• You can also get here with: www.ProKiteRepair.com
WindFire Designs Kite Repair Service
We believe that if a kite is repaired properly, not only will it perform flawlessly, but you may even want to show it off.
WindFire Designs provides a complete service for kite repairs of any kind. We specialize in kitesurfing kites and have done literally thousands of them. We also do plenty of ram-air foils and paragliders too. When your kite is with us for repair, we proceed with care and precision and with fast turn-around depending on our current workload. Special part orders and other junk can make a repair take longer but we'll tell you that stuff.
Why we think our service is the best:
All our repairs are guaranteed forever.
Dimensionally perfect within < 1 mm.
OEM fabrics, thread, needle guages, and stitching patterns.
Fast personal service. 18+ years of kite design, building and repair experience.
UV resistant fabric and thread that will never gather sand or mildew.
All our repairs are totally compliant with the natural stretch and shape of your kites.
Good-will and customer-oriented pricing and payment policies.
Most importantly, we love what we do everyday.
Our specially modified sewing machines allow us to line up and repair rips fiber-for-fiber. WindFire Designs kite repair means zero performance loss.
Still worried? If you are unsure about the repairability of your kite, simply email us a picture showing the damage and we'll let you know. We can fix any kite.
• Go ahead, rush us. Write Time Sensitive (or something equally witty) on the outside of your box. Usually we can meet any deadline without extra charge.
Thank you for the great service. I was very impressed by the way you conduct business. You will have all my future kite repair business.
Have a great year!!!
Mike Gavin
Thank you Mike!
On Feb 20, 2012, at 5:17 PM, High Point Engineering wrote:
I got the kite back the other day; the repairs are superb. Extra care
was taken to seamlessly blend the repair areas with the original
areas: the stitching is the same pattern, size, and quality as the
original, any replacement material was selected to match the original,
the patches were place either on the outside or the inside of the kite
so that the original logo was preserved. I have to look hard to see
where the kite was damaged. I took the kite out the other day and it
flew as well as it ever had. The work was done in a timely manner and
at a reasonable price.
I would recommend WindFire Designs to any friend that needs repair work!
-John
On Jun 10, 2011, j baker wrote:
Hey Tim,
I just received the Octane that you repaired for me and it looks fantastic! It's real obvious that you take a lot of pride in what you do. I will highly recommend you to anyone I know for kite repair.
Thanks again for everything.
Best Regards
Jeff Baker
On Dec 15, 2010, captain lenny wrote:
Tim.
Well the kite survives...
The test was a day of gale force wind down here in Key West. The kite repair survived, not to mention looking like it came straight from the factory....Thanks for the extra stitches around my patch job.
Thanks a bunch.......The guys on the water are all impressed with your work too.....
Thank you,
Captain Lenny
Current turn around time is about 5 to 6 days. Updated 21 May 2013.
Payment:
Please email
us to learn how payment works. You'll find our customer-oriented
offer is both easy and unusually generous.All
advice is free! If you are not satisfied with our work, we'll do the
work over or refund your money. It's that simple.
Cost:Some damage looks bad but is relatively easy to repair. The flip side? Some looks small and simple but actually takes longer because of the position in the kite's structure. Our customers often tell us that our prices are extremely reasonable. We intend to keep hearing that.
Repairs should look really cool (a corollary of "chicks dig scars")
Our prices relate only to the time we spend on your repair. We also have no minimum charge. The price-range of repairs is generally between $25 and $180. Please contact us for a free evaluation.
Bladders
We repair ANY brand of kite with any type of damage including but not only:
Bladders:We exclusively work with and recommend Jim Haddox for any kite bladder damage. Together, our two shops act as one smooth and fast service. If your bladder has failed along with fabric damage, simply let us know that you'd like us to help on your repair ticket.
Bladder Replacement and Repair: Jim Haddox "Bladderman" Your best option!
Jim Haddox does amazing professional bladder work with industrial heat-welding equipment that is often better than OEM. He also has thousands of bladders in stock with better prices than we've seen anywhere else. Feel free to send us your kite and ask us to handle it.
A little about our kite repair techniques
Micro details make a good kite surfing repair
Below are some photos showing before and after damage and repair of this Slingshot 15 kite surfing kite. This one lives in Vermont. Anyway, as you can see this was essentially two repairs in one. The canopy was ripped which traveled from the leading edge all the way down to the trailing edge. This is actually a very common way in which kites fail and we see it happen to every brand of kite on the market. To repair a rip in a kite canopy like this, we first line up every single fiber along the path of damage. If you look closely at ripstop damage, you'll see the clues we use. It may sound like too much work to line up every fiber, but the cool thing is: Repairing a kite perfectly is actually easier and faster than whacking it back together like a yokel. Once the edges of the rip are back in place we add cloth and sew the perimeter of the patch. All transitions and corners are rounded and blended for strength first, but also for cosmetics.
Slick leading edge kite repairs
The leading edge of this same Slingshot was also blown out. The rip traveled along the junction of the strut where it meets the leading edge. To repair this, we first have to open the leading edge and partially remove the strut. This has to be done in order to run the patch cloth under the strut to LE junction. Once the deconstruction is complete, we begin to heal the edges back together like we did with the canopy, using all the data that the failed fibers leave behind. Patch cloth is run with double layer on the interior of the leading edge tube, and single layer on the outside. The thickness of the cloth is balanced against the base thickness of the leading edge tube so that the finished repair is not too bulky or stiff. Again, every corner and transition is rounded and blended in with the structure for strength and cosmetics. Then comes the most important seam of any kite repair: Re-closing the leading edge. We have spent years perfecting our technique for this—and ok, this might sound ridiculous, but it's true.
Sometimes we see work from other shops and this seam really separates those who know how to sew from those who don't. Every micro detail is accounted for and this yields a perfect finished shape with absolute restoration of strength.
The power of hiding in plain sight
These are some little tricks we like to use on the eyes. These could easily have been patched right over, but a few small touches that don't take a lot of time make all the difference. We thought that preserving the number 17 was actually quite useful since it's perhaps where the user looks to determine what size kite they are pulling out of the bag. The grey and red kite looked great with a little red patching, but where we crossed graphics, we followed suit.
Below is a North Rebel with a blown out wing tip and the strut is separated from the canopy at the tip. It took lots of patients, but this went back together perfectly.
About the people who do your repairs
Tim
(the Stitchiter) has worked professionally as a kite designer and builder for over 15 years. I've flown kites since I was 3 and had a Peter Powell at 9. What I really do is art but I disguise it as work so people don't notice. Read some thoughts on kite repair here.
Ruth, artist and wind worshipper, she has 12 years of experience in every aspect of making kites. With the care of an artist, her repair work is beautiful and perfect.
Time lapse of Tim and Paul repairing kites
Time lapse video of us sewing on kite repairs all afternoon. Note the change in light from the windows in our shop. The time lapse video was made with an open source program called Gawker. I was working on an Ozone Access [blog link] and paul fixed two Best Waroos. The camera was shooting a frame every 30 seconds. I then extended it out to four times the length. The music is our friends Strut from Asheville NC.
Kiteboarding or kite boarding or
kite surfing and snow kiting
Repairs on any kite Gaastra, Cabrinha, Takoon,
F-One.
Slingshot Fuel, Naish Shockwave North Rhino Kite
Have your kite repaired by the best in the business.
WindFire Designs repairs kites including Wipika Matrix, Cabrinha Crossbow, or Switchblade. And we work on Singshot Fuel Kites Repaired. Best kite surfing kites repaired and traction kites. Pro Professional kite repair.
cabrinha crossbow repair
Repairs on any kite for kite boarding, kite surfing and snow kiting including (this list is just an example of our range):
Wipika Matrix, Indy Kite Repair
Cabrinha crossbow and switchblade, Contra, revolver co2 Kites Repaired
F-One Impact, M6, Tribal Kite Repair
Slingshot Fuel Kite Repair
Naish Shockwave, Raven, Boxer, Element Kites Repaired
North Rhino, Vegas, Toro, Buster, Fabio, Husky, Lizard Kite Repair
Flexifoil Blade, Bullet, Rage, Ion, Fusion, Blade III, Sabre Kite
Repair
Takoon Air, Wook, Nova, Kool2 kite Repair
Gaastra Vision 2, Force 2 kite Repair
Flow form kite repair
parafoil kite repair best kite and best waroo kite repairs
surf kite repair
kite surfing kites repaired
ozone instinct repairs and any ozone frenzy samurai riot yakuza access fury repairs on kites
