It was a 9m kite in 25. Imo, once the winds hit 20, especially 25 or more is when the wind really gets powerful and this stuff is no joke (as you already know, Rick). If you haven't seen Danny get yanked out of the water in 35, check this out after he lands. He gets totally airborne twice after his botched landing. His kite isn't even doing "all that much" after he lands, definitely not looping. He is big guy and still gets pulled out of the water and goes for a ride (twice.. second one got cutoff mid flight).
If his kite looped 5 times in that... yikes...no way...... did you see how far the first one took him!?? LOL He would have covered a couple hundred yards and been going mach 2 in a death looping kite scenario http://gallery.mac.com/scottfears#100049

In terms of "practicing". It makes it hard to grab anything when your arms are getting pinned back and stuff by the pressure of the water, so it's hard to mimic the situation to truly practice it. Using Danny's clip, how to you "practice" getting yarded like that?
But, I would have to say that the faster you start trying to get your QR or unhook or whatever, the better off you are. Hesitation just steals time.
Danny did activate his QR immediately after that last teabag.

It's my opinion that some QRs should be called "good luck finding and activating me in an emergency at all Releases" let alone called "Quick".
Some are definitely more challenging than others and not as quick. Given the nature of the situation, the QR should be as easy to get to and activate as possible, imo. The situation makes things hard enough.

Imo, the ones that consist of a loop and on one side are some of the worse options. Especially if the loop is not rigid. A good example of a non-rigid loop is the Best QR. It's a bad design, imo. One step up is a very rigid loop, like Ozone, but it's still a loop on one side.
Possibly the worse I have seen, imo, is what Slingshot had a couple years ago (maybe still do) with the little red knob on one side. Finding and grabbing that while getting rag dolled isn't easy, especially if you are wearing gloves. I suspect a SS guy is going to hop on and tell me otherwise... but after not being able to grab and activate mine once, my opinion is formed.

Still my opinion, and I can state one, is that the Cabrinha/Ironheart/similar omnidirectional grab-push approach is the best. You can feel where QR is the easiest (without having to see it) and activated it easiest, imo. I was under the impression that Best was going to switch to that type this season, and they did not. I was disappointed.

I remember when I was getting dragged at EB on that day, having to visually spot my QR loop and put my finger in it. Sounds easy enough... not. Each time I was about to put my finger in it, I would get tumbled and my hand pushed back a little. Let's just say I was grateful when I finally (on the third try I think) did get my finger in it, and pulled. I don't think I had but a couple seconds until I was gonna get dragged onshore into vehicles at a decent clip. I am confident an omnidirectional push release would have been much less challenging to activate.