Postby Foil » Tue Feb 19, 2019 7:04 pm
I witnessed the bad side of the floating 633.
it's never happened to me or anyone else I know of, but this was bad.
for the record the guy involved was not very experienced and fell in a whole lot, and was pretty bad at getting his kite out of the water once dropped, and he did this a lot.
Flag Beach 3 weeks ago
wind 12knts steady, cross on from the left.
tide flow -right to left, 1-3 knts (guess only)
I was concerned about this guy as he continued out to sea even though he was tripping over many of the small waves and spending a lot of time trying to relaunch his kite, I think it was a 11mtr. but he kept on going one way each time he got going again, out to sea!
at one point I sailed very close to him and shouted to him if he was ok, no reply, and I only speak one language, so difficult to communicate,
he did then fall in and turn round, got up and started off back to shore, phew!
I noticed all his gear was brand new,
a new 120 full carbon groove skate with red stripes, Moses 633 foil set on a 91cm mast, he was full booted and suited with a bright orange helmet.
I returned to shore to my little beach camp and got out my Binoculars, before I looked through them Pauline asked what is that thing flashing red in the sun out at sea, through the bino's I could see it was the groove skate yet again on its side, the fluorescent red stripes were catching the sun
and flashing bright,
it was traveling with the tide flow and helped a little by the wind blowing on its deck side with the mast and wing pointing downwind towards me, the owner was now quite a distance from the board with his kite down, I waited for some minutes watching him and hoping the kite would lift off, it did not and then I realised why, the wind had dropped, and I could see the guy was now winding in his kite, yikes!
I looked back to his board and it was now about 100 yards from the reef rocks which stretch way out to sea at low tide, and it was low tide.
my conversation with the rescue service was interesting, its one I have heard before,
they knew the guy, and had also been watching things unfold,
they informed me they were told by this guy that he would always self rescue himself, so they were to leave him alone to do just that,
they of course said if he looked in any danger then of course they would intervene.
His board by now was on the reef and flashing back as it gently rocked against the reef, the unlucky foiler floated along with his kite and landed himself on the reef, and at this point had a 100 yards stumble back across the reef to the sandy shore line.
madness,
why wont some guys just pay the small fee for rescue cover, its costs me 30 euro for 3 weeks cover, locals get this for much much less.