It was a terrific day of kiting today at SPI, with winds blowing steady in the 25 to 35mph range. Unfortunately, there was a very near tragic incident. Here is my first-hand account of it.
Location: south end of North Flats, South Padre Island, 300 feet from shore
Water depth: 2.5 feet
Wind conditions: strong but steady winds, perhaps 25 to 30mph
Kiter: Loyd Mays (?), from Michigan
Skill level: Intermediate.
Kite: 8m Cabrinha
Mid-afternoon, kiting back towards shore, I spotted a kite drifting in the water, with no person in sight. I thought it must be a loose kite, and so I kited towards it hoping to catch it. Then I spotted a helmet floating loose in the water; then I spotted the body. It was floating face down, motionless.
I stopped about 15 feet downwind, dropped my kite, flagged it, and ran towards the body. It's hard to explain the sense of dread that came over me when I flipped it over. The face was completely white, eyes open and glazed over; the person was completely unresponsive, and not breathing. I was certain that he was dead.
I called for help as loud as I could and started mouth-to-mouth, blowing in as hard as I could, but his lungs were so full of water that it seemed that little air was getting in. The person was still attached to his kite and this point, via both the chicken loop and the leash, but the kite was leading-edge down, and sitting stably in the water. (I tried to release the chicken loop, but I wasn't familiar with the Cabrinha mechanism -- one has to push out the red slider instead of pulling it in.) Since the kite wasn't tugging or interfering, I concentrated on the mouth-to-mouth.
After perhaps two minutes, water started coming out of his lungs as I was blowing in air. I thought that he was coughing just a little, which gave me the slightest hope that he might still be alive. I continued calling for help and giving him mouth-to-mouth.
After about four minutes, another kiter arrived. With the other person holding the victim, I started compressing the victim's chest in between mouth-to-mouth breaths. With the baggy wetsuit on, it wasn't easy to do the compressions, but water started coming out of his mouth. Gradually, he started coughing and gurgling more visibly, and he appeared to be taking breaths, so I stopped the mouth-to-mouth.
It took other people longer than I expected to arrive on the scene. First, after perhaps 7 minutes, a kitting instructor arrived on a jet ski. He called 911, but otherwise didn't assist. Then three, four, and finally five people were there. Someone detached the kite. We all carried the victim to shore. The victim is a big guy, maybe 200 pounds; it was quite an effort to carry him. On the beach, he continued to spit out water, and started to be ever so slightly responsive. He spoke his name, but he didn't know or couldn't say where he was or what had happened.
The paramedics arrived and took him to the Brownsville hospital. Apparently, he's now conscious and stable, but the doctors are concerned about the effect of all that water in his lungs. Apparently, very serious lung infections can occur as a result of such water inhalation.
I didn't know the victim, Loyd Mays, but we had chatted a bit on the beach about the wind conditions that morning. I crossed him on the water several times. He seemed to be kiting in control. He was attempting small jumps, but he didn't seem to be pushing himself beyond his skill limits.
No one saw the kite crash. The only clue that it was a bad crash is that the victim's helmet was knocked off. No one knows how long he was in the water before I got to him. But a person can only live for 4 minutes without breathing. Every second mattered in terms of how quickly I got to him.
Lessons learned.
1) We should all constantly watch other kiters. Every time we see a kite crash, we should immediately scan the scene to make sure that the person is okay If there's the slightly doubt, we should kite over in their direction immediately. Seconds count. Getting a person air is the absolute priority.
2) In this case, in shallow water with all the kites down and stable, equipment didn't interfere with the rescue at all. But it could have. Getting everyone -- the victim and the rescuers -- detached from kites should be a critical priority. If the situation is serious, and the kites are not needed, say for floatation, one should eject all kites.
3) Kiting is a dangerous sport. Of all the injuries that we fear -- torn ACLs, sliced fingers, even spinal injuries -- by far the biggest risk is drowning.
--Marc
Very Near Tragic Incident at South Padre
Moderator: MK