I carry a personal locator beacon (PLB), the PLB1, Very small, satellite GPS coordinates sent when activated, worldwide coverage, no monthly fees, 7 year battery life, no longer called search and rescue just rescue since they have your location, tens of thousands of people have been saved worldwide with PLBs.
I also wear a rash shirt and helmet both in that neon yellow color used on traffic signs.
Dave, it is so awesome to hear people are kiting with PLBs now, they are truly a life saver! Thank you for having one of those. We also hope you consider a whistle, light source, and signal mirror if you dont already carry those. While the PLB can certainly activate the rescue authorities, the other devices can help flag down another kiter, boater, or Samaritan nearby who may help affect a rescue much faster if they are nearby than a formal rescue asset (helicopter/boat, ect...)
Additionally, once a rescue asset is in your location, those devices may help guide them the last few hundred yards of the search/rescue effort.
All the best and thanks again so much for bringing a PLB with you! That is certainly the gold standard in rescue devices.
These users thanked the author SARlite for the post:
The lights shine bright at night. Yes. But no one kites in the dark. Maybe there are some situations where it gets dark, but I still feel this is not designed for kiteboarders in distress. How are you supposed to whirl around these glow sticks if you are swimming in rough waters with your head barely sticking out? This may work well on land, but not in the water.
The mirror thing? Well, again. If the sea is very calm, yes, this may work. Generally I would think more emergencies occur when the opposite is true, hence making a mirror hard to use. Again, I think this is a device useful for emergencies outside the water and not kiteboarding.
Finally I think what could really be helpful is something like a flare. Some pyrotechnical stuff that makes a bright light source and a lot of smoke, so one can easily be spotted. I am not sure these things are waterproof (though there seem to be even underwater flares) and duration maybe an issue. However, they would be far superior to the above mentioned stuff in terms of visibility.
A number of kiters have been lost offshore at night. Here is a particularly famous one. viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2324004 I recall another person in a lake who also didn't make it. Many lost kiter searches have been conducted after dark as well. If you are disabled offshore around sunset or are blown offshore, it happens. Do some searching online you will find a number of cases.
Before discounting things based upon reasoning absent experience with the device in the actual setting, I would do some more research or perhaps even give it a try. You would be surprised what you will try and the value you can find in aids in a crisis. Whereas if you have nothing with you that might help, there you are.
I was out kiting this morning before work and was overflown a few times by a USCG helicopter running a long north to south coast wise search pattern. Apparently they have been searching all night by air and sea for a missing diver. He failed to join the boat after a dive at 5:30 pm yesterday not too far south of where I was kiting offshore in 50 ft. of water. He may still be on the bottom but I hope he is found alive on the surface. If that is where he is, he will be somewhere to the north. The Florida Current merging into the Gulf Stream can transport divers on the surface, (kiters too), from 1 to 4 miles per hour. The Coast Guard must think it is worth the effort to continue the search through the night. I knew a guy who ended up ten miles north one time before he was recovered. Anyway, signaling gear can make a difference particularly if you are injured or aren't that strong a swimmer. Quite a few more divers than kiters end up drifting down current away from boats for whatever reasons or may even be left offshore at times. Talking to SARLite about diving applications under pressure, they said the pouch should be good to go in that application without the need to cut perforations. It would free flood of course.
kite_hh wrote:
Finally I think what could really be helpful is something like a flare. Some pyrotechnical stuff that makes a bright light source and a lot of smoke, so one can easily be spotted.
Just swirling stuff around as shown in the video is what's absurd, when you are submerged in the water shoulder deep. --> Anyone in doubt about that should try it before discounting things based upon reasoning absent experience.
I always wear an impact vest, so signaling in that fashion wouldn't present any difficulty. I doubt it would be too difficult without one for limited intervals. You are arguing against using something that might save someone's life. We aren't arguing for points, just to try to help people out. Most left to themselves won't bother with anything. Whistles and signaling mirrors have been proven rescue aids for far longer than kiteboarding has been around. You will find a great deal about it online. Flares are good and there are some that are water and even pressure rated. I have carried them when kite racing to the Bahamas from Florida in 2005 and a few times since. They have serious serious drawbacks limiting their usefulness. Glow sticks don't share some of problems, key among them are carriage prohibitions on commercial aircraft and some commercial vessels. SARLite isn't the first to use Glow Sticks for rescue signaling, far from it. The "buzz-saw" looping technique was developed to increase the visibility and unique signature of the signal. SARLite is the first to put all three signaling devices in a small water-resistant package and that really is the point. You carry it out of the way and forget about it,until you need it.
I always wear an impact vest, so signaling in that fashion wouldn't present any difficulty. I doubt it would be too difficult without one for limited intervals. You are arguing against using something that might save someone's life. We aren't arguing for points, just to try to help people out. Most left to themselves won't bother with anything. Whistles and signaling mirrors have been proven rescue aids for far longer than kiteboarding has been around. You will find a great deal about it online. Flares are good and there are some that are water and even pressure rated. I have carried them when kite racing to the Bahamas from Florida in 2005 and a few times since. They have serious serious drawbacks limiting their usefulness. Glow sticks don't share some of problems, key among them are carriage prohibitions on commercial aircraft and some commercial vessels. SARLite isn't the first to use Glow Sticks for rescue signaling, far from it. The "buzz-saw" looping technique was developed to increase the visibility and unique signature of the signal. SARLite is the first to put all three signaling devices in a small water-resistant package and that really is the point. You carry it out of the way and forget about it,until you need it.
Kind of weird statement.
I am assuming it is targeted towards me, though I really didn't make any of the points you are objecting. Except for one. I still doubt and did double check in the water that swirling around glow sticks on a piece of rope while submerged shoulder deep in the water (not even a life west is going to change that) is not only tidious, but also plain impossible with severe water conditions for any prolonged time. In flat water it may get easier, but then the swirling isn't really all that necessary to be seen. But yeah, in calm conditions at night time (sounds quite romantic as I write it, maybe some stars are out too?!) a glow stick sounds like a reasonable solution.
So yeah, I do think smoke and flares are currently your best bet to be seen in rough weather conditions. BIggest drawback of flares certainly are heat dissipation and a relatively short running time. I guess the perfect option hasn't been discovered yet. Personally I would feel safer with a really bright smoky flare than any swirly-whirly tool and a cosmetic mirror out in the storm. Btw. I agree the wistle can be helpful (but that really wasn't anybodys concern before you brought it up).
But hey, to each their own. My wife likes to take her little mirror to places I wouldn't dream of taking it. Maybe that has also to do with safety? Who knows.
"Red rockets, handhelds and orange smoke are still the only recognised flare distress signals under maritime safety rules that comply with the international convention for Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS)."
