Don’t get desperate for a session

Loneski · Since 18 Dec 2010 103 Posts Washington Stoked

For those of us that live in the light wind areas foiling has been a game changer. Sometimes desperation pushes us to get on the water even when we know it is a bad idea. Beware. First red flag was the fishermen who spread out all the way down the river every 50 feet. After finding a small section to set up and launch, the second red flag. The kite could just barely stay in the air. No problem, I will just wait a little longer as the wind slowly increases.
After what seemed like forever (probably only 15 minutes) the water began to ripple, the trees started to sway I launched the kite again and felt a little power. I enter the river between the pilings upwind and the fisherman down wind. Plenty of room, if I was powered up, to get up and riding before running into trouble.
That’s when things went from bad to worse. On my first loop of the kite to get up on my board the wind died. It’s ok I will just keep dragging out away from shore and clear the fisherman. The kite falls out of the sky and even though I’m a hundred feet away from shore I see the fishing line a foot off the water directly in front of me. My kite lines are over the fishing line and I am being pulled under it. I released my kite holding my chicken loop, slide it over the line and slide myself and my board under the line.
Once I’m free I reconnect and float away from shore and the fisherman. Unfortunately the tide grabs hold of me and as I try to swim towards shore it pulls me into the pilings.
I quickly wind up my lines just about the time everything sucks up into the pilings. It probably took me 30 minutes to get everything untangled and back out of the water. It could have been really bad but I got lucky.
Finally on shore it took another 30 minutes to get the kite lines untangled and by that time, what do you know, the wind really was strong enough to go kiting. So I found a spot without any fisherman down wind and had an awesome 2 hour session all by myself.
Moral of the story dont be so desperate that you go when you know you shouldn’t. There will always be another day.