I know this isn't a kite or a board, so isn't quite as bling as the usual posts in this forum, but impressed I am, and thought i'd put a post out to spread the word a little.

One of the north vegas's I (cheaply) bought last year developed a split on the inflation valve, and after being somewhat annoyed, i shrugged my shoulders and thought, 'oh, i'll just get a new bladder, no probs'

This was until i found out how much said bladder was... This is a small kite, and thought the size would be reflected in the price... nope - 80 quid (same price for all sizes). For an 2009 vegas, this wouldn't be a big deal, but for something I paid 190 pounds for in the first place, I was somewhat miffed, and didn't end up fixing it.

A couple of weeks ago, I happened to be browsing the web, and came across a load of gear sold by a company called 'airtime' who sell bladder spares and accessories. I saw that you could get a replacement bladder for a north vegas for 58 pounds (which isn't amazing tbh, especially as you somewhat have to fashion it yourself, and for an extra 22 pound, you might as well get a north one).

Anyway, the only thing I needed to replace was the valve itself, the bladder was perfectly fine, so I went ahead and bought a replacement valve only - somewhat expensive at 13.99 for just a valve, but worth a punt
I received this in the week, and my no wind activity for today was to replace the faulty valve....

This was surprisingly easy. Just soak the valve in near-boiling water for a few minutes, peel it off, dry, then clean the bladder around the small hole left from removing the OEM valve, with the alcohol wipe provided. Once this was done, and air dried, all was left to do was to stick the replacement valve over the hole, squeeze out any air bubbles, and job done! Didn't even need to take the whole bladder out of the LE to do it. Just fed a bout 6 inches out through the zip opening.

I've pumped the kite up after its surgery, and all seems well. left it outside for an hour, and no detectable leaks. Its not quite the full test of slamming it into the lush mud of paddies a few times, but i'm sure i'll get the opportunity of doing that in the coming months

Overall, pretty impressed, a saving of 64 quid, and a usable kite again. If i'd have known about this earlier, I'd have saved 41 pounds on my best waroo also

As an appendix, I did fly the kite a few weeks later, and it was perfectly fine, no leaks no problems. I didn't slam it much, but when you do that, you never know quite what's gonna happen anyway.