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How to maintain your Wing Foil kites?
We explain how to maintain your wing foil wings to ensure their maximum lifespan. These tips are also applicable to kite surfing kites. Here aresome good things to do to maintain your wingfoil or kite surf.
How to properly maintain your wing foil wings during the session?
Preserving your equipment requires a minimum of maintenance and logic.
– Watch out for the sun: It’s great when the weather is nice and warm, but our friend the sun can be our enemy. Your wing foil equipment is sensitive to the sun and in particular the sun’s UV rays. If you’re not sailing, don’t leave your gear in the sun unnecessarily. If you need to take a long break, store your gear to increase its lifespan.
– Never let your wing hit on the beach: If you leave your wing windward on the beach for a long time, the trailing board of your wing will deteriorate quickly. If the trailing edge beats for a long time with a strong wind, you will have premature wear of the trailing edge. This will lead to a loss of rigidity, solidity and therefore the spinnaker will become porous and you will lose performance in the long term.
– The third enemy is sand: Sand is one of the causes of material destruction. When the wind is strong, the sand flies and bang well on your spinnaker. Sand is abrasive so you will wear out your spinnaker prematurely for “sanding the spinnaker by the sand”
1. Check your gear before going in the water
It is strongly advisable, even essential, to check your gear when you go in the water or at the end of the session. However, if you sail regularly, you can only do it once a week. What is important to check on your wing:
- Check that the wing does not have any tears or holes : get under your wing and look through it towards the sun. This way, you can easily see if there are any holes in the kite.
- Pay attention to the seams on the leading edge to prevent any bursting of the leading edge if a seam is damaged.
2. Putting your wing foil kite on the beach
When you go for a session, put your kite surf or wing foil on the beach as soon as possible. It is best to avoid sharp stones and asphalt in strong winds. Indeed, if your kite slips because of the wind, it will rub the ground and this will cause wear on the seams or spinnaker.
3. Tie your wing properly
To properly maintain your wingfoil kites, be careful not to let it fly and hit the ground. Try to hang it as close to your board as possible.
Caution: never put your wing upwind of the foil. You risk tearing your kite if it flies on your foil.
4. Be careful while browsing
While it’s important to take care of your equipment out of the water, it’s just as important during the session. So, try as much as possible not to jump on the wing in case of a fall, you risk tearing your spinnaker. Also beware of lightweight foils, these are usually the carbon-foamed foils. These foils tend to fly away in the event of a fall and not come back down into the water right away. When the foil flies away, it can easily tear the spinnaker from your wing.
5. Don't drag your wingfoil kite
Some sessions are tiring, we know that, but that’s no reason to drag your kite on the beach when you get out of the water (or on the way out, for that matter). Repeated rubbing could damage the seams and cause the wing to explode. In addition, the spinnaker is covered with a waterproofing coating that is not very resistant to abrasion. Avoid rubbing your wing with your hand to remove the sand for example.
Caring for your wing foil kites: how to rinse them?
For optimal maintenance of your wing foil or kite surf, it should be rinsed with fresh water after each session. Indeed, the salt contained in the seawater attacks the seams of the socks. It’s even more important to rinse them off if you don’t plan to return to the water for a while. However, if you foile often, we understand that you don’t want to rinse your kite every time. We therefore advise you to rinse it once in a while at low pressure with fresh water.
However, if you don’t have the opportunity to dry your kite properly. We advise you not to rinse it. A Fresh Water Wet Wing could cause your kite to mold.
How to dry your wing foil wings?
To maximize the life of your wing, we advise you to dry your kite before storing it. Indeed, the humidity added to the salt of the seawater can, in the long run, damage your wing foil wings. In general, it can be a matter of color deterioration, detachment of valves or mold.
The best practice?
When you know you’re going to end your session soon, try to make a dozen or so tacks without falling into the water. This way, your kite will dry out. Then you will have to get out of the water, avoiding getting it wet. Holding it above your head with your arm outstretched, it shouldn’t get too wet.
If your kite gets wet when you get out of the water, you can dry it on the beach by attaching it to your board. To do this, be careful that it is not placed on something that may damage it, such as asphalt or sharp stones. In addition, you should always dry your wing in the direction of the wind. That is to say, it is the leading edge of the wing that is facing the wind, that catches the wind.
Maintain your kite surfing and wing foil kites: watch out for the sun!
Just like your skin, the spinnaker of a wingfoil or kitesurfer is sensitive to UV rays. This is why it is strongly advised not to leave your kite on the beach in the sun when you are not going into the water. Therefore, if you are not using your equipment, it is best to store it to ensure its maximum life.
As with the sun, prolonged exposure to strong winds and sand can accelerate the wear and tear on your wing. This is why, in case of strong winds, the trailing edge of your wing flaps in the wind, which damages it prematurely. In addition, when the sand flies (tramontane conditions in the south of France for example) the sand hits the wing. The sand then acts as a sandpaper on your wing foil or kite surf.
How to store your wing foil wings correctly?
When you are not wing foiling or kite surfing for a long time, we advise you to rinse and dry your kites. Then, it is recommended to store them in the Sroka wing bag provided for this purpose. Store your wings preferably high up in case rodents pass by.
Finally, whether they are kitesurfing or wingfoil, never bend them in the same way and avoid marked creases. Bending too much could weaken your spinnaker.
If you still have questions about this, or for any other request, please do not hesitate to contact us !
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