During yesterday's testing conditions a windsurfer broke his universal joint (the bit that joins the rig to the board).

His board disappeared into the distance and he was left floating with his rig 600m from shore.

The board floated downwind where it was intercepted by a few kiters and safely transported to the beach.

A kiter seeing the problem headed upwind (In 25 knots +) and meet up with the sailor who was still floating with his rig. The kiter then assisted him towards the groyne.

The sailor eventually made it back to the groyne under his own steam.

These kiters were willing to go out of their way to assist another water user in difficulty.

Good on you guys.

(No it wasn’t me, I was cowering in the car park after having my Bu** served up to me by the conditions)

I dragged a poley in a cupla years back .he was an older guy and was done in.No one else noticed him and the lifeguards had gone for the day .He was a fair way from the action

there was a positive shift in attitude to teabags by most of the poleys at the time which continues

whippingboy said...

During yesterday's testing conditions a windsurfer broke his universal joint (the bit that joins the rig to the board).

His board disappeared into the distance and he was left floating with his rig 600m from shore.

The board floated downwind where it was intercepted by a few kiters and safely transported to the beach.

A kiter seeing the problem headed upwind (In 25 knots +) and meet up with the sailor who was still floating with his rig. The kiter then assisted him towards the groyne.

The sailor eventually made it back to the groyne under his own steam.

These kiters were willing to go out of their way to assist another water user in difficulty.

Good on you guys.

(No it wasn’t me, I was cowering in the car park after having my Bu** served up to me by the conditions)

yeh that me and another guy with dreadlocks on the yellow warroo.. sorry i cant remember your name bro. We were the only 2 kites out at the time i think and damo jsut shouted at me there was someone out on the water, i was getting pretty worried to tell you the truth we found his board about close to a km away from him .. and i just couldnt find him. but then luckily i saw his head bobbing out of the water. tried to get him in back to the beach but it was a very slow proccess as he was dragging his rig along with him.. eventually his arms gave way when we got close to the groin so he just swam the rest in. Glad he was ok.

big up to the guy with the dreddies on the yellow waroo. . how you rode the windsuring board in and held onto your board in 30+ gusts, i have no idea.

great day went out rediciously over powerd on my 9 waroo.. I dont know how some of you guys like simon nick and damo where getting those wikid airs .. i just couldnt edge hard enough. and afer 6 hours of riding couldnt edge at all great to get some wind hey

What i don't understand is why you would ditch the board and hang onto your rig? Is it because the rig is worth more? Surely in this situation a board would be more benificial as it offers more of a floatation device and would be a lot easier to paddle in with.

Usually if a uni is going to separate it is when it is under stress like starting a chop hop, or in a crash. When it separates, 90% of the time your feet come out of the straps due to the unexpected separation, and in the one sec you are underwater the board blows away far enough that you will never catch it. In anything over 20kn a windsurf board blows away reeaally quickly. The rig offers some flotation (sort of) for a while but you'll never drag it in

Paece, love and happiness man.
Love one another like ya love ya bruddah.
Hip Hip Hooray for kiter windsurfer relations.

Hope everyone is feeling as warm and fuzzy as me.

Check it.

Strongbow said...

I had a look at the board after it had been recovered and yep the liddle wopey thing had snapped as well as the uj.
Also a nice crack in the bottom of the board ??? and the owner had a pretty good limp happening as well.
O yeh. good on you Benny, thats two weeks in a row on rescue duty, you will have to start wearing speedo's over your wetty and a red and yellow scull cap soon
For those interested see www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=38514

On the other forum......

2 down, 50 to go until you are a real man.

Good work guys.
Although we stir each other up on here, I've never met anyone who has been agro to another person from the different sport, in person. We are all there for the fun, and most of us have been in trouble/needed a hand at some stage. And its great to have people putting themselves in danger to help a fellow winduser out.
Most of us would probably do it without thinking. I hope?