From Herald Sun
FOUR kite surfers were lucky to survive after their jet ski broke down in Port Phillip Bay.

The men were kite surfing about 7.5km from Sorrento when the jet ski they were relying on to tow them to shore faltered on Saturday.

The alarm was raised when one of the men phoned for help.

Water police and the Southern Peninsula Rescue and Coastguard pulled the four from the water after dark.

The first man, stranded on the jet ski, was rescued at about 10pm.

Police on jet skis eventually reached the other kite surfers, who were stuck on Mud Island, at about 1am.

"The conditions that night were horrendous," Leading Senior Constable Jay McDonald.

"It was dark and stormy with squalls of up to 40 knots and rain.

"The jet skier was adrift in the middle of a busy shipping channel and if he hadn't had his iPhone on him he would not have been able to raise the alarm."

What really went on out there?

Guys, if you're gonna kite on in the one place you're not allowed to and that the tree huggers are going to have a field day with, at least make sure your jet ski doesn't break down. What do you think is going to happen when these guys (http://home.vicnet.net.au/~fomi/) get hold of them and how much bad publicity is kitesurfing going to get as a result.

The Jet Ski was used to ferry the kiters out to Mud Island, which is in the middle of the bay and is supposedly a great flat water spot. The winds that night were WSW which would have meant that the kiters would have needed to kite up wind to get back to land, no easy feat

In 40kts I can go upwind real easy!

what was forecast wind wise and what gear did they have?

A kiter unskilled enough to get upwind in 40kn isn't experienced enough to be attempting a spot like this.

+1 on this one

a couple of hours on an island in port phillip bay, What the?
its a wonder they didn't start eating each other being away
from civilisation for so long,hope they weren't starting to be
attracted to each other ,you know everyone has needs

^^^ what do you mean dude, ive seen you go heaps fast downwind on your stopmach in 40 kts

why didn,t they kite back before dark? more to this story than is being told. good thing the jet ski had a phone . Why would you need to tow kite surfers.?

I was the guy on the jet ski.

I'll never go out there again. The currents are too strong and the island is hard to access on a boat- perfect for a jet ski but the waves come up too much when the wind hits 25kts in the channel.

We had a boat going out to pick the guys up at 7pm but the driver panicked saying it's too shallow so we had to come back and use the jet ski. By then it was 8pm...almost dark.

It's scary when the tide is running out to Bass Strait, plus whats more the cops are telling me it's a shark breeding ground...nice.

I'll stay in St Kilda on the next southerly.

Good job, lucky to be alive.

Good to see you guys are safe Selwyn, That has definitely quelled any planned trips that I may have had to visit that place, I will stick to carpark 14.

selwyn said...

I'll never go out there again. The currents are too strong and the island is hard to access on a boat- perfect for a jet ski but the waves come up too much when the wind hits 25kts in the channel.

We had a boat going out to pick the guys up at 7pm but the driver panicked saying it's too shallow so we had to come back and use the jet ski. By then it was 8pm...almost dark.

It's scary when the tide is running out to Bass Strait, plus whats more the cops are telling me it's a shark breeding ground...nice.

I'll stay in St Kilda on the next southerly.

Sounds like it has all the ingredients for a great "secret spot"

Good to hear everyone got back ok.

PS: By secret spot I mean somewhere that is epic once every 3 years, and otherwise something about the conditions makes it a complete waste of effort.

Although the jetski still needed to be rescued, Unless I am missing something, if they were all experienced and it was in the middle of the bay and there was heaps of wind and it was SW, I guess they could have just kited to the other side of the bay in less than 1hr? looks to be 20 or 30 km?

Land the kites and phone a friend

Probly would have been on terra firma before dark and home earlier than waiting for rescue

GalahOnTheBay said...
Sounds like it has all the ingredients for a great "secret spot"

Good to hear everyone got back ok.

PS: By secret spot I mean somewhere that is epic once every 3 years, and otherwise something about the conditions makes it a complete waste of effort.

It's also a relatively secret spot to a bunch of species other than homo sapiens and the more secret it stays on that front the better. Sure there's some adventure appeal but really we've got plenty of other good kiting spots that aren't habitat to a bunch of critters who I'm sure would be a bit freaked out by invasions of giant dacron birds.

After reading all as it unfolds, and not familiar with the spot itself, it sounds to me as follows:
4 kiddies let go of daddy's hand, and went for an adventure without much consideration... and cried for daddy, when it all gone a bit shaky...
Long gone the time when men took the consequences of their actions, and later sat around a (symbolical) fire and laughed and laughed remembering how they got out of the sh!t they created for themselves on the way of growing up....

Kiters a real smart will become a hero for being soooooooooooooooo stupid

hitch_hiker said...

windsufering said...

Kiters a real smart will become a hero for being soooooooooooooooo stupid

Hey? A bit early to be drunk!

Its never too early in WA !!