Many of us have probably heard of Dr. Tuba (www.drtuba.eu), the site you visit when you had a major blow out on your bladder. Dr. Tuba for sell great kite repairing stuff, such as patches in different sizes, glue, dacron, flying lines etc. Dr. Tuba has a new promo video for the complete (ultimate) repair kit.
Looks good, doesn’t it!? The only problem I find with Dr. Tuba is the price… This complete repair kit cost 69,90€. You might as well by a whole new bladder for this price. And is Dr. Tuba the only place where you can by kite repair stuff? No, you can by adhesives, kite lines, glue etc. at many different places to a much better price. For instance Thermoplastic Polyurethane Film (adhesive patches) can be bought at www.3m.com and www.polyprod.com. In fact the patches from Dr. Tuba is made by 3m. Kite lines can be bought in your local sail shop or online on several sites, such as www.alibaba.com. Polyurethane (PU) glues can also be bought everywhere. Www.excelglue.com is just a example.
Another option to buying kite repair stuff from shops is to simply use the kite forums. Post a thread and let people know that your´re looking for some patches, kite lines or whatever you need. You´re more likely get bunch of replies from people that gladly will give away their excess for free. I recently talked with a kite school that threw away hundreds of meters with kite lines since it was just laying there collecting dust.
Conclusion
Dr. Tuba have the stuff you need to repair your kite, but the one that is on a limited budget or the one that simply doesn’t want to pay exorbitant amounts for things that in fact can be purchased considerably cheaper have lots of better alternatives.