For the purposes of the guide 'Neoprene' includes the material Hypalon and includes X-Tuck. Contrary to popular belief neoprene is a very fragile material. The reason that is it used in high wear products such as spraydecks is simply because there is no other material offering similar performance. Neoprene is constructed from one or two stretchy layers of thin nylon laminated to a squashy layer of foam. Imagine your spraydeck is an over-ripe peach wrapped in cling film and your paddle shaft is a meat tenderising hammer. Now imagine that you are in a very bad mood… Needless to say, at some stage you are going to have to repair it!

If you do a lot of whitewater kayaking you will soon become a master neoprene craftsman; the tools of your trade will be:

GULSEAL or EVOSTIK* - Yes, common or garden Evostik from your local hardware store is the business. This is a contact adhesive and should be used to butt-join tears in the neoprene. For extra strength apply two layers fifteen minutes apart and then join the surfaces after a further ten minutes. Bonds will be much stronger if the frayed nylon edges at the sides of the tear have been fully impregnated with adhesive. After bonding, a fin line of Gulsure should be applied along the top of the tear on the nylon side only.

GULSURE or AQUASURE* - This is a urethane based adhesive. It has inherent strength and body and is ideal for replacing areas of lost neoprene (back the hole with a piece of parcel tape first) and for beading along the top of repairs in the place of blind stitching where nylon joins nylon (Gulsure is stronger than blind stitching). Unfortunately repairs take up to 24 hours to dry (accelerator is available) and although it looks pretty thick this stuff will run, so everything needs to be held flat until it is dry. Once opened, tubes last for about one month before going off – this happens even faster if you leave air in the tube. Gulsure is a nightmare to work with – looks like snot and sticks like Sticky the Stick Insect after a particularly large jam sandwich. You have been warned!

MATCHSTICK* - Yes, believe it or not the common household match will be your light sabre as YOU, Luke Skywalker… Matches are great for spreading small amounts of glue around, and what’s more they only cost 0.000000001p so you can chuck them away before the glue spreads up to your elbows!

So to summarise, use Evostik to bond neoprene to neoprene and wherever possible join nylon to nylon with Gulsure. Don’t be a Spod and stitch your deck – the water will go straight through! Using the above tools you can fix almost any damage to neoprene. You bought it to destroy it, so get on with it!

*Always follow the original manufacturer’s instructions.