Self Resuue and Cold Water***Be Prepared***

bulae99 · Since 12 Jul 2006 1692 Posts XTreme Poster

Last year first session of the year at Rufus I was out on my 9meter and went down on the far Washington side. I had my 4/3 wet suit on and was still really cold. The shock of the cold water really caught me off guard. Luckily I'm a strong swimmer. I went in to self rescue mode all the while keeping in mind the potential for Hypothermia as I'm getting my kite under control. As I'm swimming to my kite and pulling the lines and kicking my feet the lines are wrapping around my feet. With one arm around the kite, confidently in control of it, I'm sure the lines are safe. At this point I decide to wrap the lines up completely. Just then Willy shows up on his Zodiak!!

I learned a very important lessons from this experience:
* Always be warm even hot in early spring sessions.
* Be prepared for the cold and it's drain of your energy
* Don't be afraid to ask somebody to watch out for you
* Make friends with somebody who has a boat, ski, or kayak

After Willy picked me up I went out again and had a great day! I did drop my kite in the gusty conditions and self rescued again after this. I was close enough to the shore to get back in about 10 min.

After this double self rescue day I knew that I was ready for anything. I was lucky that all of my safety systems worked. I had checked them the day before. I was confident when I let the bar go that I was going to have a dead kite. I also knew that if the safety didn't work I could climb up one side of the kite. If that didn't work I knew that I could hit my leash release. I had checked this the day before as well. If that didn't work I knew I could hit the safety on my harness or my knife. I think the important lesson for me was he layers of safety and know that each worked becuause I had cheked them. Very Happy

pkh · Since 27 Feb 2005 6549 Posts Couve / Hood Honored Founder

Yeah don't kick to swim around your lines. Really if there is wind and your kite is okay you never need to "swim" you just crawl up the one line to your kite, grab on to the tips, and drag into shore.

bulae99 · Since 12 Jul 2006 1692 Posts XTreme Poster

When my kite goes down and I'm in a release the bar o crap mode I start swimming. I'm kicking with my legs in an eggbeater/water polo kick as I pull all the line to me. If it's going smoothly I will wind the line on the bar. If not for whatever reason I'm just getting the kite to me asap. The eggbeater kick allows me to keep my head up and I'm looking at the kite and what it is doing.
In this particular situation I was at Rufus and in fast moving water so I was eggbeater/kicking/swiming from the kite to maintain tension in the lines.

broadbandito · Since 26 Apr 2005 342 Posts CSO headwaters WheatHead

Yeah, good advice.

I was in a funky dying wind situation at the sandbar once where the Hood water and very light wind was pushing me NE and the Columbia water was pushing SW. Swimming out to the channel to round out the current seemed unwise with river traffic, but I could not make momentum back to shore either with the dead wind. I then made the mistake of thinking I would swim faster by deflating my leading edge. In hindsight I should have been patient as after about 20 minutes there were some fresh puffs that might have worked out. Fortunately the NWK Site Lackey came and saved my ass and then saved my kite as I had let it go we failed to make headway against the current. I owe PKH and Betty for that lesson. Other lessons: Know your site conditions (if I stayed a just bit more upwind there would have been no problem getting to shore); and know that if you try for "one last reach" in dying wind, you better be prepared to swim it in.

Wow, I just learned from reading a Dangler post that I was caught in the "Vortex of Despair"! It was.

bulae99 · Since 12 Jul 2006 1692 Posts XTreme Poster

In my situation the water was moving fast. I had dropped the kite and the current was moving kite and all towards me. This strong current is what makes Rufus good and not so good when your kite goes down.

Very Happy