got into the bladder in the first place.

Avoid self-launching using the folded-over wing tip method on sandy beaches. Due to the way the kite is lying during this process and the fact that you need to bend the bladder in half to launch it, it really adds to the danger of pinching a little grit in a fold.

And finally, if your bladder has too many holes or repairs, consider gettting a fresh one!