One of our local guys went through the ice on a fairly large lake a few days ago. He had checked with the ice fishermen, and they said the ice was 6-8 inches thick. He had been back and forth across a bare spot several times, when the wind died and he stopped. He went through just as he was stopping. He tried climbing back up onto the ice (his snowboard was still on his feet), but the ice was only about 1/2 inch thick! He started to panic, and then doesn't remember how he got back up onto the ice. He did, fortunately, but has no recollection of how he did it. He's fine--just slightly bruised.
After he got back to his senses on the ice, he found himself lying down. He took his board off (still on VERY thin ice), and slid his board underneath him to help support his weight. He slid himself far enough away from the hole to get to thicker ice, put his board back on, launched his kite, and rode back to his launch site. No hypothermia, no broken anything. Very lucky guy.
It's really too bad he doesn't remember how he got back onto the ice. Anybody here ever go through that could tell us how they survived it? How they got back onto the ice? If the wind was up, I suspect you could use the kite to help. With essentially no wind, though, how did/could you do it?
As a sidenote--he was the only kiter on the lake, and the ice fishermen didn't see him. They were too far away, and had their backs to him due to the wind direction.
Don