Pop Quiz Hot Shot..... You're on the bar carving it up.... tides coming in and providing you with a mountain of bread and butter The wind turns to the south and kite drops consistently from the sky like a bag full of hammers. You're 500m from shore and dusk is looming over like an anticipated delivery of bad news. What do you do? What DO you do??
Stand on the bank and wave one of the million jet ski's or boats down. Dont let the air out of your kite untill you have a lift. Plan b go for it youll probably make it half way or so then just swim the rest.
Let's up the ante a little and add in the fact that the kiter in the above mentioned situation had a dark kite and dark wetty top so night vision goggles were required to track him as the now, slightly westerly breeze, pushed him towards the camp site of the local pelican family. Wind at this time was no more than fart strength. To round out the story, the game plan of 'swim like f*&$' was employed as none of the 2m stingrays offered to give him a ride back in. Special mention to "SUP-Man" (pretty sure he had a cape on) who provided some assistance late in the piece.
In a completely unrelated topic, I noticed a fellow kiter has recently set up a company flogging locator beacons and flare guns
Remember the old saying about using your superior judgement to avoid situations which will require the use of your superior skill? Kiting a bar on the outgoing tide with failing light and no backup plan seems pretty dumb (unless you like sharky swims in the dark) Glad it worked out ok. cheers
When a 20kn N/E turned into a 8kn N with in 5 min.
Looped it like a mother f***** just keep it in the air until eventually fell in the drink. Get to kite one hand holding kite other hand swiming. Pick the slopest/softest looking rock and aim for that.
Some good advice has been given but really it's more a matter of preventing such problems, which are becoming more and more frequent...
As I mentioned a few times before, I you're gonna kite that late in the day with questionable winds/weather/forecast do yourself and all potential rescue parties a big favor and stay much closer to the shore than you normally would, say within 200m. This way, whatever happens it's a relatively easy and quick swim for most people to do even with gear, unless of course the wind is getting strong and off-shore.
