I have this problem lately that I end up inverting my kite at least once or twice during a session. The lines get tangled up and I have to head for the beach to reset them.

It usually happens after a jump. Yesterday it happened once while riding a wave. Both times the kite dropped out of the sky and inverted as it hit the water.

I am assuming that it is because of wrong piloting. What am I doing wrong and how can I prevent it from happening again?

What sort of kite are you flying? It can happen to any kite, ive seen c-kites invert, but some are worse than others....aka slingshot link....used to happen all the time. Happens more often with bows because they have a lower AR, ie the kite is less of a C shape so when it flags it is flatter and more likely to lose its shape. Usually happens when the lines go totally slack, when your riding a wave then your moving towards the kite so the lines are more likely to slacken if you bail out. A couple of ways to minimise this are to make sure that your bar is not set to totally depower when you let go of it, otherwise evertime you crash the kite wants to fall out of the sky. The most effective way is to make sure that the leading edge is pumped up as much as possible... this will help the kite to keep its profile more effectively when it has no power and will make it less likely to loose its shape as it falls. You can't guarantee that it wont happen but it shouldnt be an every day event.

The only times i have managed to invert a kite was while jumping hooked in on an ion 2.
Only happened when i landed with the kite directly above me and having the lines go slack.. effectively just overflying the kite.

Just had to make sure you gave it a good redirect when coming to land.. which you should do anyway... so i would probably just put it down to pilot error as you say.

Out of intrest what kite is it your flying?

I have a 2008 12m Cabrinha Switchblade.

I have only been kite surfing for about a year and not that good at jumping yet. I do fly the kite down before I land, but still sometimes land with the kite overhead, like you said. Maybe this is when things go wrong.

Thanks for the info.

Well if thats not the problem i would have to be totally stumped.. There are quite a few people here in chch that fly the switchblade 3 and i dont often see them inverting infact im not sure i have ever seen one invert even when the bar is let go at full depower... and they are wakestyle kites so the line slack thing shouldnt be as noticeable as on other kites... just more practice I guess and stick with it. The switchblades are nice kites, i recently just got myself a new Nomad from cabrinha and love it.

Yeah well, it only happens when it drops out of the sky, not while it is flying.

All your comments make perfect sence. I just need to control it better after jumps.

what your doing wrong bud is when your jumping your swinging underneith it to far and the kite will over fly you making the lines go slack and it will fall and when this happens its all in faiths hands what happens next.

what you need to do is send the kite and wait for the tug and pop you will go higher then before and bring the kite back in a big c shape pattern this will give you some more lift and a smoother landing oh and the kite will stay in the sky lol

hope this helps if your in auckland i can show you just pm me