Can you body drag upwind?

[caduo]

you have to try to swim upwind working the legs and the front hand

[Peter_Frank]

I have had no issues with a baggy drysuit, nor current, makes no difference.

Of course you have to stay in the same current no matter which direction, but if your local hood you will know where to stay.

In really light winds like when foiling, agree the angle gets worse and worse if you have to fly the kite higher, but if your kite is light it helps immensely as it can sit lower and be more effective

Peter

[RalfsB]

I found that I get a better upwind if I do not try too much upwind. It works better if I point just a narrow angle above the the direction where the kite sits. If the angle is too wide then the body is in the "wing stall angle" and is actually dragged downwind. Kind of like this:

[Peter_Frank]

Precisely my point RalfsB

Even very experienced kitesurfers make this mistake...
I honestly think the majority of all kitesurfers

Try to drag more sidewind as said, works wonders

Peter

[foam-n-fibre]

Yes I agree the current should not matter if you and the board are in the same water which is moving at the same speed.

Another common error that I see in bodydragging is keeping the kite too high, and keeping the head up and the feet down too much. The kite should be well sheeted in and low, and I'll take a lot of water in the face if I'm doing it right.

Peter

[Greenturtle]

Very underpowered, such as 6m in 12kt, you can zenith the kite let go of bar and backstroke swim directly upwind correcting the kite as needed and then continue to backstroke

[Flyboy]

Some foils are very light and sit up sideways, they don’t come to you. Combine the buoyancy of a bag suit and current like the gorge. I almost saw $3000 float away two weeks ago.

Yup - another potential hazard!

I appreciate all the advice! All I can tell you is that for the first time in 20 years of kiting I was not able to get upwind ... however, it was also the first time I had a board snagged in a stationary position, which is why I posed the question. "Sheeted in & low" - yeah that's what I do to force myself upwind if I'm powered up. In this case it would have resulted in the kite falling into the water. I think, on reflection, my best bet may have been to luff the kite & try & swim upwind. However, I wouldn't have been able to release the foil, even if I had managed to swim back to it, so swimming back out without the kite was the only solution in the end.