Saved a guy 1km out to sea yesterday.

[plummet]

A dude did a jump swung under the kite and then crashed his flysurfer pulse about 1km out to sea. for some reason he couldn't relaunch it. it then filled up with water ( he said something about the zip coming undone). so floating matrice became sea anchor. No self rescue for this bloke.

Wind was cross cross on There was about an hour of light left and the sea beaze wasn't going to last much longer (it was only 13-15 knots by this stage). So i body dragged him back in. it took about 20 miniutes One of the other locals hauled our boards back.

Whats the morrel of the story? don't do jumps 1km out to sea unless your 100% sure your not going to stuff it up!

[SoutherlyBuster]

Yikes, did he get his FlySurfer Pulse back as well?

Reminds me of the long trip I did out from Altona to Point Cook and back. No jumping or funny stuff on that trip, did not want to stuff up and have a long walk back or an extended wade. Also kept close to shore most of the way.

1km out, that is a long way out, a long way to swim if no one else was there to help. Good on you Plummet for helping out.

Zip coming undone? Perhaps a case of zip not done up in the first place? Funny of all the times my Peter Lynn Arcs or my FS Speed went for a swim, their zippers never came undone. The Arcs have taken on water at times = game over, but so far the Speed has be perfect for water restarts, even when it bow tied, I could unbow tie it without wading to the kite and relaunch.

[plummet]

I don't know if the zip came undone or if he opened it to let air out? either way it filled up. I body dragged him and his kite back.

wind was cross, cross, on. so it only takes a 2min take at 30kph to be 1km out to sea. The wind was light sub 15knots so a long tack out and back was required to get back upwind.

Its not uncommon locally for guys to tack that far out. However you should be experienced to do so and very carefull. There was about 10 or so kiters on the water so plenty of people to help.

hehe its certainly a long way to body drag back and even harder if you had to swim. With an outgoing tide and sunset immanent it would have been touch and go for the guy if no one had helped.

[Jev]

Good effort plummet! Hope you got a case of brew for that.

Lesson to take away: "never fly further out than you want or can swim back" and I guess this should be rule No.1.

Things can and do go wrong, being 1k out without a floating device can get tricky if the sh!t hits the fan. I’m sure next time he won’t be jumping that far out.

[JKS]

Nice work Plummet .... hell of a way to make a new friend.

Jev ... couldn't agree with you more. The bloke who taught me to kitesurf drilled into my head the 'never' rule. Even when your in close to shore you can quickly run into the 'reality' of your actions should your kite die on you. Rips, reefs, rockwalls, wharfs, currents, waves, deep water ...... they all seem very different when you suddenly lose your motor

[riotflyer]

Good on ya Plummet nice work!

[fsamir]

I have seen three other riders having to be rescued in the last 8 months, but with inflatable kites, which don't sink like foil kites.

On the other hand, I haven't seen this happening more than 5 times in the last 6 years in my previous local spot, in Brazil.

This huge difference in the number of rescues caught my attention and I believe it happens for three reasons:

1. Kite riders go far from the coast looking for the reef break.

2. Nobody uses life vests.

3. It seemed that the rescuees didn't know how to use the kite as boat to do the self-rescue.

My pieces of advice are:

1. Don't go far without a life vest, appropriated wetsuit (it might get cold if you spend 2hs floating and waiting for rescue)

and if your swimming ability is not enough ot bring you back.

2. When learning ask your instructor to teach you rescue techiniques. If it is too late, review the Progress Begineers DVD and practice it at least once in lifetime.

3. If you are introducing someone to kiteboarding, teach them self-rescue first and/or warn them to ask for this instructions for their instructors.

4. If you know you are going to run any risks, ask another rider to keep an eye on you.

Cheers,

Franklin Dattein

[SoutherlyBuster]

Perhaps if you are going to go far out, then a self rescue pack would be a good idea. I have not used one, nor have I seen one but one of the local kiters at my spot talked about them. It's a little backpack with (from memory) mobile phone, pair of flippers, can't remember the rest of the stuff.

Personally I always use a PDF.

[JKS]

Personally I always use a PDF.

I assume you mean PFD

[danyool]

I was practicing body draging at Long Reef, in what i thought was a cross on-shore, but after downing my kite and not being able to relaunch, it became apparent that it was a cross off-shore, because the beach was getting further and further away! I was trying to wind my lines onto the bar to make my way to the kite, but was making very little progress. I' probably only managed to get 1/3 of the way up the lines, but was getting pretty close to Dee Why, albiet a good few hundred metres from shore. I was thinking it was nearly time to drop my lines and swim to shore (and hope to collect my kite over by the pool!) when some nice fellas on surf ski's rescued me. Man - it was still a long swim in, even with their help.

[plummet]

if time is not on your side you can "once the kite is flagged out. walk your way up on line without winding the line on the bar. leave the line /bar floating behind you. I'd say this is a last resort as the chance of your lineswrapping around you or the bar gettig stuck on something and powering up the kite is greatly increased.

you could ponentially still make it back to shore in a cross off wind. when you get the kite in self rescue mode and aim to shore you can go about 45deg down wind. that may be enough to get you back to land.

[SoutherlyBuster]

I was trying to wind my lines onto the bar to make my way to the kite, but was making very little progress.

So what problem did you experience in trying to wind up the lines? Kite powering up too much, ie too much line tension, getting hammered by waves, lines wrapping around body parts?