Hey All,

Just thought I'd thrown this out there...

Saw 3 guys get very very stranded quite a ways out yesterday... wind dropped badly, dark only an hour off, they werent even going anywhere with a self rescue due to the tide and low wind....Fortunately a local was kind enough to get his boat and save them, but... what if he wasnt around?

Anyone got any ideas on if we should be looking to find a waterproof walkie talkie type thing (kite with a buddy and keep in contact), or even a waterproof flare for a real 'help, i'm stranded'?

Keen on the concept to 'stay as close to the shore as you're happy to swim', but with so many kiters these days, it's getting tougher and tougher, I'd like to find other options.


DZ

uniden and garmin have VOX (voice activated) 100% waterproof handsfree radios. You can communicate with each other whilst kiting without having to press any buttons to transmit. They'd pretty handy espeacially if you want training/coaching lessons

An incident like this happened night before last at Dolls, the guys were lucky I was still there, and that there was someone with a vehicle that could tow my boat (Thanks Charl!I usually walk home).

Aquapacs are a great device, if they had one they could have called ahead and ordered beer from the local bottle shop. The thing about Dolls is everyone thinks they are not far from shore, but the tide was ripping out that night, and despite a NE blowing them towards shore they actually went further out in to the bay and were in for a long night.

Not sure why the first guy went down, but I tried to drag him in with my kite and abandoned that idea when the wind dropped so much I thought I would drop my kite as well. I tried to drag his kite in but with the dropping wind, and the kite and lines being in a real mess, I chose not to pursue that idea either. I told him about self rescue while all this was going on. Then the wind dropped more and I could only just get back to shore myself.

Then another person with a bigger kite went to help and dropped their kite too. The first guy had managed to keep his board with him and had even managed to get the second guys board and hang on to it, which was a good effort.

Neither person knew how to self rescue, although one eventually worked it out from what I said to him in the water, but he still was going out to sea due to the tide.
Both were in no danger of drowning due to the use of inflatable kites, when I got to them in the boat just before dark they were both lying on their kites trying not to hear the music!!

In a dying wind, and thermal winds like our NE'sters often drop in the evening, don't go far from shore, better still don't go out.

Make sure you know how to self rescue and consider carring a mobile phone in an Aquapac (Kitepower sell them too).

Cya and

Goodwinds

Steve McCormack

someone once told me: "don't kite any further offshoer than you are prepared to swim back in..."