Hey Crew!

This is a quick note on the hose clamps on the inflate system on your kites.

We have recently begun shipping all of our kites with neoprene covers for these clamps but many of you will not have received kites with these covers, so please read on.

It is important that the hose clamps - both Black and Red - are turned away from the canopy of your kite. Please see the examples below, click the images to expand.

Hose clamps BAD
Note that both the BLACK and the RED clamps are turned towards the kite’s canopy material. This will lead to abraision and pin hole tears in the kite’s canopy.

Hose clamps GOOD
Note that both of the BLACK clamps and the RED clip are all turned away from the kite’s canopy to avoid abraision. In the case of the RED clip it it turned so that the sharp point is away from the canopy material.

Please note. It is highly unlikely your BLACK hose clamps will be orientated improperly. If they are it is important that you re-adjust them carefully.

To re-adjust the BLACK clamps you need to pop them open by sliding the two locking pieces sideways to one another. Once open you can turn them to re-align them properly. DO NOT turn them when locked as this will twist your bladder. Closing the clamps, tighten as hard as you can with your hands and then go 2 more clicks with pliers.

How likely are the black ones to actually cause problems?  I had 2 struts with the black clamps facing the canopy.  They’re pretty tight and tough to slide apart, and they’re tough to tighten together again.  On tightening one of them, part of the black outer teeth broke off.  I put an electrical wire fastener on in addition to the remainder of the black clamp, so it shouldn’t be a problem.  It seems to me that if the black clamps are unlikely to cause problems they should stay as is. 

Just to clarify - it’s only if the black clamps face the canopy, and it doesn’t matter if they face the strut or bladder? 

Thanks,
Ryan

Thanks OR!