Is the Bandit One still a worthwhile kite, or is it an absolute mudslinger?
Does it invert and not go upwind or is it pretty usable?

iam still flying a 7.5m its no slug

The Bandit one was a great allround kite to fly and the 7.5 was my favourite (I owned a 7.5, 9 and 13), but I had a few issues with blowing struts and breaking lines n stuff.
They lost me with the DOS though, that was way more likely to overfly and fall out of the sky/invert etc, not what you want when you often kite offshore reefs

Who did you turn to tightlines ?

Eclipse Kima 6, 9 and 12, I mainly wave ride though.

Yeah I really like Bandits, I think you either love them or hate them the only thing that takes a while is the on off with the bar but after a while it becames automatic.

I held off on the bandit 3 this year be interesting to see what is up for 2011,