Kritische Situation auf dem Wasser...

[gechito]

Hallo Forum,

Gestern waren wir bei Exmouth, England auf dem Wasser. Alles perfekt, bis plötzlich der Wind droppte und ich und ein Kumpel uns in einer ablandigen Strömung wiederfanden. Mahlzeit, das war vielleicht ätzend! Am Ende hat musste uns die RNLI (das britische Äquivalent von DLRG und Wasserrettung) aus dem wasser fischen. Mal abgesen davon, dass es superpeinlich ist , wenn die RNLI und am Strand dann auch noch die Coast Guard und die Rettung auf einen warten, hätte die Situation auch noch viel schlimmer werden können. Wir haben den Jungs von der RNLI ein Dankesemail geschrieben im dem alles beschrieben ist und dachten, das könnte man im Forum mal posten. Vielelicht lernt ja der eine oder die andere von unseren Fehlern. Hier das email, denke Ihr könnt alle Englisch, bei Bedarf wirds auch übersetzt.

Viel Spass auf dem Wasser Euch allen!

Hello guys!

This is to say "many thanks!!" for fishing us out og the English Channel yesterday!

Ali and me had an awesome kitesurfing session,meeting up with friends from Exeter and Plymouth. The conditions appeared perfect with 15 knots cross-on wind and calm waters.

After I went out for the third time the wind became inconsistent and at some stage the wind dropped alltogether, and so did my kite. Nothing unusual really, you normally just wait for a good gust and then relaunch. I put a lot of physical effort in relaunching but after about 20 min i noticed that this gust was not meant to come and I was pretty exhausted. Ok, still not a problem, we have self rescue techniques, either a deep water packup and use the kite as a float or lie on it and "sail" back to the shore. I tried the sailing approach, but by the time all the equipment was in place, I was even more exhausted and no wind to take me back to shore. Charles, a friend, came out to assist me (he is an instructor, very competent and can ride in even the lowest wind!). We packed up my kite (the board was longe gone already) and then drag me back to the beach, using the kite as a float. That probably would have worked well, but then Ali's kite dropped near us. Ok, Charles got my equipment and was taking it back to the shore and I swam over to Ali to help him relaunch his kite. Needless to say that the swim over to him was even more exhausting. We couldn't realunch his kite, there was just not enough wind, so we decided to swim back to the shore.

But then the nasty thing happened: we noticed that cross-off current. You don't swim against an offshore current, so we started swimming perpendicular to it towards the shore. By then, I have been struggling in the water for about an hour and noticed three bad things: my arms were becoming very weak and it was a major effort to hold on to the floating kite,i started noticing how cold i was and first signs of cramps in the legs appeared, That was very scary, luckily, I didn't panic. Ali started swearing that no one on the beach did anything to help us, but how should they have come out in such little wind, putting them selves at serious risk.

Very soon you guys appeared and it was a huge relief to see your boat appearing! On the shore, coffee was offered by someone from the coast guard which was highly welcomed. I was embarrassed that the ambulance had to come (all the fuss because of us!) but I understand that we could have been in a much worse condition than just exhausted and cold.

Several things have been learned from that incident, listed in no particular order:
I had a thick warm wetsuit, hood and gloves. That would have kept me going even for a bit longer. No boots though (kitesurfers don't like them), but they would have helped to avoid cramps.
No combined impact vest / flotaion device was worn to keep us afloat even when swimming is not possible anymore.
No mobile phone (in a waterproof case) to call for help.
Not familiar enough with the local currents and conditions, we usually surf at Bantham where you can walk back in case of trouble.
Ignorant of the inconsistent wind.
It was good to have friends on the beach to keep a lookout and called for help.
Assistance from another kitesurfer (Charles) was reassuring and took the edge off the situation, at least initially.
We will share this information with fellow kitesurfers and post it in relevant forums. That might help to keep you less busy.

Thank you very much again for your help! This situation had potential to become very dodgy and life threatening without you!

All the best,

[darocki]

hi,

find ich gut ... aber ......... übersetzt käme es besser in einem deutschschprachigen forum .............

danke

[Klaus (c:E]

Hai,

wer den Schaden hat...

Gerade die RNLI (Royal National Lifeboard Institution) ist Vorbildlich aktiv im Bereich Prävention.
Die geben für Kiter zwei *.pdf Dokumente heraus und die Extreme sport safety advise DVD (u.a. mit Andrea Wharrey und Flash Austin), die man kostenlos beziehen kann.
RNLI -> sea and beach safety -> beach safety -> Beach safety resources -> Kitesurfing safety = Kite surfing.pdf

RNLI -> sea and beach safety -> beach safety -> Beach safety resources -> Kitesurfing safety guide = kitesurf guide.pdf

Die DVD bekommt man per Anruf oder eMail umsonst! (ich hab´eine)

Die freuen sich sicher zu hören, dass man diese Hausaufgaben gemacht hat und die Tipps weitergiebt.

[Ergänz...]
ganz bemerkenswert finde ich, dass die in 2003 364 Lifeboat Einsätze hatten, um Kiter, Windsurfer und Seekajaker rauszufischen, wovon sie selbst 19 als Lebensrettung einstufen.
Da muss aus deren Sicht wohl schon ganz schön heftig aufgeräumt werden bei den "bekloppten Freizeitkapitänen"
[/Ergänz]

Sea You: Klaus (c:E