Avoidance is definitely the way to go. Many lofting incidents occur very rapidly with no time to react, some of the more rare ones do allow a bit of time. If you are high and up for a while, this generally means you were lofted by a very substantial gust. If you are airborne for a while you will be traveling at close to the windspeed. In the case of a major lofting, this could be very fast 30 to 40 kts. or possibly more. How and where you hit becomes critical. You fellows make some excellent points. They say "always fly the airplane." When lofted and if you have time, "always fly the kite." That is concentrate on stable flight and avoid stalling your kite at all costs. Two riders, Greg in Melbourne, Australia and Dimitri in Cape Hatteras used transitions or direction reversals to advantage to shorten and even alter their flight paths. The guy that was lofted 250 m horizontally in Cabarete also focused on stable flight and even steered a bit into a pine tree. Considering that he must have been traveling at 40 kt. or better, this probably saved his life. In the case of Eric's thermal lofting incident in Oahu to about 225 ft. he again, concentrated on stable flight and steered the kite slightly as well.
So in summary if you have one of the more rare, spectacular loftings focus on flying the kite with small control inputs to maintain stable flight. If you see something to hit that is softer than something else, try to aim gentling for it This part is particularly tricky. If you can time releasing your depower leash before impact but not too high off the ground you could try to do this.
All this advice falls into the catagory of suggestions to a jet fighter pilot in an unrecoverable high speed inverted spin, 3000 ft. off the ground. Luck, training and a bit more luck, really play into the outcome. Best to avoid lofting in the first place as the outcome is too uncertain. Checkout:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kitesurf/ ... EFERENCES/
Fly safe,
Rick Iossi