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Old 08-02-2013, 11:21 AM
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Default Kiter Blown Off Isolated Caribbean Island Far Out To Sea


The island


This is a story of poor kiter choices which almost led to a slow death adrift far off an isolated island in the Caribbean. If it wasn't for the intercession of a capable rescuer running on good judgement with a healthy dose of good luck all around, the kiter might have simply vanished.



Cedric heading out for a windsurfing session off the island


Cedric Kleisler was in charge of sailing and other water sports at a resort on an island in the Caribbean. He had grown up sailing and on the water in the North Sea and had learned windsurfing on this same Caribbean island several years earlier. The resort specialized in wind sports but not kiteboarding. If folks brought their kite gear and were capable, they could do it but in the sensible European tradition, they were responsible for themselves. Cedric, now with Adventure Sports Ft. Lauderdale, was to play a very key role in the outcome of events.



The layout of the launch, riding and landing area on the last day


A kiter visiting from Europe had been on vacation on the island for two weeks in March 2011. He had side offshore winds out of the southeast for most of that time. Cedric told me the man was experienced coming to the island with a quiver of two kites with twin tip and directional kite boards. He was able to ride upwind and generally stay out of trouble but rode solo.


He was in the habit of launching on the large curved beach shown above, riding around along the shore and out to the dropoff marked by the deep blue water. He would work upwind at the end of the day, through the reefs and around the rocky headland to land on the narrow sand beach to the south. This put him closer to his accommodations, reducing walking. Allowing for the shallow reef and nearby rocks on shore as impact hazards, well enough with a side shore wind in this area from the southeast. The thing is, wind direction will change making what was doable marginal if even feasible at all under different wind conditions.



The intended landing area in failing offshore winds, next stop beyond the shelf, likely oblivion.

On the rider's last day the wind had clocked to the northeast with a weather system moving over, likely a cold front. Conditions were still kiteable with sideshore winds out of the north but likely became gusty with pronounced lulls near the north end of the beach around the hook. As long as you were north of the southern rocky point winds were sideshore. A CRITICAL distinction is once you are south of that point, winds are offshore, a dangerous situation considering the setting. "Last Day Syndrome" or fitting/stretching out that last ride, has brought harm to other kiters through poor choices in the past.

The rider had been out kiting solo since about 3 pm that day when Cedric had noticed him launch. The rider at around 200 pounds was well powered on his 12 m kite with winds around 15 to 20 knots and gusting. It had been a normal day for Cedric up to that point, he closed up shop at 5 pm ready to call it a day. He had noticed the wind had shifted to the east around that time or dead offshore. With cold fronts winds will often "clock" or change direction clockwise as the frontal boundary passes over. So, wind shifting from NE to E is something experienced watermen would be on the lookout for assuming they were plugged into weather and knew what was bringing the wind that day.

The kiter's wife came by around 5:15 pm concerned about where her husband was. Cedric related that he hadn't seen the man for some hours. He walked down to his traditional landing area to the south but saw no sign of him. He then went to the bar, met some of the man's friends but no one had seen him for hours. Cedric grabbed some binoculars and walked out on the pier at the south end of the beach. At that height, he could see about four miles offshore but saw nothing but a bare horizon.

Cedric concerns had been mounting through all of this and concluded the man must have drifted offshore and below the horizon. He got the resort's 13.5 ft. Boston Whaler with an 80 hp outboard, fueled it up, grabbed a couple of extra fuel cans and headed out to try to find the kiter. He figured the kiter likely drifted pretty much downwind or to the west. This island is small and isolated with the nearest island to the west was about 50 miles away. Cedric also told me that there usually was a light current to the north along the wall, which is supported by general current charts for the area. So, the kiter might have drifted a bit north too, perhaps missing that landfall entirely. Leaving the next stop as the wide Atlantic Ocean.

Cedric was becoming more concerned by the minute, concluding either; A) the kiter was holed up somewhere on the island incommunicado, or B) was gone, lost offshore forever. In addition to worrying about the kiter's welfare he was also concerned for his own safety running off this same small island in a small single engine boat with a temperamental VHF radio and compass far away from other islands. Engine failure could prove his own lingering end, sunset was within about an hour, lots to think about and tension to build.

He had motored west for about 20 minutes when he stopped for a careful pan of the horizon with his binoculars. At this point he had almost lost sight of the island 8 to 10 miles distant. He thought he saw something small close the horizon far to the west. Looking more carefully, it looked like a looping kite close to the surface. Cedric powered up and ate up the intervening 4 or so miles in minutes. This put the man about 12 to 14 miles off the island with the nearest land 50 to about 120 miles to the west depending on actual drift. If he went north the nearest land would likely be over a 1000 miles away but the Gulf Stream would likely take him away from even that distant land at some point.



Cedric to the rescue, what would your thoughts have been when you first saw this scene coming towards you from a blank horizon?


As Cedric came up on the kiter he was white, eyes glazed over and not communicative. Seeing hope fade along with your prospects for living, what may seem like hours after you have set the island while hopelessly adrift can do that. The man was in apparent shock and seemed to levitate more than climb over the gunnel into the boat. He rolled up his kite and laid on it not saying anything. In time Cedric heard the man mutter, "I should have come in sooner."

Cedric brought the man into the beach to an infuriated and highly concerned wife. He met the kiter later in the bar that night when some additional information came out to fill in some of the blanks. The man bought Cedric some drinks and said profound thanks, something that doesn't always happen in such cases to his credit. The man said he noticed the wind start to edge and then clock off shore. He decided to head south and land at his traditional spot, (where no one else lands), instead of immediately heading towards the beach. At that point the wind speed dropped likely due to land wind shadow effects. Wind shadow alone has done in quite a few kiters over the years.



Depictions of just how badly wind shadow from upwind objects can mess up the wind. The whipping blobs are kiter-yarding gusts with the clear areas kite-stalling lulls. Part of this island approaches 120 ft. in height. Wind passing over that can be turbulent with gusts and lulls hindering kite flight out to a half mile or more. More about wind shadow and kiting, something that should be common knowledge among kiters at: Shadow Blasted ... Flying In Dirty Air


The man considered self-rescue but didn't want to get his kite wet and have to swim in. This was a particularly BAD choice among many others but a critical one. Soon, his kite stalled and hit the water while he was drifting towards the dropoff a little over 1/4 mile offshore. The water goes from less than 40 ft. to almost 4000 ft. deep off this massive undersea cliff or wall. He had missed his landing area and was making dead offshore to the west. He tried to relaunch eventually succeeding in doing so beyond the wall in deep water but the wind was too light to water launch for long on his board much less make upwind back to the island. He was committed at this point to a dead offshore drift with virtually nothing that he could do about it. Cedric saved the day and without his help and the luck that came with it might have floated adrift from days on his kite in a thinly navigated area. Alternatively, without any water, in potentially hypothermic conditions over time and without much hope of rescue he might have succumbed sooner.

You should swing by Adventure Sports Ft. Lauderdale to say hi to Cedric if you're in those parts. He's a personable, low key guy and a good man to have on your side when things go south. He is getting into kiting these days to supplement all his other windsport skills.



Adventure Sports Ft. Lauderdale

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Last edited by ricki; 08-19-2015 at 09:39 PM.
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Old 08-02-2013, 02:38 PM
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So, what hard won lessons to take from this?

1. Don't kite in offshore winds without a dedicated chase boat or someone watching you from shore to send one after you if needed. Kiting solo has its problems too and has been the undoing of quite a few riders over the years.

2. Don't assume the wind will stay constant. It can boost to hazardous levels, die, change direction, sometimes multiple times impacting the wind speed and potentially your ability to kite where you need to go. Know about wind shadow what causes it, impacts on kites and how to avoid it.

3. Never kite past a side or onshore wind landing area to an offshore wind landing area, particularly one loaded with rocks . There is just too much that can go wrong.

4. Always do proper weather planning and monitoring, more about that in the upper two stickies at http://www.fksa.org/forumdisplay.php?f=29 Resources will vary in quality from place to place. That puts the burden on the kiter and more experienced hands in the area if present about what the weather and wind might do that day.

5. Don't fall victim to "Last Day Syndrome" or any other artificial deadline which causes you to ignore your own good common sense. No session or part of a session is worth the rest of your life. When it is time to go in, do just that promptly well before hazards arrive in whatever form they might.

6. If your kite goes down and is drifting offshore, immediately setup for self-rescue. All kiters should be well practiced in a variety of techniques for packing down and self-rescue, without exception. You can sail pretty close to perpendicular to the wind using the kite as a sail. Trouble is, if the wind is dead offshore that may not get you back to land but see you drifting further offshore as you travel roughly parallel to it. If you put yourself in a situation like this through a serious error in planning/judgement, you may need to tow your kit in using your swimming skills. Wind drag may suggest dropping the pressure in your kite's leading edge. There is some disagreement about ever doing this but if needed you can blow it back up my mouth, partially anyway, it needed buoyed by your impact vest. Carrying reasonable safety gear just makes sense particularly when things don't go to plan.

7. It isn't known if the kiter was still trying to sail back to the island or was attempting to mark his location with an airborne kite. Either way, he was trying to do what little he could at that late time to help himself. This is important although prevention is a lot better and worth focusing on. Without the flying kite, it is possible Cedric might not have seen the kite at all and missed recovering the kiter.

These are just a few considerations, there are still more lessons to be taken from this experience. Kiting can be more complicated that it seems at times, it can be more than simply controlling a kite but knowing the environment your in and the variables acting on both it and yourself and managing them properly.


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Last edited by ricki; 08-02-2013 at 03:12 PM.
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Old 08-08-2013, 10:30 PM
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Excellent story. Trying to put myself in that man's situation, I'm torn between what I might do. Obviously avoiding the situation is crucial, and reading a story like this is beneficial in that regard. But, assuming that cow had already left the barn, and like this guy you found yourself in a situation drifting offshore from an island unnoticed and unable to relaunch in wind that has turned offshore (broken line or whatever), would you...

1. Ditch the kite and attempt to swim back upwind? This risks having nothing floating to hold onto if you can't make the swim against the wind, or...

2. Stay with the kite cause it's floating and more visible, and hope someone notices you're overdue and comes looking for you?

I know that attempting self rescue is the way to go, but let's assume it's an island like in the story and you're blowing offshore with nothing but horizon 90 degrees to the wind.

BTW, it's worth mentioning that by using the board as a lateral plane (like a daggerboard) it's possible to make a few degrees upwind in the self rescue situation which could eventually get you back to a long coastline even in offshore wind.

I know the right answer is to avoid getting into this pickle, but I'm curious to hear what would you do if you did get into the above situation because I'm thinking about it and not sure what I would do.
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Old 08-12-2013, 11:24 AM
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I hear you, one thing to always remember when kiting off an island ... is that you are kiting off an island! The land has boundaries and what is beyond that may be only water for a long distance. Wind can change and what was a windward shore can suddenly shift to an offshore boundary you may be hard pressed to reach under your own steam particularly with adverse currents. Currents can change or develop during a session particularly tidal currents. Anticipation and planning are key given that reacting to the problem once you've dropped yourself in it may not work out so well.

I always wear an impact vest so flotation is less of an issue for me. Also, the reflective tape on the vest can help rescuers see me at night. This can allow options along with strong swimming skills, that is assuming you are well enough to use them. Accidents happen and that may no longer be the case.

To answer your question, I would first try to avoid the problem knowing site layout, anticipating weather changes and avoiding trying to land on an offshore beach. Still, I screw up at times like everyone else.

I have had to deal with offshore conditions many times in the past, fortunately the distant past. In those cases the kite wouldn't stay flying and would keep stalling through land wind shadow effects. I setup for self-rescue immediately. If the wind is dead offshore, I know I can't readily sail back in so I slightly deflate the leading edge to reduce drag, grab a wing tip and start side stroking in to shore. In populous SE Florida, there can be a lot of boat traffic so staying with the kite can make sense particularly if sunset is hours away. Still if I was unable to drag the kite to shore and I was very confident I could make it in considering the impact vest, water conditions and my personal condition I might ditch the kite and swim in rather than stay with the kite. That is my choice, have dragged kite gear in over a couple of miles years back, am a strong swimmer. If folks are less certain about their chances they might do better staying with the kite, particularly if there is boat traffic in the area. This island was a special case, way out in the middle of no where with low odds of someone seeing the guy adrift.
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