14/08/2005 - instructors need rescuing
We were asked by the powers that be not to publish the events that took place today however we felt it was in the public's interest - if not to make our kitesurfing instructors just that little bit more humble.
Deciding to go for a kitesurf after lessons today, George, Andrew and Drew went out at nearly high tide from Whitstable in cross-offshore wind. That in itself wasn't so bad - what was amusing however was watching the boys try to kitesurf back in and land their kites when they had finished.
At Whitstable at high tide on a south westerly wind there is a huge wind shadow that extends about 200 metres from the beach and seriously affects kitesurfing. At low tide this isn't an issue as the water goes out past this but at high tide you have to tack through a no wind zone which is just impossible!
Needless to say our instructors should have known this, and Andrew was the first to dump his kite in the sea, perform a self rescue and then swim back into the beach - much to the amusement of everyone standing around. Drew and George both quickly followed suit as the wind starting switching off shore. Andrew decided to try to be helpful and tow the other two in with a sea kayak as the rescue boat was off station after the day had finished - the sea scouts were particular impressed with his rescue technique which involved going around in circles several times before working out how to paddle in a straight line.
All our instructors were recovered back to the shore in good order and were quite sheepish about the events although all tried to defend their choice of riding time by saying that if they didn't know how to self resue they would have been in trouble and that is why they could go out... No one else was particularly convinced.
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