I have found body dragging back to my board after a wipeout the hardest of the fundamental skills to master. I have been riding for 12 months and have been stoked with my progress except bloody body dragging myself back to my board! 
Does anyone have any handy advice?
Cheers.
Take longer tacks to get back, I.E, when you come off, head off in any direction but make sure you stick to that direction a little longer than you are. No matter how efficient you are, you always lose some ground when going from body dragging in one direction to the other. Fewer, but longer tacks work a treat.
Depower the kite a little (sheet out or even trim it a bit) so it sits a little further forward in the window, and helps you get upwind easier. You don't need all its power at this time, you just want enough pull to move you in the water, any extra grunt is just going to drag you downwind.
Keep as stiff as you can, and try not to stop and look around too much, the position is most like a one armed superman, rest your head on your shoulder and point your arm upwind, breath as if you are swimming freestyle and don't be afraid to let your head go underwater as the chop passes...
That`s pretty much it. Straighten your legs out and arm stretched out pointing a bit up wind and make sure the kite is low. Like Boxburg said, you don`t need a lot of power, take your time. When you want to switch direction don`t turn the kite too aggressively, it`ll pull you down wind.
Too easy
All sounds good so far.
My 2c worth (others may disagree)- with the kite a bit depowered, while still hooked in, try and hold the bar further down towards your legs.
I hope that makes sense. It's early, I need more coffee
From what I can gather there's more of your body area ahead of the bar and seems to be a bit more effective at getting you upwind.
Works for me anyway
Keep the kite fairly low, it makes it easier to keep your body in the water, which means you can act more efficiently as a 'keel'.
I was a sceptic at first, but if you are finding it hard to get back to your board and kite more in surf than flat, you should look at getting the 'Go Joe' thing. Saw one yesterday, and even though its as ugly as sin it works a treat. Keeps your board highly visible (excellent for when there's alot for chop) and whats even better is that it acts like a little sail and pushes your board downwind instead of just wallowing around in surf.
Im thinking of getting one for the surf cause i find it a complete pain in the a$$ sometimes to try and get back to the board.
The secret is to watch "jaws" the night before.
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then you will find that there is a whole new purpose in your body dragging and you tend to become much more effective.
In fact you will probably catch up to your board with the kite powered low and you won't even take the time to place your kite at 12 to get your feet back in the straps and get going
I too struggled with body dragging upwind for a long time.
What I finally realised was that I was too powered up, and that if I depowered to almost nothing I could zig zag upwind a whole lot more easily
Reminds me of kiting in North Queensland in stinger season - leading with the face, just waiting for that feeling of spider web like tenticles brushing against you followed almost instantaneously by excruciating pain, and maybe a little bit of death.
Luckyily it never happened when body dragging, but I do remember once walking through some tenticles exiting the water with kite in the air wearing a stinger suit (and with boardies over the top) still a few nematocysts fired causing a bit of a sting. I can't imagine what it would be like to cop a full blast from a Boxy with no protection.
Are you wearing a seat harness?
One tip I picked up here:
kiteboardingschool.com.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=27&Itemid=78
was to not bow backwards and i found that (and not having too much power in the kite) helped a fair bit.
The depower is the trick. It is easy to think more power is better, but when powered up the kite sits too far back in the window. Relax, ease off the bar put the kite a little higher.
you often don't actually need to go upwind, you just need to hold ground and your board should catch you.....if currents are involved things can get a whole lot more difficult though.
as everyone else has said
depower
kite high
long tacks ( i found this to be the most benificial action )
use your body ( I out stretch my leading arm like a rudder or keel )
I find the whole " GO JOE " thing a bit bizzare. Who wants that thing strapped to their board ? It's weird.
