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Damn! This brings back memories.
Never, ever assume people have seen you.

Glad he is okay. A very sobering experience that shakes you to the core.

A downed kiter can be almost impossible to spot when the water is rough and there is lot of activity. I have had one big swim experience and no-one noticed. The other issue is that foilers can get a lot further upwind and downwind than everyone else. People aren't generally looking in those directions. If someone wants to help they may not be able to get there and back again on a twin-tip.

Gunnar I am glad you are still with us and live to kite another day. Thank you for posting the video as this is a WAKE UP CALL to be more aware of looking out for each other in the water. I have been rescued a few times and it is an unenviable position to be in, but sure feels good when you know someone is there to ask you if you need help or not. I think a whistle is a must as well as a knife for cutting lines. Something I have not bothered with but I will get both. Safety in the water is something we cannot be complacent about. Kite safe everyone

Glad you got back alright, I’ve been going to fuerteventura for the past 18 years kitesurfing in jan met you this year on the beach after you just rescued 2 beginners in the afternoon from certain trouble in the water, in the early days I did find that everybody looked out for and respected each other things have changed now! Lets just hope this message helps to keep kiters vigilant for other kiters when out on the water!

awesome job impact vest

yep u can get knocked out.. 2 at redbull and another foil racing in a competition, cant remember their name.

awesome outcome

things have changed, buddy system was a given back in the day we were dealing with so much, today i sometimes think some riders have horse blinkers on, it is pretty simple really.. more kooks in kiteboarding

Thanks Gunnar for sharing your harrowing experience,hope it will serve as heads up to all kiters on many fronts.Seems inconcievable to me that it took so long to get some help,as appears highly unlikely but perhaps the crash and downing was not witnessed? Number one rule of thumb for me surfing,kiting,standup,boating etc is if you see someone in distress you try to help in any way possible.Couple of things for me personally is certainly opened my eyes to think of some form of pfd after 15 yrs of kiting after hearing the story here.Also reaffirmed my belief of the dangers of foil kites especially solo and so far offshore when the shit hits the fan as a inflatable kite might have been a better scenario/outcome especially with no board for flotation self rescue and rescuers to identify and get a visual on with all the white caps,swells and the kitemare unfolding,as I personally have a HL 12m foil kite and have had 2 not so fun swims,and know first hand how dangerous they can be,especially when waterlogged,hence why it sits in the garage now,much prefer my 1 strut lei anyday especially freeride foiling,however certainly understand the advantage of foil kites for racing but for solo offshore foil missions not exactly the right safe tool for the job if you ask me.Real wake up call especially when you see a advanced rider like Gunnar getting in a fix like this it can happen to any of us.really have to look out for one another out in the water,we surely do in my local area and pfd use has to be highly considered no matter what your swimming level especially foiling as crashes are more consequential with the speeds being obtained.Very happy that this ended well for Gunnar hopefully we all take some lessons in some form from this thread

Bottom line. If you can stay upwind and if you don't keep the occasional eye out for your fellow kiters you don't deserve to be in the water period. I always check on my fellow kiters if they've been down for over a minute. Whether it's retrieving their board or dragging them in I help out and so does nearly everyone else here in the Puget Sound and it makes our community great.

Glad you made it Gunnar.

Thanks for sharing your story. Sorry to hear you had ro wait so long for help. Although I was not there I doubt someone has actually seen realized you were down. A person in the water is just so easy to overlook. So for most people if they do not see the crashing event they will never realize someone needs help. I tend to look around and after others a bit more. The one kiter further out gets my check-look every other minute during kitesurfing. Especially if I am closest to him I consider this to be my responsibility.

I had this project planned of making some attachment of flares to my impact vest or harness. I wouldn't count on people hearing the whistle.. Not from the distances you easilly cover by hydrofoil.
The project just got more priority again...

Glad you lived
Isn't riskier to be on 12m lines with a 9 in high wind practicing racing with a foilboard ?
If a line snaps with such short lines the kite will move really really fast and you can get slammed harder...correct ?
Wouldn't 20m lines with a 6 been safer ?
Again thanks for posting

I’m happy to hear your ok!

As a newer kiteboarder your event is also a huge fear of mine!
One thing I just don’t get is why all wetsuits are black, crash vests are dark colors?

As a big player in the industry I hope you can use your event to get kiteboard and wetsuit manufactures to consider using brighter colors in the gear we ware! Yes our kites are bright but when they crash and sink we now don’t have anything to make us more noticeable. I rock a bright yellow life jacket because as you said if you get knocked out, w/o one you sink and die.

What do you use for an impact vest?