Hesitation/ lack of commitment... I'm getting into them at the moment and find that the biggest crashes happen when I hesitate and don't keep the bar pulled in and turning.
I've found the easiest way to combat this is to just fishpole it... Both hand on one side of the bar, towards the outside.

yesterday {in Sydeny anyway} wasn't really a day to safely loop a kite unless your first name is Lenton

yeh come on load the video or it didn't happen :-)

"Hi - looking for a bit of advice
The kite got through the loop but was way below me, basically felt like it just didn't come back up to catch me at all and I ended up dropping onto the water from about 15m any idea what went wrong or just a bad idea to go for it?!"

My 2 cents worth:
What works for me: Shorter lines can make it easier to kite loop ( 25m 17m 15m )
Go high with speed keeping the kite forward to get forward momentum to cancel out the back loop, at the top of the jump commit and yank a back loop, try to land with the kite directly above you, you may need to turn the kite down after to loop to soften the landing. All kites loop differently.

If your kite is below you after a loop, your not looping the kite right, you might be looping too slow so the kite goes under you but not back up above your head.

What i see happen often is: Some people half loop or don't loop evenly through the loop, they hard pull first half of the loop then freak out and only partly or softly pull on the 2nd half of the loop, making the kite dive down but not come back up.

1 min quick kite looping video yesterday south of Sydney in 25 o 30 knots 9m and 7m in waves.

I'm pretty sure it didn't go round twice as I think the bar only un-spun once

Hoping I can figure it out from the video when I get it !

by your description it sounds like you didn't fish pole enough and went for a mega loop instead?

In gusty conditions its very possible that you started the loop in a gust and halfway through lost the gust hence kite speed and turning stopped. If you say it was as gusty as it was I would think this is a strong reason it happened. And letting the bar out as it turns shouldn't change anything. The kite will exhaust better as your not stalling flow over the trailing edge and should turn easier.

This fishing pole business is wrong for hooked in kiteloops as is not pushing the bar out.. If you're unhooked then you put the depower line between your ring and middle fingers on your back hand and then bring your front hand behind and steer the kite through the loop (fishing pole). With hooked in loops you send your kite up to 12 and just before you hit the apex of your jump pull HARD with your back hand, bar in, and steer the kite through the loop. As soon as your kite has completed it's rotation and the middle of the LE is pointed straight to 12.. Push your bar out so that it will catch you. You'll usually swing underneath the kite so you'll want to gently give pressure on that back hand and pull the bar in a bit after the kite is above you again so it loops softly above you and softens your landing. Point your board downwind and you should be good to go. You'll wanna be really powered too because if you don't get the height the kite won't catch you properly. Cheers.

Post the vid!

So, about that vid???