800 meters from shore, kite stuffed, cross offshore winds at 20 knots, hammerheads and reef sharks below and a long swim to shore.
on a positive note, that's some awesome footage........ 
glad you survived. 800m and offshore isn't a situation i'd like to be in ever without a rescue crew lined up.
Nah the kite was in the sink, and a wave hit it as I was pulling on the 5th line to relaunch and a gust flipped it over on its back and the lines twisted so that the right front lines were pulled over the back. I had been doing more back rolls in one direction and the 5th line was twisted around the centre lines meaning that when I ejected the damn thing was still powered up and was doing loops to one side over and over. It would sit on the water until another gust came and lifted it up. There was a few times when I tried to reel it in that the damn thing would do another loop, and the lines had gathered around my arms and caught on my harness.
To say the least, it was a bit hairy at times! Thankfully it was doing loops in the opposite direction of the twist on the 5th line, and eventually I was able to get it to flag and reel it in and then self rescue as seen in the vid.
I have noticed that the new 2010 North bar, now has a twist reverse saftey mechanism built in just for this exact problem.
You're looking good on this vid, and you seem to have done all the right things......glad you or anyone else were not hurt.....
....its all part of the game...well done
Self rescue and emergency packdown was something I practiced several times even after I finished my first few lessons. Seems like a bloody important thing to know. That far out, even if a rescue boat has to come out, you've done everything you can do to be safe and it's piss easy for them to pick you up and deflate your kite.
It was pretty cool the first time I sat on the kite, held the grab handle, and sailed my kite back into shore. It's pretty confidence inspiring to know you can do it.
