ibatbeach, that was a great description of what it feels like when that happens. That happened to me last year. I also crashed my kite when I went down and I remember floating underwater in white foam unable to surface cause there is seemingly nothing to push against. I was coming to grips with my situation when suddenly my kite got caught be a wave and I was still hooked in and I got dragged horizontally underwater facing forward-rather uncomfortable. This happened a second time as well, by then i had released my chicken loop but was still attached to the leash. I almost drowned, but finally was able to come up for air.

I never released from my leash and I felt that this helped pull me out of the impact zone, and it also allowed me to body drag in and avoid a prolonged swim in.

It was a huge learning experience for me. I learned to not panic when this happens, cause for sure you will drown if you do panic. I was totally ignorant of what it is like to be held down-I did everything wrong because I was not prepared.

I learned to fly that kite no matter what, practice crashing and work on keeping the kite up helps. Most of the time when I crash now I am able to keep the kite up, and having the kite flying is like a get out of jail card.

Good discussion. Living in PR we get to kite big waves whenever there is wind to go with them. I think I had just been lucky to date not to get seriously worked. We all have been knocked around in the foam ball, but this was on a totally different level. Surfing, we are used to swimming vertical to the surface after taking one on the head, but never had that experience kiting. But as several have said, the most important thing when getting worked is to keep the kite flying. This is not always easy when you are getting rolled towards the kite at high speed. But I like the looping the kite idea. So I am glad I asked. It seems to serve several purposes....tension on lines, kite stays flying, and gets you the hell out of there in hurry.

I had the same thing happen to me around 10 years ago. I got hit by a solid double overhead wave and got pulled underwater so hard that my harness got ripped half way off my body. After I surfaced, I tried to pull the release but couldn't find it because the spreader bar was half off the harness. I dove under the next wave and got yanked so hard that my harness ripped the rest of the way off my body.
Like everyone says, fly your kite, but RELEASE early. And DON'T wear a leash in heavy conditions.

Or neck?!

i'm about to tie some kiteline to my spreader bar for a leash point on the front, cos my kite tried to drown me one time and i could not get to release with it pulling me backwards

anyone got anything i should know/look out for with this?

D, that is the worst lookin wetsuit of all time!

The leash:

Forgot to mention, l attaches a short leash at the frontside of the harness, had an old ocean rodeo short lease, so no real danger to get hung by that one.
Ok l don not fly unhooked, this is why the short leas is possible.

Dude

Some related videos.