I'm really glad you made it back to shore OK. Make sure you report yourself to the Authorities (surf lifesavers) as soon as you get back to shore as they were looking out everywhere for you asking every single person on the beach and were probably about to deploy search and rescue teams.

Did you try pulling the safety system when your bar first got tangled? After a while if you wait too long to pull the release the safety system may not work due to the accumulation of tangled lines. Did you learn how to self-rescue in deep water before?

Sometimes a simple refresher lesson can go a long way into making sure these situations don't happen again.

I hope you get your kite back

Thanks guys. It was actually pretty uneventful from an incident point of view. I didn't get pulled out all that far and a nearby kiter body-dragged over then pulled me in to shore. I am still trying to work out what exactly happened, must have fallen through the lines. The kite was doing spirals whilst still attached to me and after pulling the safety on the chicken loop, I just ended up being dragged backwards. If I had more composure I would have found a way to reach the safety behind me, but at the time it seemed simpler just to ditch the harness altogether...

The issue of the lost kite came later, as after I ditched, the kite fell to the water and slowly drifted back towards the beach (and well over halfway to Mullaloo). At about 30 metres off the shore it suddenly found a freakish balance of wind and resistance, and perched itself about 4 metres off the water pulling away out to sea. I was left dumbfounded as I watched it keep going beyond my sight...(and was left with a long walk back to Pinnaroo to get to my car).

Hope it didnt cause too much alarm...I guess I took a good deal of time retrieving my board after that so didn't notice any concern when I got back to Pinnaroo...

^^^ use the side ring and handle pass loop, ive seen a few d rings seperate from harnesses. Also any load IE harness, weed etc can be enough to tension the lines and allow the kite to fly, keep the harness next time and kit will probably also be retreived.

Probably not that common with newer harnesses, don't think you'll break both. Handle pass leash is definitely stronger though.