Hi Bramber, here is a copy/paste from my post in a thread regarding the same question from 4 years ago. You can read other comments as well here: www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Kitesurfing/General/UPWIND-BODY-DRAGGING?page=1

If I can bring some key points from an instructor point of view. We teach daily in rough waters and strong winds i.e. some of the most difficult conditions to learn this skill...so here are the tips I found the most effective for students. (sorry if some have already been mentioned):

-You need to relax as much as possible and focus at the task in hand. As soon as you loose your board and you know it's behind you, don't turn around and start looking for it just yet, this will just have you loose precious ground and time...so start body dragging upwind ASAP.

-By far the most common mistake is to angle your body too far upwind in the water. This especially happens when people stress too much and are looking directly upwind and swimming at their board thinking they will get there quicker...NOT!

If you do this you will essentially body drag DOWNWIND. When and if you get the correct angle (in the superman position) you will feel the water pressuring equally along your entire body. If you feel the pressure only on your arm and chest and not in the lower body, you are pointing too far upwind, and thus going downwind.

-When you get it right you should instantly feel your speed increasing and more power in the kite (you're creating what we call apparent wind), that's a really good sign!

-Another common mistake is to move the kite too much up and down in the wind window, this usually powers the kite up and sends you off-course and further downwind. Keep your kite stable around 10:30 and 1:30. Always avoid keeping your kite at 12.

-If you had a big crash which also involves a difficult/long kite relaunch you will need to prepare for a longer recovery, which means you will have to start by doing 30-45 seconds tacks before changing direction. If you know the board isn't that far upwind, then usually 10-20 seconds tacks will do the trick. Doing tacks that are too long, you run the risk of completely loosing sight of your board. Doing tacks that are too short will typically make you loose ground due to frequent direction change. When you change direction, push the bar out completely and don't move the kite too fast across the window, otherwise you will loose the ground you just made.

-You typically don't need a lot of power to make good ground upwind, but this depends on a lot of factors. Current direction vs wind direction is a big one. If you body drag upwind directly against the current you will need little power to perform very well, you'll have heaps of speed without much effort...BUT If the current is dragging you more downwind, you will need a lot more power in the kite and speed with your body to prevent going downwind, this is when most people loose the most ground, simply because they're not going fast enough to counteract the effect of the current. This is especially true when the current is very strong.

For example, where we teach, you only have to pull the bar half way in on the left side (against the current) but when coming back towards the shore on the right side, you have to pull the bar nearly all the way in if you don't wanna loose ground.

-There's typically one side that's gonna feel and perform better when you body drag upwind. Always start going on that side first (your ''good side'') as you are more likely to make up the most ground there. If in doubt go for a bit longer before you change direction, even if you overshoot the board a bit and end up going downwind to get it back.

-The best way to measure your performance when you get out there and practice is to enter the water from a fixed point from the beach (Leave your board on the beach as a marker) you should be able to at least get out 50 meters and come back to the same point you left from. If you loose ground there is improvement to be made. If you can come back further upwind than where you left from you'll probably never struggle with board recovery again:)

-If you are in rough waters and strong wind, keep the kite slightly higher and put more power on the bar to speed up, this will lift your head a bit further above the surface and you'll avoid getting blinded by the water and also avoid drinking the whole ocean...

Christian

Like Christian said, or just get boots!

Kit3kat said..
you don't need to be able to go upwind. You just need to be able to drift less downwind than your board.

So u think that the wind has control of ur drifting board?....better think again

Care to explain how ur method works when ya kiting in wind against tide conditions???

Richoa said..

Gilly3 said..

Kit3kat said..
you don't need to be able to go upwind. You just need to be able to drift less downwind than your board.

So u think that the wind has control of ur drifting board?....better think again

Care to explain how ur method works when ya kiting in wind against tide conditions???

For sure ive had situations where board is going out to sea aganst the wind, im only new but dragging to a board in the lake or in coming tide are totally different to getting a board in anout going current or rip

No difference Rich, it just takes less of an effort in non tidal conditions....

if u crash out in a lake, kite goes down and u need to relaunch, u still need to kite upwind to retrieve ur board

if the wind and the tide are running the same way, i would look for another spot....unless its blowing 25-30knts

i would very much doubt that your board drifts out to see while you drift towards the shore.

The board gets more than enough beating from the waves downwind to the shore. Anything else is some weather anomaly shenanigans where you shouldnt be kiting to begin with.

I normally even in knee high water think super man pose kite to 45 in direction of travel go steady when brining it up to 12. And in the back of my head it's always the jaws music and me repeating shark shark shark shark..... usually gets me to my board fairly lively !!

One other thing that nobody ever mentions that can prevent you from ever catching up with your board again is this - if you are riding super powered up / overpowered, you will want to depower your kite as much as possible. Otherwise, you will just get pulled down wind. You want the kite to pull you upwind...tough to do when you are super lit.

VRBones said..

NorthLines said..
If you are riding super powered up / overpowered, you will want to depower your kite as much as possible. Otherwise, you will just get pulled down wind.

I actually do the opposite and pull on more power to gain a higher upwind angle.

Here's an experiment: Stand on the beach and let your kite go out to the edge of the wind window with the bar out as much as possible. Now power up the kite by pulling the bar all the way in. The kite should surge forward, but then hold steady at the new edge of the wind window. Note that it is sitting further forward than with the the kite depowered (bar out). What's happened is pulling the back line in has temporarily increased the angle of attack and given more power, but once that power moves the kite forward the angle of attack rotates until it's back to the same as with the kite depowered, just pivoted further forward into the wind. The power at both positions is the same (enough to hold the kite in the air and compensate for drag), but the difference can be as much as 5 degrees from just the bar throw, and ~10 degrees if taking the throw of bar and trim strap.

Because your speed while bodydragging is so slow your kite is going to get to the edge of the window really easily, so it's more like the beach scenario than normal kiting. Keep the kite as far forward as possible and eke out only enough power to get you up to speed.

Where depower becomes important is when transitioning to the opposite tack. You don't need ANY power from the kite while transitioning as without a proper shape to use that power to go upwind, you're just going to be dragged downwind.

that is not what is accepted aerodynamic theory.. If you depower the kite it it moves the leading side outside of the wind. A theoretical 100% oversheeted kite would always be flying running (and allow a maximum of crosswind course) whereas a 100% undersheeted/depowered kite would be closed hauled. That means that in theory you could ride directly into the wind.

If you want to dramatically Improve your body dragging, ride a strapples surfboard with no leash for a while.