First of all if you ever hear me say the word - Reserve! Then throw your reserve. You might be thinking that you almost got it sorted, but you might be under certain height and it is no longer safe to try and fix the wing.
If I don’t say reserve and you think you should throw it, then by all means go for reserve, remember you are always the pilot in command. You might be twisted, that I might not have seen or you might be dizzy or disorientated or about to pass out.
Don’t wait for me to say the word reserve you can throw it if you ever feel the need to do so.
How do you throw your reserve?
Look, Locate - Pull and throw in one motion above the horizon. As hard and fast as possible.
Once you’ve let go of the bag - watch it leave. That way you’ll see if your bag gets stuck or if it goes into your wing or lines. It is very important that you keep looking at the reserve and make sure it opens, if it gets stuck you’ll have to pull on the reserve bridles or lines with a nice hard tugs to help it inflate.
Once the reserve is inflated you’ll be able to see it, or if not, you’ll feel it.
Don’t think too much about where you throw it, just throw it towards the horizon and then deal with it. If you do have a good situational awareness, try to throw it towards the trailing edge of the wing, it will give more time for the reserve to open. Instead of throwing it towards the leading edge, as then the wing will catch the reserve sooner and has higher likelihood of tangling the reserve
After your reserve is inflated, take some energy out of your wing, make sure you pull C lines or B lines to deflate your wing. And make sure you grab the lines not the risers, as far from your body as possible, this will give you more authority on deflating your wing. You can also use your breaks as well, in this case you’ll have to keep wrapping the brake lines around your hands as much as needed to stall the wing.
If you have a round or square reserve keep most of the wing open, as long as it has not much energy in it, it will create extra drag and help with the descent rate. If you have steerable reserve you’ll need to collect your paraglider before you start using the controls of your wing. If possible try to turn into the wind before going into the water, this will help with your ground speed.
Remember - once under fully open reserve, keep working on deflating your main wing. Once the wing and reserve are open they will fight each other, sometimes the reserve will have more load, sometimes the wing. The goal is to wait for the reserve to take the load, then pull in your main wing as much as possible, once the wing regains load, hold it. Till reserve gains load again, and then pull in some more of your wing and hold. Repeat the process, till your wing is neutralized.
It’s a lot easier physically to pull in your main wing, while your reserve has the load.