Hi

I have a Switchblade 9m which i seem to manage to invert more often than i wouold like.(Seems to happen most if kite hits the water with the lines slack)My question though is what to do next - it won't relaunch and seems to hover upside down/inside out(whatever) about 6 ft off the ground/water. So i get dragged back to the beach which is fine and someone can usually help out. But what do you do if there is noone at that end of the beach to grab the kite? i tried to start to roll in my lines on the bar - but putting tension on the lines makes the kite a bit more active and it looks like it might uninvert or loop or whatever. I thought about making a run to the kite but as it is floating it just moves away from me (towards the bushes - which is where it ended up last night). If i unhook then it would just drag the bar. Thought about trying to use my board and wedging this in the sand with the bar - not sure i trust this though.

So any helpful advice?

thanks
Simon

1) ride back to the beach
2) release the kite (without safety of course)
3) go to the shop and buy a c shaped kite!

inverts happen beacuse of not enough back line pressure - don't swim towards it!

pull in a whole bunch of the front lines. once all back line tension is gone, the kite will uninvert (ie pop back into its regular shape). the only problem is that the kite usually ends up LE down with the top of the canopy facing you. to fix this you then need to swim a bit to one side and try and get the kite to spin around by pulling the furtherest away from you rear line. if the rear line can sneak under the leading edge and the kite manages to spin around, you will then have it in a normal easy to relaunch le down position.

one last thing is that after and invert the front and rear lines will sometimes be twisted around eachother. in this case simply head back to the beach and untwist the lines before continuing. a c kite often solves this problem.

Not to sure about bows ruling the world, but maybe you should try the new Vegas all the characteristics of a c kite with huge depower.

Got to demo one yesterday it has about 70 to 80 percent depower not as much as the bows but all in all an execellent kite.Seen plenty of people swim in when the inversions happen with bows.

Will not happen on a vegas ,if you like a kite that has massive depower and the inversions keep happening go and demo a vegas and see if you like it.

Leave the kite and find the board

hey bigair man, if you want more depower then you should try the f-one tribal, it has more depower than the bows and it is a c shape

Dachopper with c kites offering this much depower and having all the performance a c kite has to offer you would have to ask yourself would you bother buying a bow kite , or go for the vegas or f one tribal, I know what I am doing.

All the guys I ride with that were on bows because of the depower and the benefits they gave while riding in the surf, are all basically getting rid of their bows after trying the 06 Vegas.

hey dude, I hear you... there will allways be a place for the wierd bow pull, instant relaunch, and tight turns , so long as they end up fixing the inverting, tangling and LE face down slow relaunch problems..

i think most people have upgraded from older kites onto bows and thats what shocks them most, they don't realise how good the new c's are, as they probably haven't tried any of the high performing models yet.


if i were you with my kite hovering inverted, i would pull on one of the side lines to make the kite turn and it will crash eventually, hopefully hard enough to pop the inversion out.... if you end up with the kite facing you LE down, just pull one side only until the kite is sde on to you then pull the other side to help the other corner catch the wind and flip around... make sure the kite is pumped up though caus you wouldn't want the bow to fold and get the bridles tangled at that point!

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Originally posted by 4DICE

there always has to be someone with this smart alec responce. you will soon see that one day bows will rule the world. and your a bit jealous

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sorry - could not resist.

My rhinos will do me just fine till they die a horrible death then I can think about a bow - no point upgrading every year just to be at the bleeding edge - remeber the shmellfish?

I ownder how many inversions a bow can take before the seams start blowing out - having seen a few of them the wrong way round it just doesnt look right - it's gotta be loading up something somewhere.

of course, you must say your kite is good or better than others. none says they r riding a peice of ****.

Does anyone who has used the Liquid Force Assult have an opinion on what these are like in respect to the inverting problem.

I have been told that these kites lie somewhere between a bow and a C in respect to performance, so I am thinking that they may not suffer from the inverting problem so much.

Has anyone who has used these had problems with inverting?

Lemm

I like my bow....a lot.
With the Fitzy fix, i like it more.
dont give a crap what anyone else thinks, the kite that improves my riding, gives me confidence etc i'll stick with that.
Yeah the new Vegas looks great but havent flown one yet so cant compare.
However Sof x or X sof have a new three line kite out.......

Gear Gear Gear, who cares....if your happy with what you got be it a bow, c, foil or granddads y fronts thats what matters.

quote:

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Originally posted by doppelganger

Is the leading edge inflated correctly,they have to be harder the norm(so I've been told).I've seen 4 invert's, all due to under inflation.I'm a newbie with a 12 mtr s/blade and it's been under a bit of stress with all the f#ck ups and I've been expecting it to invert with all the invert hype. Any how,just a thought.

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Thats all the "invert" issue is,hype.

Just a lot of hype from C kite users that cant get their head around new technology.

You gotta laugh when the "C" users are trudging around on their 12 to 16 m and you are outperforming them on a 9m Bow!

Bows will dominate soon,simply because you can use a smaller kite for the conditions

Hey user Bow kites are old technology in the world of kiteboarding, the new technology is the 06 vegas the f one tribal , c kites that offer huge depower with a huge wind range is the next big thing in kiteboarding.

I have tried most of the bow kites and enjoyed them , but they dont give the rush and excitement a c kite does for this reason alone bow kites will never totally rule.

You just have to look at the excitement the 06 Vegas is creating, what North promise they deliver, I have tried one and I can honestly say you will see alot more kites around like that soon.

And with the wind range they are offering you could definitely get away with a two kite quiver.

Just watch the kite doesnt rip into bits on the 5th line.
Oh and careful the battens dont shatter.........
No kites perfect yet...

Poor relative no kite is perfect , but they just keep getting better and better.The bows have raised the bar with safety wind range and depower.Now it looks like NORTH have raised the bar again, so really the only winners are us that try and get out every time the wind is blowing so we can enjoy the best sport ever "KITEBOARDING".