Please find below some useful guides on how to get your new product set up and ready for use.
If you have noticed an air leak around the valve on your board, do not be too worried, this is normally easy to fix simply using the spanner in your repair kit.
This includes a leak coming from anywhere around the valve area, including the hole where the string emerges to hold the cap, and from around the outside of the information patch.
In the repair kit you will find a black plastic valve spanner- this is for tightening or removing the valve. The below image shows what a similar valve looks like when out of the board. The left hand piece is built inside the board and the right hand one screws into it via a circular hole in the skin of the board, this traps the board skin layer between the top of the inner basket and the underside of the top part.
Heat expansion during use can cause the valves to loosen, this is quite common.
The valves are designed to be removable to allow replacement so are screwed together in place rather than glued.
To tighten the valve and improve the seal, remove the dust cover and insert the crown shaped end of the spanner into the valve and carefully turn clockwise.
The only trick with tightening up may be stopping the inner valve piece, located inside the board, turning as you tighten the outer part with the spanner, preventing the assembly from fully tightening.
To tackle this, with the board fully deflated, kneel either side of the valve to hold it down or hold the inner part of the valve through the skin from below whilst you turn the outer part with the valve spanner.
It can be helpful to have two people doing this together.
If you’re lucky you may even just be able to apply enough pressure without holding the bottom part of the valve to stop the leak you’re experiencing. However if the whole valve assembly just spins when you tighten it you will need to get some pressure on the underside.
Do be careful not to over tighten and damage the valve.
If after doing this you reinflate and find that you still have a leak, unscrew and remove the top part completely and check there is no dust or dirt inside the valve that is causing it not to close up completely.
Take care when doing this however not to lose the inner part of the valve inside the board!
If after all the above you still have an issue please let us know, but what you’re experiencing is a familiar and regular maintenance issue with these valves.
Using a hand pump
Your manual hand pump gauge requires quite a bit of back pressure to get the needle ‘off the stop’ – sometimes as much as 5-7psi.
Even though you’ve pumped for what seems like ages and your SUP looks and feels solid – there’s more to go!
Don’t worry though, as you get up towards the 15-21 psi range you need, there are fewer strokes required to raise the pressure (although the strokes get harder- so remember to switch to single action on your pump).
The first time you inflate a paddle board it can feel like an eternity, but in truth it’s a few minutes, you get used to it and as boarders will tell you, it’s a good warm-up!
Unless you’re already sure you are up to pressure- i.e you can verify that with a known working pump, keep pumping to see if the needle starts to move.
You can also check that there is no problem with the pump guage by removing the hose and covering the air outlet with your hand. When you depress the handle, you should then see the needle move.
Using an electric pump
These instrucitons only apply to the Aquaplanet Electric Pump
If you are finding the pump is not turning on, please check the following:
> All parts of the connection plug are not loose (the end tip part unscrews, so make sure this is tight)
> Make sure that there is no damage to the cable and that this is firmly inserted into the pump body, and the 12v power point
> check the car engine is turned on (to power the pump) - when there is power to the pump, the display should light up.
> You should then be able to press and hold the +/- buttons to adjust PSI and press and hold the Power Button to start
If this is not working as expected, please take a short video to show your actions and what is happening and share this with our Customer Support team
You should feel the hose slot into place as you twist. It can sometimes take some force to twist the hose into the valve properly, especially if the hose is new.
This sometimes happens when the washer (the rubber ring around the top of the hose) is too thick or put on incorrectly.
If you are having problems with your washer try the following:
> Make sure that the groove in the washer is facing the board
> Try soaking the rubber washer in hot water to make it more malleable
> Replace the washer with a thinner washer
If you are still having problems then please do get in touch with a video of the issue you are experiencing.
For our newest model SUPs, the fins use a clip in system.
To fit these fins, press down the spring loaded button, which is at one end of the fin box. Slide in the fin to the fin box with the furtherst edge from the clip first. As you drop the near edge into the fin box, this should fit in snuggly, and you can release the spring button. The fin should then be locked into the fin box.
For some of our legacy SUP models, these have Slide in or US Fin box set ups.
Fitting a Slide in Fin
You should be able to slide this into the fin box, then fit the locking pin through the cap to hold this in place. If it is stiff, or difficult to slide in, it is likely the fin box has curled a little during storage. This can be heated up a bit (either with a hairdryer, the sun or warm water), pressure applied to straighten it, and maybe some books or something heavy left on the fin box overnight. Once you have donw this, when you try again, the fin box should have flattened and it will be easier to slide in the fin.
Fitting a US Fin (Screw in)
Our Jupiter, Seeker and some Hurley model SUP's have a US fin box as the central fin holder. These are known as universal fin's as you can purchase replacement fins from lots of retailers. It can be a little fiddly getting the fin screwed in, if you are new to this system. I would suggest checking YouTube for videos on how to do this, as it is easier to see how to fit the nut and bolt into the fin box, rather than trying to describe it.
