Important Message: I almost died - Gunnar Biniasch

[we]

Where was this? Did he ask the other kiters if they saw that he was in distress? My guess is they either couldn't see him or thought he was ok. Foil-ers go can get far away very quickly. I take it he was downwind of everyone else? If he was upwind he would have floated to others.

[Matteo V]

Aren't there rules/laws for this ? For at least windsurfing there is a clear sign for "distress". Are you actually allowed to just ignore a boat/kiter "in distress" ? Off course everybody can say I didn't see him, I thought his kite was just down but he was fine etc etc. But if people are actually not bothered writing down that this sort of thing is not their responsibility/problem, then something is very wrong, maybe schools should pay more attention to this sort of situation.

International Maritime law is clear that:

Any vessel must aid another vessel in distress, so long as rendering aid will not put the aiding vessel at risk. The last part is the part I will expand on at the end.

Gunnar, it is good that you are still with us. Love your vids, though I do not know you personally. Given enough years of kiting and pushing the limits, many more of us are "statistically" becoming closer and closer to our own similar situation. My time will come soon enough and hopefully I can "luck" through it like you did. I want to also say that I think it is terrible that no one came to check on you. I personally have give up many hours in the break to mill around someone with a downed kite on the outside, ready to pick up a board, or give up mine for a tow in (the last one of my kitefishes only cost me $60 used in new condition, so no loss there). I have to admit that I am somewhat embarrassed by this, but I am also afraid of white sharks on the Oregon coast where I kite, so that is another reason I stick around to render aid to a kiter in distress. I do not know what I could do, but I would think I could be of some use in the situation where there was an attack.


The last part of the "rendering aid to vessels in distress" is what I want to make clear may have applied to you. I do not know you but, I have had this type of situation arise many times. While beginners are seemingly much more of a rescue hazard, there is a particular near guaranteed rescue hazard that I tend to avoid like the plague - dangerous and less than conscientious kiters. Here are some examples:

1. Approximately ten 6m-8m kites pumped up on the beach, 9m kites coming in because the wind is too strong, guy wants me to launch him on his 12m! I say he needs a smaller kite. He says his 10m is in the shop and he does not have a smaller one. I say he is going to get killed. He says he will self launch, and he is upwind of the other kites and kiters on the beach. I say I will launch him but he needs to get away from the other kiters downwind of him launching. I pick up the kite to walk it closer to the water and eliminate him being upwind of the other kiters. But he runs toward the water and tensions the lines and forces me to launch directly upwind of the other kiters anyway. Luckily nothing bad happened at the launch, but he wound up walking back as he could not hold the kite down.
2. Wakestyle guy apparently without a wetsuit in the ocean. Just a jersey and board shorts visible. Water temp is 10°c (50°f). All the kiters are talking about it and some go up to talk to him. I launch before I hear the story, but he did fine and was getting huge airs. Still, I am pretty pissed at the prospect of having to help a hypothermic person in the water. And to be clear, you ARE endangering your rescuer if you go hypothermic as you loose the ability to follow simple commands and lose all ability to think rationally. (Later I found out the wakestyle guy had cut off his 4mm suit to "look cool". That was not what the local kiters thought of the stunt.)
3. Catamaran sailor (almost) turtles in shallow lake and water temp is cool. Mast sticks in the mud and the boat cannot be righted (stayed there for 2 weeks, and caused lots of emergency services calls). Kayaker goes out to tow the sailor in. Sailor, a know drug user and likely high at the time, pulled the drain plug on the kayaker as "thanks" for the rescue. Kayaker continues on the lake and almost sinks.


These are specific instances where you cannot safely render aid to someone in distress. They are likely to cause you to be in just as much distress as them. Irresponsible behavior that got them into a situation, will likely continue through your rescue attempt. This leads to rescue personnel having to pull off 2 rescue's, not just one. You are still required to call for help, and in this case, that would mean that at least one other kiter should go in. After that kiter lands their kite, then makes an emergency call or finds someone with a cell phone on the beach, then the person in distress could expect a rescue in about 30 minutes after that - at my local beaches. And for clarity, I am saying an irresponsible dip-stick of a kiter is likely to spend about 30 more minutes in the water waiting for actual rescue personnel, than a responsible kiter that I could safely attempt to rescue myself.


Your issue in this incident is likely a result of no other kiter seeing you crash. I am often watching out for myself and other kiters in my immediate vicinity. Kiters in the distance are typically not my focus. After you crash, you become much less visible. I only look for kites in the air in the distance, not for heads bobbing on the water. A ripped foil kite filled with water is even less visible.


But if this happened to me, and I must stress again that I cannot attest to your character or conscientiousness, I would do some self reflection. At my local beaches, I know almost all of the local kiters and they always come to check on me if I am down. And typically 2-3 kiters respond to a kiter down on the outside. We usually position ourselves accrording to how closely we know the kiter down in the water. If another kiter is taking up the rescue efforts, I will back off and watch from a distance. If all the other kiters suddenly stopped rendering aid to me when I went down, I would assume that I did something stupid that would make them think I was a danger to them in a rescue. If I was known for having a poor attitude, a confrontational outlook, or just making stupid decisions, I would not expect help to come from those I have made a bad impression on. Still, I would guess your situation is more related to the paragraph before this one.

[foilonfoil]

The big ask in this thread is just to keep an eye on each other while we are on the water and I think that is totally cool. My local site is active monitoring both beach and water with many of us running over to downed kiters to check up on them and calling for rescue when they are missing/stranded.

I carry a radio when I leave the beach, but I have only kited at locations where marine radios were the primary safety device on the water (New Zealand, Australia, USA, Canada). I have been rescued once when I called for assistance. Where marine radios are not used (very few places), I would suggest whistle and flares.

[jamescarlyle]

Gunnar,

Watched your video posting. Totally agree with you re. checking out for others. Will serve as a timely reminder.

James

[salvino]

Very needed story to share. Glad all is well.

I recently board a marine whistle for like 6$ and it lives on my glasses retention strap. I never forget it and am never bothered by it. It tucks inside my top so no bouncing around.

But if I need attention I know I have a reasonable shot at alerting someone.

[Pump me up]

OK, here we go. Ram lovers are going to call this "trolling" and try to get me banned (again), but it MUST be said: Gunnar's choice of ram air kites was instrumental in this near-disaster.

Ram air kites were banned from course racing in 2015 because of safety concerns: viewtopic.php?t=2386845

The fragility of ram air bridles and the lack of intrinsic buoyancy are/were significant concerns in 2015 and still are now. In fact, these problems were seen as insurmountable and these very issues caused/worsened Gunnar's near-disaster.

Ram air kites are simply too fragile and unsafe to be allowed in course racing.

[grigorib]

My 2 cents:
Gunnar, I'm glad you made out alive and in one piece. You're an inspiration to others, please keep being a living example!
Thanks to the guy who worried about you and came after you!
Thanks to Moses for replacing the foil!

Now your story echoes my buddy Jimbo from Chicago who almost drowned getting a cramp to learn and pass knowledge that an impact/floatation vest will save your life in deep water.

Your story echoes with Vince from Chicago who carries a whistle after being dragged offshore in Caribbean. I'm getting a bunch of whistles now - one for myself, other for friends who ride far and aggressively. I hope you get an emergency whistle too.

You're not crazy, you're absolutely right that a proper human being would come over to check on a stranded rider and if people don't know what to do I can tell what I do and I hope more folks read and repeat when needed:
1. ride by and ask if person is alright
2. if the person is ok tell them to roll their lines and that you'll get their board and bring it to them or to shore and come back.
3. come back. ask person to hold on the back of the harness, steer kite with one hand, put another one over your board and bodydrag to shore towing the other rider.

Glad you've made it!

PMU - you're both right and wrong. I've had both limp LEIs and foils in water before, none is much fun either. LE full of water makes perfect anchor as well. Better chances of being seen with LEI but racing is racing. It's about being the fastest and first.

All, I've seen recommendation for JetScream Whistle (Micro). Is it great enough or is there a better one?

[TomW]

Today we were out in side, side on winds and my kite buddy dropped his lei in falling winds. He's just started flying on his hydrofoil.
He was floating out there 20 minutes, so I went in and put my kite down. It was so light wind I didn't dare try to kite out to him. He seemed ok. He drifted some more and he wasn't waving, but I just read an article about human behaviour during drowning...
Still, He's a waterman and in good shape, 10-15 years younger than me. Am older ouple approach me and wonder if he needs help, they guy is former sea rescue volunteer.
Decided to go out to him, so I borrowed someone's inflatable sup, ( they don't have a paddle!!) so I decided to prone paddle out to him, figure if he's in bad shape we can float in on sup.
Took me 20 min to paddle out there, and when I get there he's fine, swimming and using kite to get in. No problem.. Wind picks up and shifts more onshore and we both get to shore after another 20 min.
I'm knackered. He's in better shape than me...

[merl]

Related story from somewhere else in Sweden from yesterday: Super crowded beach on a sunny public holiday so I went to a quiet corner on the other side of the bay and drift launched. After an OK hydrofoil session my kite went down after hitting a hole in the wind. Just couldn't get the bastard launched, so I self-rescued and swam/sailed the kite back to my launch spot (no real problem with the wind, but it turned out that my middle strut had a puncture and stuck the kite to the water). I was about 400m out, still well inside the bay with onshore wind. Maybe 15 minutes trying to relaunch then 20 mins to get back.

I figured I'd retrieve the board from the middle of the beach so I packed up and cycled round to the main beach. Then I noticed the action: hundreds of people on their feet looking around. Ambulance, police, fire engine, boats in the water, helicopter. I kid you not. It turns out someone thought I was in trouble and called emergency services. Of course I had to explain everything to them (we were only two people out so I knew that it was me) so that they could call off the search. They were very cool about it. Happy even (a good outcome!) - but of course I felt terrible. They even said that I was not at fault (I was imagining the helicopter call-out bill...)

I think this is a case of unusually good weather bringing people to the beach who have never seen kitesurfing before. But how do we do lightwind hydrofoiling and the inevitable occasional self-rescue (where it is guaranteed that you will swim sometimes) without scaring people?

Today we were out in side, side on winds and my kite buddy dropped his lei in falling winds. He's just started flying on his hydrofoil.
He was floating out there 20 minutes, so I went in and put my kite down. It was so light wind I didn't dare try to kite out to him. He seemed ok. He drifted some more and he wasn't waving, but I just read an article about human behaviour during drowning...
Still, He's a waterman and in good shape, 10-15 years younger than me. Am older ouple approach me and wonder if he needs help, they guy is former sea rescue volunteer.
Decided to go out to him, so I borrowed someone's inflatable sup, ( they don't have a paddle!!) so I decided to prone paddle out to him, figure if he's in bad shape we can float in on sup.
Took me 20 min to paddle out there, and when I get there he's fine, swimming and using kite to get in. No problem.. Wind picks up and shifts more onshore and we both get to shore after another 20 min.
I'm knackered. He's in better shape than me...

[TomW]

Hej Merl, I'm in Sweden too. Same scene. We were at Haverdal and quite a few beach goers in the unseasonably warm weather. they're not familiar with Hydrofoiling, but most have seen kites.
Perhaps I avoided helicopter scene by paddling out there..

Good question about how to avoid unnecessary rescue calls..