Isup Exploded - repair??

On the weekend my Isup went of with a bang. While inflated a section of the seam let go and it literally exploded. Scared the crap out of my friends standing near by. I used it on Sunday and on Monday it was just sitting there when it went off.

See pics below. Does this need some hi tech glue for repair, should I get a professional repairer

I would say that this may have been a manufacturing weakness that never showed up as it was only pumped to around 12 psi due to the limitations of the pump. On Sunday I pumped it to 15-18 psi with a new pump. It is rated to 20-25. Im glad it didnt pop on the water as it probably would have sunk!!!

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more volume but not quite so colorful.

Bugger, I thought it would be a simple repair. Thanks for the advice.

can anyone recommend a repairer around Sydney?

The sup is a reputable American brand and one that is touted to be able to be inflated to 30+ psi.

Sorry this maybe a stupid question but why do you buy inflatable sups? I have never used one but can only imagine they won't last as long and must be a pain having to pump them up

^^^^^ that

also my primary water sport is windsurfing and I have 5 of those boards, so the space saving and mobility of an inflatable SUP is what keeps me on the water SUPing.

ive had hard board sups and Tbh the only conditions they compromise is on a wave.

Cheers mate I might have to try one some time

A pressure release valve is quite a good idea. And I'd also wish they'd use multiple chambers, so that if one does go pop, or you get a puncture, the entire board doesn't deflate in the middle of the sea. As iSUP board design at the moment goes, a 10 dollar inflatable kids' toy crocodile has more safety features.

But having said that, I recently left my Starboard Astro Deluxe inflatable in the 30C+ direct sun on a veranda in Ibiza for 2 weeks pumped up to 20+ PSI and had no ill effects. The seam constructions of iSUPs vary quite a lot and the one you have looks like the weakest possible way of doing it. I think you should name the brand.

^^^^ ok so I'll go back to my first assumption, it was probably a manufacturing fault. the board has been running for years with around 10-12 psi. I just recently bought a pump that was capable to get it to 15-18. So with the heat I guess the weak area must have been exposed. It was 34 Celsius that day!

i didn't want to get into brand bashing hence didn't name the board. But it's no secret it's a Red Air board, hence I was surprised that it popped given the claims that you can pump them up to 30+ psi.

^^^ I've seen some posts here from a dude from Red Air saying you could use 30+ psi without a problem but I don't think it's officially rated for that.

Btw I was using a Red Air pump, the new Titan double cylinder model, however the board was out of warranty, otherwise I would have made a claim. Just bad luck I guess.

overheating can be a problem, try to buy one with a Goretex ventyl build in, these are safe

Important to appreciate that inflatable boards are textile products. They are a fundamentally different animal to hard boards! They are made of cloth, and fibre and glue. These things all have a failure rate. Every iSUP brand experiences failures. Cloth and dropstitch comes in massive rolls from another manufacturer. The best iSUP brands build test boards on each roll to see if the cloth quality is up to scratch - many get rejected. (The cheap brands don't). Glue is a notoriously unstable product, mix proportions, humidity, age etc, all have a profound impact, plus of course there is a massive human factor - the glue has to be applied properly. And, again unlike solid boards, there are specific stress points on an inflatable, such as along the seam, where a bad glue job will result in catastrophic failure.

etc etc etc. End result - all iSUP brands experience failures. Leaking boards, twisting boards, oddly rockered boards, and the occasional burster, like this one. Every iSUP brand has them. They do not mean that the brand is bad. What determines whether a brand is good or bad is how great a proportion of failures they have, and - most importantly - what they do about them. Normally, for a Red Paddle Co board, a burster like this is a pure simple straightforward warranty return. Take it back to the shop you got it from and it will be replaced. The brand has by far the lowest warranty return rate of any of the brands as they spend the most time on the construction process. So when one does go wrong, they can do the decent thing and sort it.

However, the situation with this board is slightly more complex as I can see from that blue underside colour that it's actually a 2012 model. So you've already have several years of good use out of it. And a lot can happen to a board in 3 years. We have had instances of people leaving the board against a radiator pipe in a garage over the winter, which has completely cooked out a bit of the board - again, it's cloth; even the best cloth in the world won't cope well with daily boilings! Or left with a massive boat winch parked on top of it for 6 months, etc etc. In other words, there can be other factors which can cause a part of a board to degrade over time, which then can cause failure when it gets pumped up to pressure at the beginning of a season. So whether this would constitute a warranty replacement will really depend on the goodwill of the retailer and importer in your country. What we have done in the past with situations like this is to offer a replacement at cost, seeing as you've had 3 years of use out of it already, and obviously getting a new board now actually amounts to a pretty major upgrade, as Red Paddle Co boards have improved dramatically over the last 3 years. So this might be worth going for.

As for a repair - it's pretty damn hard to rebuild a board that has opened up like this. I have seen it done, but only by a seriously good PVC repairman who really really knows their stuff, and has lots of experience working with iSUPs. Realistically, if your retailer will offer you a good deal on a new replacement, I'd suggest that that will be money better spent.

Finally, re the pressure - a good iSUP (ie Red), if there are no cloth or glueing flaws, can cope absolutely fine with high pressure. We normally run our fleet at 25psi and they are totally fine with it. As was nicely dealt with in an earlier thread, the actual pressure difference when the board is out in the sun is not a significant factor. Having said this, the new stiffer construction on the 2016 Reds is such that there simply is no need to go over 22psi, so we've dialled back on the max pressures for this year.

Hope this helps clarify a few things!

Heh, no, relax. The improvement has been about achieving greater stiffness with less pressure. If you're happy with your 11'0 and can pump it up no problem, then you're all good. The 2016 boards will be lighter, but not enough to justify trading up from your existing board. Hope you're enjoying the 11'0 - definitely my favourite board in the range!

My 2 year old JP Australia cruiser $1600 exploded exactly the same location as yours. I made an attempt by using the repair kit at 24 hours process and tested it the following arvo for 12psi under the sun then BANG in less than 30 minutes! But this time a meter farther on the same side :) They say this is a common adhesive failure from most Chinese made inflatables. And it could not withstand the Aussie weather! I reckon a pressure valve would solve the problem :) Patch Bang Patch Bang Patch Bang Paddling dangerously!

If the air inside is dry, then the pressure difference when hot is minimal.

If there is a bit of water inside, then the water will easily evaporate when heated and the pressure difference is massive.

Same thing with windsurfers that have a vent plug -- if the board is dry inside then you don't need to loosen the vent. As soon as some water gets inside then you must loosen the vent before the board gets hot, otherwise you end up with a delaminated board.