Yesterday I was seriously humbled. It was blowing steadily and prognosis was solid wind. Pumped up the 9m and went out first. There was 3-4 guys getting ready to go out too. It was a bright sunny day.
Immediately i noticed wind had died off and after only one run out and in, i decided to go out once and come back in....on the turn back in towards the shore the wind completely died and i dropped the kite in the water. I think i was 500-700m (?) out in the sound. A current running with the wind side on about 10 degrees.
I started swimming with the kite floating, hoping wind would pick up. After 10 minutes i tried sitting on my board, but it would not float me. So i wound up lines on bar, poorly, and reached the kite.
Now I´m swimming with kite under one arm, my board under the other. Water is 3-4C, air is 10c . I have a lot of rubber on and im not cold- so i´m not too worried.
There are 3 kiters out, one drops kite. One looks like it is trying to get out to me.
I´m not making much progress after about 20 min and i notice that ive tangled the lines in my legs- I have 3-4 wraps around one ankle and other is free- I keep swimming. Then i get lines around other leg. Now i´m not paniking, but i´m a bit worried.
I try to get the lines off my ankles- its not going to happen. ( i had actually bought a kite knife 2 weeks ago, but took it off át this session because it was so poorly attached to its pocket i kept falling out. - so no kite knife).
During the attempt to de-tangle the lines from my ankles my board drifts off. OK- bye bye. Concentrate on keeping the kite.
I keep swimming- my legs are still not too tangled- worse case i will drift in, but it will take a long time because wind is light and only slightly side on. I swim and rest , swim and rest...
Now i´m starting to get really tired after 30-40 min- I´m still way out: but kiter with foil gets out to me and by laying on his board and swimming and flying kite ( just barely) he starts dragging me to shore. He inadvertently releases his CL and has to leave to fix it- almost drops his kite too. He recovers it and continues to swim and drag me in.
After total of about an hour we reach the shore. I can barely stand up I´m so tired in my legs.
That kiter has major karma points for probably saving my life or at least a bigger rescue event happening. I thanked him profusely.
I´ve thought a lot about what i could had done better. Should have been more careful rolling up the lines. Need to get that line knife set up on my upper arm ready to go.
I´m probably going to buy one of those rescue radio devices.
I´m an older guy- 58 yrs- but in pretty good shape- i ride my bike and go to the gym in the winter. Got to keep that up even more.
I´m going to stay even closer to shore, even though i am pretty careful about not being too far off- especially in sideshore.
My board drifted off and frankly at that point i was OK losing it forever if it meant i would make it back. Finally back and changed i was pretty sad I may have lost my foil and board. Had to take a look for it, so I borrowed a binoculars and with some tips i headed 5km km up the coast to the last point before the north sea, in my car and worked my way back, looking for the board. Eventually found it only 1km upwind sitting 75m off shore on a sandbank in 1m of water.
Ive been kiting since 2002 and this was first time i had this kind of situation. I´m happy i was not alone and that i worked out in the end.
I think i escaped with a big lesson.