Cascade of Poor Decisions

I've been in this sport for a few years now, and I have thrown my rescue 3 times out of necessity, over water each time. My harness has 2 reserves because of what I know. I have been training mostly acro and I wouldn't say I am good by any means. I am still learning the basic manuevers. I'm pretty comfortable with dynamic and positive manuevers (wing overs, SAT, Asymmetric SAT and side tumbles). Again not good but comfortable.
After A LOT of stalls and A LOT of parachutals I have been working on Helicos. It's tricky. Just when I think I have it, I don't have it. So what do you do? Practice! And then practice more. So I reserved 2.5 months to practice every day, over a lake.

The lake has a boat for retrieve in case of danger. So I am not just cowboying this. The new thing at this site for me is thermaling my E-gravity. Most of my acro training has been tow winch based or soaring. So I am used to starting really high (3000m or more) by just following a boat.
While soaring at Mussel Rock, it needs strong wind to gain height. So my thermaling efforts were not great and also tiring.

Now sadly this is where my lessons come in. Like I said my past training had started high. At this new site, I have been coming in at roughly 300m +/-50m. This is low. And the helicopter is a maneuver I know to be very tricky because it is so precise and can result in twists.

I have been at the site for 10 days in a row. Sometimes doing 3 runs a day (each flight is ~15 minutes but my actual program has been averaging less than 45 seconds). Basically it's low and each flight I can get about 2-3 stalls in. As for attempts at the heli, each flight I get 1 maybe 2 if I fall out of parachutal. I don't yet feel comfortable with the fast exit of helico so I resort to progressive slowing to backfly. I have gotten a few twists that I have gotten out of. In such situations, I have just chilled out and let it backfly and unwind. It's low, I know this and luckily I have arrived at the LZ with just enough to avoid landing in the lake. But after 10 days I'm pretty frustrated. I think I have had only 4 heli entries that I would call a true heli and not some chaotic wobbly spin. And of those 4, I would say 1 has been really stable.

So I take a break for a day. I rest. I clear my mind, and when I return I wait till midday to get the best thermal climb I can. However it didn't work out that way. All my altitude was burned off by a headwind and all the small weak thermals found on glide to the lake, I didn't turn in for fear of losing more than I gained.

I arrive low. Not the lowest I have arrived this trip but low. So I push to make the most of it. I setup for my box. Then I enter my parachutal. The entry is quick and really as soon as I see it, I tried to enter the heli. But I remember I am low and I try to stop the rotation quickly. Now the quick exit exists for this reason. The slow exit, which I use, can't really be rushed, and I over pilot it. Instead of slowing the spin down, I go pretty deep and jerky with inside brake as well as counter with the outside. This quickly causes the wing to stop spinning but it wasn't gradual and my body continues to rotate. I end up with a twist while entering and exiting backfly. So the wing doesn't surge but at this point my mind is not keeping up with the situation. I am panicking

The risers twist, and I'm hoping the wing doesn't surge. In trying to prepare for surge I try to grab for the lines above the twist. The wing spins more and my body is not stable. I miss both lines and only snag one. Now this causes more spin and the wing to dive to one side. My unstable body doesn't help the situation either. I am twisting more and the wing is entering a spiral. I keep trying to grab the lines above the risers and each attempt appears as more favorable than the last attempt. The wing lurks up and then because I lunge my body and lose my lines, it swings right back down. I lose track of the rotations and then I remembered I'm low!

I reach for my rescue, well below 500ft (my guess is ~ 50ft)! At the same time I grab the top most C riser and roll my entire body away from it in an attempt to break the spiral. Both hands make contact with their targets. The tip of the wing pulls up, and the then splash splash! The other wing tip hits the water and rips the other wing's lines out of my hands. The other hand STILL has the rescue in it and I don't remember much after that.

I hit the lake from a spiral dive I pulled out of at the last second and the next memory I have is a man pulling me into a boat. I am panting and smiling. Apparently I was in the water head down for more than 3 minutes. I don't remember much after impact, probably unconscious!
Luck saved me, but luck sucks.

WRONGS:
* Starting too low: Just come back high
* Focusing on being low, rather than flight
* Panic. smh.
* Fixated on solving the twist, not flight
* FAILURE to THROW RESCUE. It's an exit maneuver!
* No life jacket, could have been fatal