I found that there was no way of avoiding this. During the catapult stage, you are going to end up under the sail once in a while.

My best way of dealing with it was to get used to it and not panic. I know that's not easy to do at the time. I also made sure I knew how to unhook my spreader bar or even unclip the harness while under the sail. Not much fun, but better than the alternative.

If I was teaching someone I would probably even get them to try unhooking while under the sail in controlled conditions, but maybe that's a bit too much enthusiastic?

Having said all this, are you holding on to the boom as you go over the front? I found this tends to help and stops you hitting your mast or boom and getting as twisted up. It also tends to lessen the chance of the mast impacting the nose of the board as much too.

I dont think i was in any danger, i could always come to the surface and breathe....its just an uncomfortable feeling when the chop keeps making you breathe water, but really i would have only been without air for less than half a second or so

This is what used to scare me!

Best thing is just to keep calm, use one hand to hold the harness line and the other to help remove your hook.

What kind of harness lines do you have? It might be useful to buy adjustable ones - these allow you to experiment with different lengths that suit you and your sailing style. I've got some Dakine ones which are great.

Modern harness lines are better because they can't twist - saving you the scare of not being able to unhook.They have a thick clear tube around the string - so hooking in and out is much easier!

Kila said...

Modern harness lines are better because they can't twist

You can't be trying hard enough! The bad news is that when they do twist, they can be a real mission to untwist.

The key to avoiding getting stuck and twisted is to always hold onto the boom as you catapult. That will stop you spinning around relative to the boom, and you'll only be under the sail, and not tied up in knots as well!