That's probably why i missed him, i was checking the beach looking ocean side and Matt was cuddled up in his kite inland. Never thought of that, expecting the worse i think.

Am so happy for Matt, his family and friends.

Question: was this fella doing this downwinder by himself ??

and

how does one "miss" coronations ?

eppo said..
how does one "miss" coronations ?

I did the downwinder half an hour later. The swell was sizey and no one was at spot X (closing out) and was pretty much breaking the whole way, so my group totally thought Coros was Spot X until we saw the little buildings.

Too early? Fact is he is okay, and thank Fck for that.

So you could miss coros if you don't know the area...

was he doing the downwinder on his own in a raging swell in a place he doesn't know ?

quikdrawMcgraw said..
Was the kite very comfortable to sleep in?

North kites are well known to be the most comfortable kites to sleep in.

special area












































5km further to go from Spot x 0akagee bay to Coronation and Coronation to Bowes river has to be the same from Drummonds to Coronation .

With this in mind and assuming you lost your kite with in the coronation area say with in 1km before or after HOW LONG WHERE YOU IN THE WATER ? WHAT TIME DID YOU MAKE LAND FALL? . I came in approx 20 mins 30mins after the sun had set and was doing 2km 3km out to sea runs past the third reef and into the blue only turning to come in on the back of Rhino or long dragon tail that stretched from Drumonds to Bows. I was prtty wild strong high tide 3to 4 m swell and 25to35. I knmow breaking something that far out your in strife, with out a board and this is what gives me some grace , if i snap a mast and ditch the rig ive got a 7,10 board and 86 liters to work with , loose that and your Boogamumage.

Gotta ask the question ,,,,, Did you see me or any windsurfers i late ?....... before, during or after sunset .

Looking forward to your survival story that's fair way north where you ended up fk that

All those risks...what a fuqn legend

I bet you he found some cracking waves along the way, that he won't share the whereabouts with to the haters.

eppo said..
Question: was this fella doing this downwinder by himself ??

and

how does one "miss" coronations ?

Pretty sure was part of a crew hence a mate alerted police/ rescue,
Last years Midwest windfest
100 kiters did the big downwinder
one missed the finish at coros and we sent the safety quad to look for him, bernard said he was 9/10klm north of coros when he came across him
I kited over 90 klms on that gig with tacks as safety kiter
following up the rear, not a soul on the whole trip along ,
unhabited coastline, then bang your at coros, kites n sails everywhere after 30 odd klms , got me flucked how anyone can miss it,
but as saying goes there's always one,
but in conditions like that afternoon it'd be completely understandable if matey was out back of say windmills area, some nice big ones there, then got rolled, he'd be a good 10 plus klms before he got in, in crossoff even further, and did well if he did a self rescue or packdown in those conditions, a good reminder though as
never lock my struts off unless in these conditions
and you might need as much floatation aid as you can get

Actually may have been on ch 7 news perth last nite,just google vid.

That 9 News report said clearly he was doing that downwinder solo. If true, that is a pretty remote downwinder to attempt alone, especially in those conditions...

cauncy said..
following up the rear,

Normally that's what plummet likes to do!

quikdrawMcgraw said..
All those risks...what a fuqn legend

Agreed. ??

that is until all downwinder crew will need to purchase and wear more safety gear than a doomesday prepper ....

nah I don't buy the "last one in the lineup", nor it would it be easy to get out of sight in a big swell. You must always have everyone you are with in sight and to always be making sure everyone around you is good. That's just common sense.

But hey need the facts first I suppose.

I used to organise some downwinders in the relative safety of port Phillip bay. One thing I did was buddy everyone up, so if there were 14 of us, that's 7 pairs, looking at each other and staying fairly close to each other. I cracked the ****s at people when they didn't know where their buddy was lol.

glad this guy made it back ok, cool story to tell, but a bit silly, if he had a buddy the self rescue would have been a cinch and he wouldn't end up 10 km past his destination

He's clearly not the sharpest tool in the box... When he made it to land, the best thing would have been , to walk south down the beach until he found an area that actually had people , Don't try and walk to the highway.
Never do a downwinder where you have never even seen the destination before.
Even my 17 year old son has done this stretch alone ... Its not that difficult REALLY!