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The Kindness of strangers

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BigPaul
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The Kindness of strangers

Postby BigPaul » Fri Jun 12, 2015 9:08 pm

Ok so today was a great day down at the beach. low tide was 2.30 perfect flat water and 12 to 16 knots. Perfect for a 12 metre unhooked sessioon :thumb:

Basically I was having a whale of a time. When I threw a little to hard and lost my grip on the bar. When I re-surfaced I realise I was no longer attached to my kite! and it was now tumbling down wind of me and out to sea!

A local surfer tried in vein to rescue my kite but to be fair it was dangerous as the bar and lines were obvioulsy still attached and he quickly gave up. someone else tried to tow me out but he was too inexperienced and we got nowhere fast. I swam in and grabbed my directional to try and swim out, but the tide was on the way in and it was just far to much effort to get out against the tide :(

By now the kite had gone a long way down wind. so I got back into my Van and drove down the coast. I met a guy on a SUP he tried to paddle out while I swam. But again it was now simply to far out. Then from nowhere a local fisherman launched his boat. For no other reason and with out me asking and went and retrived my kite. No damage to the kite or the lines. and absolute gentleman.

Now by my count thats 4 strangers that went out of their way and more importantly out of their comfort zone and took time out of their spare time to help a someone they did not know.

There is a lot of shit in this world but be thankful that most people are truly beautiful

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Toby
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Re: The Kindness of strangers

Postby Toby » Fri Jun 12, 2015 9:31 pm

Great story, thx for sharing.

I agree, we get lost with too many shitty people and forget about all those nice ones.
Those 4 for sure are!

An idea: how about getting your surfboard and someone tows you to your kite?
Should be easer than with a twin tip.

BigPaul
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Re: The Kindness of strangers

Postby BigPaul » Fri Jun 12, 2015 10:07 pm

Hi Toby

Yeah, your right and one of the local lads thought that's what I was going to do. but I ran further down the beach and thought I'd be able to get past the break. But I just ended up getting tired.

By the time i'd given up trying to paddle out the kite had drifted to far.

I know now to try that first :)

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alamos_kiter
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Re: The Kindness of strangers

Postby alamos_kiter » Sat Jun 13, 2015 12:11 am

The kind of help given in the mountains and on the sea... let's make sure this tradition is carried on to the newcomers and lives forever. :thumb:

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Re: The Kindness of strangers

Postby NYKiter » Sat Jun 13, 2015 12:40 am

:beer: :beer: :beer:

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KYLakeKiter
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Re: The Kindness of strangers

Postby KYLakeKiter » Sat Jun 13, 2015 1:33 am

That is the best story I have seen on KF in a while. Thanks for sharing it BigPaul. Extremely glad you got your kite back and met some great people in the process. :thumb:

BigPaul
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Re: The Kindness of strangers

Postby BigPaul » Sat Jun 13, 2015 12:27 pm

The man himself :)
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20150612_160934.jpg

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Toby
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Re: The Kindness of strangers

Postby Toby » Sat Jun 13, 2015 12:45 pm

:thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

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davesails7
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Re: The Kindness of strangers

Postby davesails7 » Sat Jun 13, 2015 2:30 pm

:thumb:

A few months ago I had driven all night to get to a race. Somehow, while walking out to deep water with my foil, I got too close to a rock jetty full of barnacles and oyster shells. While messing with the foil, my kite fell to the side of the window. I caught it just in time, but the wingtip grazed the jetty putting several tears in the canopy :cry:

I didn't have another kite small enough to ride, so I thought I was screwed and had driven all night for nothing. Then, a guy on the beach who I had only met 5 minutes before launching said I could borrow his kite. Pretty amazing to offer me his kite after only knowing me 5 minutes (and in those 5 minutes he watched me destroy my own kite)! :thumb:

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Re: The Kindness of strangers

Postby NJOY » Sat Jun 13, 2015 3:25 pm

BigPaul: thank you so much for posting this topic. It is so nice to hear these kind of stories. It made my morning!


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