i was having a sail with nobody around in light winds when i went down a wave and leaned to far back and fell off. i was hooked in under the sail with waves coming at me every 10 secs. I was panicy but eventually i got the harness unhooked and went up for air. every time i think about it i go all cold but i still go for a sail.
i would like to hear about a technique or way to get the harness hook off the harness line or another life threatning situaion

see ya

Try practicing with just your rig in shallow water (waist deep)

Lay under the rig without hooking in and drag yourself out the long way (up the mast) your eyes closed and do it all by feel, once you realise that you actually have plenty of time to get out it takes the panic out,

Progress to hooking in and learning to catch hold of the rig and feel for your harness lines, then climb out from either side of the sail. try also hooking in then rotating so you are pionting down to the base of the sail, this will twist your harness line tighter on the spreader bar.

Within 1/2 an hour you have taken the panic out of the experience in relatively safe conditions and helps give you an exit strategy.

Worst experience I ever had was on the Safety bay sand bar in about a 1-1/2foot of water having the boom laid accros my chest and the wind pushing the whole rig down on me pinning me to the bottom, ended up having to physically drag my self out by the mast, the worst thing was the thought running through my head whilst this was going on which was "this is going to be embrassing drowning in this deeper water".

All the best

Alby

I had a similar experience to elmo, not long after i first started sailing a short board I catapulted in the harness in about two and a half feet of water- not akin to catapulting it knocked the wind out of me. Wind and chop where pushing the sail down on top of me and board had flipped over making things worse still. I had dodgy harness lines and the hook was tangled in em so i'm panicing already out of breath trying to untangle the lines I then started to unclip my harness when I thought hang on settle down did things carefully, didnt struggle against the rig and suddenly I was free.

So if it happens- settle down.
pull towards the boom and up towards the head of the sail.
if all else fails remember you can unclip your harness (always use quick release harnesses).
and most importantly dont skimp on harness lines... get good quality ones.

thanks you guys i think the most important thing in this kind of situation is not to panic thanks again

almost got eaten by a blowfish in applecross once. Scared some japanese students paddling too. what a monster,

saying lets go to hardman