The year of repair…

Toughen up!

It could all be in my mind, but I feel like I’ve been repairing gear a lot so far this year. On one hand I’d rather spend my time doing other things…on the other hand gear needs repairs when it used a lot. Lots of use = a good thing.

So I when I noticed the stitching on my kiteboarding impact vest was coming apart I put my Mr. Fix It hat on and grabbed my Shoe Goo! 😉

Better nip that in the bud…

I briefly considered a Shoe Goo only repair, but then thought I’ve got mad skillz with a needle and thread – time to bust out another facet of my gear repair kung-fu!

Bam – that ain’t coming undone!

I used a randomized lock-stitch technique. It’s great because the seam doesn’t know what’s hit it and just gives up and stays closed.

Finally some Shoe Goo…

The inside part of the repair rubs against my kite harness and wetsuit so I figured some Shoe Goo on top of the threads would protect it nicely. Perhaps not absolutely needed, but I love the smell of solvent in the morning… 😉

Seam Seal on the outside…

The outside stitching sees less abrasion, but I want to forget about this repair and never have to deal with it again. Shoe Goo is too ghetto for my uber cool kiteboarding image so I pulled out the Seam Seal. This is Shoe Goo’s thinner and more runny cousin. You can do a more refined repair with it as you can see.

Looking good and ready for the water!

The finished repair looks reasonably discrete and is very burly. I’d call that success! 🙂