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Old 01-16-2007, 01:14 AM
tautologies tautologies is offline
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Default Kitesurfer rescues 6 kids from outrigger canoe.

I just wanted to give some praise to my friends Hendrik and Luke. Awesome friends and great kiters!!!

We were out kiting in marginal winds in Kailua bay, first we were riding over by flat island out of any surfers way and Luke asks me if I wanted to ride in jump city.

There were some pretty good sized swells coming in, maybe 20 foot on the outside, (they were maybe 10-15 where the kids were) and as we were heading over, Hendrik alerts us about 6 young guys in the water, getting punished by the swell, the current there seemed to pull them out to the ocean and the waves were pushing them in. Their outrigger canoe was maybe 200-300 feet further in and filled with water....now for the ones that have not been there, when the there are bigger waves, there is a very wide belt of waves you have to get through..and they are breaking all over...tricky place to be kiting in marginal winds..

Upon realizing what is going on Luke rides over to the guys me and Hendrik and I immediately turn to get help from some surfers with a boat. When we get there, I alerted a guy in a single outrigger he reacted, but the surfers were not very interested in taking their boat into the break...(still they had one of those boats that possibly could do this) While my friend, Hendrik, started dragging the guys one by one towards the canoe Luke were circling trying to stay upwind in the swell making sure every one were okay.... Hendrik said some of the guys seemed panicky..understandably so.

They got hit by waves on the boat, and lost it over again.

I tried helping but did not have enough power to stay upwind. I went to shore to alert the life guards. When I came in the guy in the single outrigger had already alerted the lifeguard and they had called for a rescue...but it could take some time before the rescue were there. I went back to my kite and the wind got a little stronger...so I went back out...by the time I got back out the canoe was through the waves, and the guys were still away from their canoe as they lost their hold every time the waves hit them, another kiter continued to drag them over to their canoe...I tried, but still didn't have enough power to ride very well...and the remaining guys got over to their canoe...they could now just drift to shore.

I am not sure, but for me it felt like a dramatic situation because it happened so far from shore with big waves, and the canoer's didn't have any flotation help. At least they got some help through the breaking waves...in any case, I think my friends deserve some praise for the heroic effort they showed. This could easily have been a situation with disastrous consequences.

A.
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Old 01-16-2007, 08:43 AM
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C. Moore C. Moore is offline
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good job guys..
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Old 01-16-2007, 08:48 AM
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A view over a portion of Kailua Bay in much calmer conditions

Thanks for posting this Alex. It sounds like rescue from shore may have taken some time to arrive, perhaps too long for some. Kiters were there and they acted for positive effective as has happened in the past. We can travel quickly and fairly easily through surf unlike quite a few other craft. As we are standing up we also have a good visibility to effect rescues. I have heard that some would like to see kiters leave Kailua. I would think that some kids and their parents may have cause to feel differently. I wonder if the local media on Oahu has heard about this?

Way to go guys!


Last edited by ricki; 01-16-2007 at 02:37 PM.
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