Can get this attachment nozzle that clicks onto a scuba dive tank(after the first stage thing that attaches to the actual tank). It is easy to regulate the flow of air because it is manually operated. Used one the other day, it took 1.5 minutes to blow up my kite to full capacity and I wasn't stuffed before I begun kiting...

What a great idea...not mine by the way...but a couple of my engineering mates(good on ya guys).

Not cheap to set up as a new off the shelf item, but if you have the dive tank and the first stage regulator already(or pick one up cheap) the nozzle thing I can get to attach is real cheap....


I know ...Iknow...your sayin'

not the kind of thing you want to lug around on your back, BUT if you get a small tank...they are quite light(weight) and will easily fit into your back pack.

I know...I know what yer sayin'...

You can only do so many kite fills before you have to get the tank refilled....

Yes thats true...But there are cheap attachments you can buy so your "home" compressor will fill your tank. and/or most of us know a dive centre close by that will fill a tank for $15.00.

I've used it and it rocks fellas....

i demand a youtube video!

Then you miss out on the nice bicep work out to warm your arms for a session. I might consider it when I am 60+

Great idea, the quicker the better. Only point I would add is someone (I think on seabreeze about 2 years ago) posted a horrific story of some tendon tear. They had used a automatic car pump from a mate (for the first time) and then had a massive accident in the first few minutes on the water. The doctors reckon that if he had pumped up manually it would have been enough of a warm up to prevent the tendon damage.

Not that I want to cramp your innovative style

why bother? Yes i know the electric ones are available at $300.00 odd but the guys that I've seen use them have to use a manual hand pump for the last little bit to get the pressure right up...this way you don't but a new set up will set ya back twice that price

I'm not saying everyone should do this...but old farts like me need all the energy savers we can get.....i still need energy left over to give it to the little lady when I get home after a sesh...and I figure this innovation gives me at least 100 pleasurable pumps at the back end of my day...rather than at the beginning!!! hahahahhhaaa

Stabber

why bother going to all the trouble spelling your name that way when Jack is easier?

you guys are addicted to acc what next!!

Stabber,what you doing on inflatos?????thought you where a PL man.
you playing for the other team now or what????????????

Ok so this whole set up cost me about $10 max. a small length of PVC pipe which self tapps as it goes into the clyinder. A length of hose which fits snugg of the PVC piece and then lock her off with a hose clamp. I used to get 10 x 17.5m kites from 1 300bar clyinder. As I'm a taller man i find those little pumps hurt my back sometimes. As you can see there is no pressure reducer on it either. It has a ratchet handle on the back which is the only thing u need to worry about. Any questions????

lostinlondon said...

Pfffttt, while you are at it, why not buy a tank of helium and inflate your kite that way... The Helium will reduce the effective weight of the kite and increase the amount of lift available to do big boosting jumps. Ensure you weigh your kite down on the beach though! Or, you can just tie your kite to a log and it will float like a kiddies balloon at the royal show.

I reckon the physical effort of lugging a heavy compressed air bottle down to the beach to inflate your kite has to be more than the effort to pump up your kite, and if at the end of your session you are completely shattered not only do you have to carry your kite and board back to the car, you have to deal with a metal cylinder as well!

Pumping up a kite is like a basic fitness test for kiteboarding... if you can't do that, then you probably shouldn't be out on the water...

Agreed ..

that helium idea sounds good if you really want to lugg cylinders around

Some diving shops sell for around $20 an air blowing gun thing that plugs straight in to your BC hose, you can blow up your kite straight from that but the fast flow of air is pretty hard on the bladders. I connected mine to a normal kite pump hose, then a gauge then another hose. That way I can see the pressure and the air is not as direct and hence won't risk damaging the bladder.

Kitestock before last it was great pumped up about six kites with zero effort. Last year I forgot to take the regulator, so carted a tank around for nothing.

I don't think it worth the effort for just one or two kites.

the nozzle that I can get my hands on regulates the airflow manually(at the kite) so you don't have to worry about literally "blowing up" yer kite.

The 20cft alloy tank weighs about 2.5kgs.

hey lotta...have gone to the dark side now...no more Pl kites for me...hence the ones I have 4 sale on here.

Hows things up there anyhow...lottawind? any luck with the other thing?

if you live in cottesloe and have a tank already you can go to Aaron at powerdive and he fills your bottle for $2. while in there you are meant to think "o look i want one of those", it's one of those methods to get people coming in to the shop and buying things they didn't think they needed.
one tank is ~2000L and it takes 150 strokes of a 2L pump to fill my kite so say it's 140L of air needed, that's ~14 kites on one tank so around ~15c per kite. my back is worth that.

so how much would a tank cost?

I am guessing a second had one would be fine...

ebay have some listed ... but I have no idea ...

Just get a Flysurfer

My kites each came with a pump. They're pretty easy to use.