Fantastic late session today on fuerteventura, well powered up with medium sized sea swell and wind chop, low sun,so dazzle off the water surface downwind,
Really going for it at maximum speed untill one large crest lifted me high giving me that arggh feeling which then resulted in the most spectacular high speed launch off the top of the next crest which resulted in me powering the kite up to fly through the air avoiding any chance of staying with the board, this also made me spin through the air which was ok as I landed hard on my back
First job was to recover my sunglasses which are attached to my wetsuit zip, but it amazed me to find that they had shot over the top of my bar and were dangling there waiting for me to put them back on
As it was a massive forward downwind superman crash I looked upwind for my board, yikes no sign of it, powering the kite up to lift me out of the water did not help, it was gone!
After a few moments I concluded it had gone down wind so used the kite to get me high for a good look around, then the panic set in, no board in sight, and way off shore with my kite in the air which means the rescue won't know there's a problem, I did not want to drop the kite on the water to raise the alarm as this would let my board get further away.
In desperation I looped the kite hard to get downwind fast, and after 3 long fast runs there she was, moving downwind with the waves pushing her fast.
It shocked me just how invisible my black board with black deck and black footstraps had been.
poor little board, nearly lost at sea.