Yikes. I haven't even read the EK forum this morning.. almost scared to.
I posted Pat's story mainly to show how important a knife is. I am going to try to figure out one for my wrist region. Maybe Rick or Tom (divers) can give some insight.

Pat is in better shape than anyone I have ever met (yes, including Billy).
It doesn't matter how fit you are if you are pig-tied by line though, you could drown.

Knife
 

The mystic Warrior Harness have them built in on your right side. Very easy to get too! I got wrap in my lines once when I was riding a diffrent brand harness without a knife. Got very luck to only leave with some Line burn on my hand. Ever since then, I always make sure my knife is on my harness.

My harness has it in the back in an awkward place. I can't really reach it.

my harness (session OR) has one on the side.. but its awkward to reach.. i bought a knife from extreme kites that comes with a little sheath and belt loop.. fits perfect on my leg straps and is very easy to reach.

always that possibility that you will get turn/twisted into a position that any knife is hard to reach. one of my many reoccurring nightmares regarding this sport.

This topic has brought up some really interesting things. I lost my hook knife a while ago-it sat in a pocket in the back of the harness-how in the hell are you to reach that in emergency? Extreme sells hook knives?

I would really like to see a demo of self rescue on the water. I wonder if anyone else relatively new to the sport would also?

Maybe we could get together with one of you that is an instructor and have a safety clinic of what ifs and what to do -like a group session? It seems like we all can learn lots from those who have gotten themselves out of messes.

Anyone interested?

Thing is there is no general magic bullet anymore; no stone set script to follow since all kites are different nowadays whereas before they were all the same , i.e. mechanism wise, safety wise , etc

Not only that but each situation is completely different; once you may be caught on a crabtrap, another your line snaps, your LE deflates, lines tangle, powerboat decides to cross at high speed between you and the kite across your lines, WIND DIES RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE BARGE! etc

My recc. would be to get intimately aware of all the peatures and safety systems on your particular kite + know their positives and minuses and how to act in an emergency ( for your particular case ). Seems to me thats a topic your instructor would want to cover with you but the only way he could do it correctly is by knowing which kind of kite you would end up using to begin with ( catch 22 ).

Oh. and don't hesitate, hesitation is the little killer

How about a situation where all lines are intact, your kite is down but something is twisted so your kite begins to relaunch and spiral, so you pop the safety. Now you are connected to the safety line by your leash. You are in water over your head. wind is side onshore. You want to wrap all your lines, and get yourself, board and kite to shore. That is what I'd like to see on a kite like a waroo or atom, and then extrapolate this into other situations.

Except, on a waroo, popping the safety only places the bar 20 feet out of reach... meanwhile the kite keeps relaunching just as powered as it was before you pulled the safety... you have to ditch the safety too, or if you are lucky you managed to grab one of the o-sh1t handles before popping the release.

In cave diving we always carried two (extremely small) knives. One z knife on our wrist, the other on our harness, on opposite sides so you could reach one with either hand if badly entangled... and of course as a backup in case you dropped one in the chaos. Saved my life more than once... one particular time I was entangled from behind and stuck trying to exit a side tunnel restriction at 181 feet on air. Boy howdy, what fun! I was sure happy to find my knife that day.

The waroo bar is very similar to the flexifoil axis bar in the location of a center line leash attachment which will not depower the kite 100%, and a leash attachment on either side of the bar end which will flag the kite if leash is attached to it and the safety popped. Flexi has it on one end, best on both ends. The best manual is really specific not to attach your leash to the metal ring but the webbing strap attached to it. I assume they dont want someone to attach their leash to the fixed ring by accident, rendering the safety system useless? Thats how flexi recommends attaching the leash(to the left side flying line) to accomplish 100% depower. Its a pain if you spin the bar around alot as the leash gets all tangled, but much safer in terms of total depower.

Even though every situation might require that you improvise a little, having a basic recipe and understanding of s/r to start with is a good idea. Without a basic understanding it's not a good idea to attempt to just figure it out on the fly.
I am confident that many riders are very lacking in what they know in terms of self rescue, including me.
Jim is a smart guy, but this stuff needs to be taught to be learned.
I think Jim's idea of having a few people have a self rescue orientation is a good idea. It won't be free and shouldn't be. Maybe Steve S. or someone else with such training could set this up at a reasonable fee,kind of on the fly out a EB one day, near the end of a day after we have our fill of riding (?).