It was me
having an awesome down winder.
Haha we never saw a helicopter I contacted police once I saw it on social media. Here's what I put up on bris sup page
Important safety notice: long story worth reading.
Today while down winding with Pete from Shorncliffe up to Scarborough a witness along Margate beach on the Redcliffe Peninsula contacted the Police around 11:00am to alert them of two paddlers 2km off shore struggling in distress heading further out to sea that needed help.
They gave a decent description of us: one on a dark board with bright hat and white shirt ( red board, Fluro green hat, and yellow shirt) and blue board with red shirt, ( blue board and orange vaikobi pfd)
On that: if we were 2km off shore police told me in those seas they wouldn't of even seen us at all unless up high. We would of been 500/600m realistically from shore as we were close to the Channel markers and making our line in towards queens beach.
We were never in distress, they may of seen Pete fall and may of seen us sitting on our boards waiting for each other and having a chat or a drink other than that we were having a ball out there riding the bumps.
Water police activated a search straight away after contacting the Sandgate VMR who advised them they witnessed two paddlers leaving the creek and heading into the ocean around 9am.
They sent two boats and a helicopter to start a search. We must of been out of the water and in the car before any boats or helicopter were in the area.
We were none the wiser until back at our cars and on our way home my wife tagged me on social media an article saying two paddler boarders are missing off Redcliffe.
I contacted local police straight away to give our details as I was confident it was us someone had saw. No inexperienced person would be out in today's seas.
Brisbane water Police contacted me back very quickly and called off the search when my description was pretty close to what was reported.
I had a very in depth talk to Brisbane water police who were fantastic about the whole
Situation. They get calls like this daily from witnesses on shore seeing boats, skis, canoes, surf skis, Sups etc out to sea in trouble that 99% of the time are never in trouble at all
But they must act on every single case.
The Sargent thought we are crazy for wanting to paddle such distance in such windy large swell seas but was confident we would only be out there if we were confident in our ability.
I felt pretty bad that they have had to use resources tied up looking for us when they could of been needed in a real search and rescue else where and the costs of that being out there for an hour searching for us when we were already back on land. But we can't control
The public on what they think they see if not aware down winding SUPs is a thing.
His advice to me and he asked if I could spread the message to like minded SUP people was this:
If planning a paddle that takes you more than 1km off shore on days like today (20kn+ winds) or any decent water crossing. To contact local VMR or Coast Guard and give them some details. That way when witnesses on shore make a police call, Police will put out on coms if any local rescue centres have any details of paddlers in the area so police can either head to our planned finish point to make sure that it is you that was witnessed or start a search with better information as we are all specs in a very big ocean.
Info they would want:
Number of people paddling.
Names and sex of people.
Start and planned finish points.
Approx max time for planned paddle.
Mobile numbers minimum of two numbers in a group.
It is essential just like boaties to call back up when finished to advise off the water.
Possibly ask them to contact you in case you forgot.
Lastly he asked if ever comes a time you are in distress, use a mobile phone if possible to contact police or if possible and within seeing distance of shore wave paddle high above head even better if a bright coloured clothing item is attached to top of paddle when waving it. He suggested a boating Epirb or a flare is also a very very helpful tool if ever requiring a water rescue and very well could be the thing that saves your life.
Other than that the police said get out there and enjoy what we love doing.
If you made it to the end of this, I hope it has made you stop and think about what safety measures you put in place before going paddling and while paddling and maybe to improve those measures as there is no second chance while out on that ocean as we are all very very aware.
I personally know I'm pretty relaxed with thinking "I'll be right I'm confident in the ocean" but today was a wake up call even though today we did nothing wrong and we're having a ball out there that things could go wrong very quickly.
