Belgian kiter (64) found dead after a night long search - Netherlands

[evan]

After the big resque action last sunday today marks another sad day in the Netherlands.

A 64 year old kiter from Belgium was found dead this morning after a night long search when his detached gear was found washed ashore wednesday evening. The search was still ongoing when he was found at daylight because he could survive for 25h in the 15deg waters.
His car was found on a location with offshore winds with little to no other visitors and no other kiters so we can only guess what happened at this moment.

More (in Dutch) with newslinks: http://www.kitehigh.nl/forum/index.php?topic=53052.0


Rest in peace!

[Toby]

so sorry to hear! My condolences to family and friends.

Sounds like he broke two golden rules:

1. kiting in offshore wind with no rescue
2. kiting alone

Be prepared to die breaking any of those rules. It can happen so fast, you have no idea.

[Bille]

A Satellite gps tracker , might have saved his life, in a scenario like this .
Here is one of many brands :

http://www.findmespot.com/en/

Bille

[dazarter]

Yea, very sorry to hear that - always more than a sad moment when for some reason its your time to go

Offshore winds are sure a no go with a kite -

Kiting alone is ok if you know what your doing and dont have a choice - like this morning

Whatever the real reason behind this very sad death is, we have to learn from all such incidents in order to reduce the chance it could happen again...

My condolences to family and friends

p.s. a satelite gps tracker is all good and well but no-one uses them ?

[edt]

You don't need a satellite tracker. all he had to do is not release the kite. from the plane you can see a kite for many miles a swimmer you can't see. also if you are getting hypothermia you can climb on the kite. if you look at the charts in cold water in a wetsuit if you go hypothermic you can no longer swim and drown because you can not move your arms or legs however if you have flotation you can last for many days. we had an ice fisher fall in he put his hands on the side of the ice and tho he couldn't pull himself out his hands froze to the ice and he was found a few days later unconscious no wetsuit and stuck to the ice and got rescued. with hypothermia it's almost never the cold that kills you it's that you can no longer physically move and you drown. also make sure you get on top of the kite before you get too cold. if you ditch the kite because you are trying to swim back against the wind better be absolutely sure you aren't swimming against a current. if he had kept his kite with him maybe things would have been different. any time there's an offshore wind same thing happens if they stick with the kite they get rescued in hours. if they ditch the kite there's a huge search and how can you spot a swimmer in the vast ocean?

my thoughts go out to the friends and family.

[dazarter]

Try not going kiting in off-shore winds would be the biggest help ! we dont know what happened here at all - could be simply drowning but we just know, he let his kite go for a good reason - most people hold there kites much too long! but with the flotation - its very important especially in cold water

I just hope for his family and friends they find out the reason behind his death ....

[Frank82]

First of all condolances to the family & friends. Then for some solid but harsh advice:

All these gadgets and other advises don't matter at all. Just don't kite in offshore winds! There's onshore beaches just 10km from where he launched. Sunday a big rescue action with a big group of tourists from Germany who go out in offshore winds, today other Germans who kite in offshore at the North Sea. Most of the stuff that happens with accidents in The Netherlands are visitors from Belgium and Germany, I get why. They've driven for multiple hours to kite and set their minds on a certain spot, when they finally arrive and notice it's offshore they just ignore their common sense and kite at these spots anyway. Another reason why they get into trouble is that they get to kite way less than people living closer to spots and thus remain beginners even with years of kiting experience.

The only time you can kite in offshore winds is:
- if there's a rescue service
- you kite with a group and you're very fit and are willing to let go of your gear (still risky)
- there's a downwind exit point.

[Slappysan]

A Satellite gps tracker , might have saved his life, in a scenario like this .

You'd be way better served with an emergency PLB than that Spot thingy:

http://oceansignal.com/products/plb1/

[plummet]

You don't need a satellite tracker. all he had to do is not release the kite. from the plane you can see a kite for many miles a swimmer you can't see. also if you are getting hypothermia you can climb on the kite. if you look at the charts in cold water in a wetsuit if you go hypothermic you can no longer swim and drown because you can not move your arms or legs however if you have flotation you can last for many days. we had an ice fisher fall in he put his hands on the side of the ice and tho he couldn't pull himself out his hands froze to the ice and he was found a few days later unconscious no wetsuit and stuck to the ice and got rescued. with hypothermia it's almost never the cold that kills you it's that you can no longer physically move and you drown. also make sure you get on top of the kite before you get too cold. if you ditch the kite because you are trying to swim back against the wind better be absolutely sure you aren't swimming against a current. if he had kept his kite with him maybe things would have been different. any time there's an offshore wind same thing happens if they stick with the kite they get rescued in hours. if they ditch the kite there's a huge search and how can you spot a swimmer in the vast ocean?

my thoughts go out to the friends and family.

Yeah but of your being dragged offshore by your kite would you
a) stay hooked in and hope for rescue. you could be 30 miles out to sea before anyone knows your missing.
B) ditch the kite and attempt to swim in?

Which chance has the greatest success? I think i would roll with swim in rather than wait for a rescue that might never happen.

[plummet]

Try not going kiting in off-shore winds would be the biggest help !.

Riding cross off is ok if you know and are prepared for the risks. Just operate the "don't go out further than you can swim" theory. Wear a pdf and be prepared to ditch the gear if it does pear shaped.