U will find this has been covered b4. . . . Imho stay unattached as any leash presents a safety problem. . . . . In self rescue situation u will move faster than the board anyways . . . . . I always only kite side shore do the board will wash up at some point. . . . Getting ur kite and self safe to shore more important

2 cents

Hi KiwiDave

If you struggle to self-rescue with a board in 12 knots you simply need more practice and/or a better technique, firstly without the board. You are probably trying to wrap your lines which is a difficult task on it's own. If I had to wrap my lines in low winds, I would keep the board under my feet while I wrap them as I show in this video:



Another self-rescue method which is more than twice as fast and a lot easier in stronger winds is one that doesn't involve any wrapping, but for this one I prefer keeping my board afloat and pushing it in front of me as I pull myself up the safety line. No kicking and no swimming = no tangles



If the board is too much of a concern during the self-rescue think about letting go of it and self-rescue as fast as possible, this means you get back to the shore quicker and have more time to look for the board and more time to signal other kiters to get the board for you before it drifts too far downwind.

Most kiters aren't very competent at self-rescue simply because it's not taught well enough nor is practiced well enough to ensure efficient results when a real situation occurs.

Were you asked to do a solo self-rescue in deep water in your lessons or did you just get a demonstration/simulation with the instructor standing on the beach or in shallow waters?

Christian

Thanks all.

When I first dropped my kite I could touch the bottom (at a stretch), but I decided this was a chance to practice a deep water self rescue.

When I decided to do it there was no wind and I forgot to let my quick release go. Then when I was half way through winding up my lines I start to hear thunder, the sky darkened and I realised my mistake. I decided to unwind my lines again and let the QR go because I had visions of the wind coming back and powering up my kite. As expected I ended up in an awful tangle of lines.

On reflection I should have just put a few more turns of one front line onto the bar and carried on. By this time I was closer to shore and ironically in deeper water.

Anyway I was quite relaxed throughout and will be practising again soon. From memory my self rescue during my lesson was in chest deep water.

Lambie said..

Regarding self rescue - there was a post sometime ago (self rescue review- apologies to who posted it - was very good) and it showed that is was much faster to work your way up the front lines and grab the kite and then wind up lines rather than trying to wind lines around the bar with the kite dragging you down wind. Makes sense apart from the tangle factor ( seaweed, reef, etc). this may help with keeping the board close as well .

I actually done this in shallow water, was way faster after u "take care" of the kite. But in the deep, u just let lines behind u, grab the kite and then what? Would be nice to speed up process in deep water but how do u start "winding" after u get to the kite and bar is 20+ meters behind u?

What level of tennis elbow did you have? I got it now and it's just moved up from my forarm to the front of my elbow. Probably not going to rest it till after the wind season tho.