Any kiters here saved the lives of swimmers?

[K-Roy]

I am working on a campaign at the moment that tells the story of kiteboarding in a positive light.
All to often are we cast as the outlaws on the beach, crashing kites and scaring beach-goers. Little is said about the lives that kiteboarders have saved over the years. We love when the wind picks up and these conditions can be dangerous for swimmers or paddlers and also hard for lifeguards to face.

Anyone in here with a short story about how they have saved or helped save lived while kiteboarding would really be appreciated!

Thanks!

I think its also worth mentioning, that attempting to rescue someone in a real drowning situation is or could be very dangerous.
Most people would try to help, without hesitation, regardless if they had been trained for it or not.
So its not only time and effort that the rescuer puts in, but potentially his or her life is on the line as well.

cheers

[alexeyga]

Both incidents happed on our local spots around Montreal, so:

1)Mid-summer, one of my buddies sees a girl trying to stay afloat in the middle of the river. Body-drags her safely to terra firma, called 911 and nobody was harmed - but here's the story - she was partying on a boat full of teens, lots of beer and god knows what else - anyhow - at some point she simply........... felt overboard without anyone taking a notice - has been drifting for at least an hour - hour and hal... soaked that she was.... before getting rescued by a rogue kiter who just happened to be passing by. Had no vest.

2)Mid-October, already riding in warm full-body suits, another spot with with a pretty busy marina upwind from us. At some point I cross with a small motorboat heading out, 2 people abord - father and a sun. Some moment later, further out in the river I see them both scooping out water from their now immobile boat, but no signs of distress or anything. Keeping an eye on them and another moment later I see the boat going under and these 2 clowns hanging on to their vests. I get them both on my safety leash and body-dragged all 3 of us back to shore. They were pretty cold and shaky by the time we've got there, but nobody got harmed and even the boat has popped belly up and got dragged back to the marina by other boaters.

[DWX]

I am working on a campaign at the moment that tells the story of kiteboarding in a positive light.
All to often are we cast as the outlaws on the beach, crashing kites and scaring beach-goers. Little is said about the lives that kiteboarders have saved over the years. We love when the wind picks up and these conditions can be dangerous for swimmers or paddlers and also hard for lifeguards to face.

Anyone in here with a short story about how they have saved or helped save lived while kiteboarding would really be appreciated!

Thanks!

I think its also worth mentioning, that attempting to rescue someone in a real drowning situation is or could be very dangerous.
Most people would try to help, without hesitation, regardless if they had been trained for it or not.
So its not only time and effort that the rescuer puts in, but potentially his or her life is on the line as well.

cheers

I couldn’t agree more! Never overestimate yourself. Get the help the person needs if your skills are deficient. Otherwise they’ll drown and you’re next! Key is not to panic. Healthy fear is good, but panic and irrational fear are deadly.

[Flyfish]

it was a strange feeling of elation and sickness at the same time

Very similar experience to Darkside,
Was kiting in Mexico, saw a group of 3 kids acting funny. Then I noticed they were in panic mode. I started to kite directly toward them and noticed that one of them was consistently bobing underwater. That kid was "clawing" at the surface of the water in a way I've never seen before. I pulled up next to the 3 and quickly flicked my surfboard to the 2 that were panicking but at least were still functional. They grabbed the 3rd kid and used my board as floatation. Just about this time, a Mexican lifeguard friend of mine arrived and took over.
Later talking with my lifeguard buddy, I said "that was crazy"! He kinda cooly replied "it's much worse when you have to dive down and pull them up".
I told him he was a hero and that he had eyes of a hawk!

[longwhitecloud]

See stats of people drowning who went to help others.. not good... Good education.

Actually Better off with a kite than swimming or with a surfboard tho. The usual situation is swimmer drowning in rip, other swimmer swims out to help and gets stuck in same rip...

[Dave_5280]

Canine swimmer saved by kiter:

http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-2 ... an/9090174

More in Google search:

https://www.google.com/search?biw=414&b ... -wiz-serp.

[marlboroughman]

http://www.wellandtribune.ca/2016/07/18 ... d-for-them

[John Doe]

Yes but I wasn't kiting. I was at a westside resort beach on Maui during the huge Eddie swell 2 years ago. There were big waves at the south of the beach & a rip which streamed north sucking out at the north end of the beach. Some people were getting sucked into it. An overweight 50+ year old man on a boogie board was getting sucked out, he was panicking & screaming for help. I swam out, calmed him down, he was in full panic. I simply pulled him back in. A lot of tourists have heart attacks in situations like that.

His wife gave me a gift certificate to the beach bar. Went up with my wife & had a nice meal

[jfriday]

Dallas TX
I came across two swimmers far from shore and as I got closer I realized they were panicked, in distress and yelling “help we are drowning”. Because they fell off a jet ski they both had on life jackets. They were clawing on top of one another creating the drowning effect. The larger male kept pushing the female under water. I positioned myself upwind of them and shoved my board to them trying to get them to stop clinging to one another. There was one person still on the jet ski but one of the drowners had the key. I instructed her to remove the key and throw it down wind. I dragged down wind, picked up the key and brought it to the person still on the jet ski. Another kiter also got close and shoved his board to the drowners. The jet ski person was able to pick them up and shuttle back to shore. Long body drags later I retrieved my board.