A Real Kite Crossing Challenge

[Kevinousdigian]

Read the article below about an adventurous kiter who attempted to cross the Red Sea only to encounter a 'lull' and some sharks.

I was kitesurfing in Florida off Manasota Key (between fort myers and Tampa) in February and every year we see sharks out from the beach (see picture of one my son caught). This year there were more coming up right by shore, even at 3-4 pm and then some bigger ones (6+') coming in to feed at sunset. Thankfully I didn't see them while kiting but after reading the article I'm thinking maybe I should bring a knife along...
One of the days I was kiting the fog rolled in and it was so weird because 1/5th of a mile from shore I couldn't see the shoreline (see picture below) but the wind stayed nice and steady. On the 2 other windier days the port ramps were phenomenial there and the sun and 75 degree water was nice too.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... d-Sea.html

Knife-wielding kite surfer defeats Red Sea sharks
Wed Mar 07 11:50:07 UTC 2012
By Marcin Goettig

WARSAW (Reuters) - Polish kite surfer Jan Lisewski fought off repeated shark attacks, overcame thirst and exhaustion in a two-day battle of survival on the Red Sea, Polish media reported on Tuesday.

The 42-year-old Lisewski had completed two thirds of a 200 km (124 miles) attempt to cross the Red Sea from the Egyptian town of El Gouna to Duba in Saudi Arabia when the wind suddenly stopped, deflating his kite.

Faced with rising waves and approaching nightfall the Gdansk-born Polish kite surfing champion and instructor sent out his first SOS signal, but it took nearly 40-hours for the Saudi Arabian coastguard to find him.

Lisewski -- who became the first person to kite surf across the Baltic Sea last year -- survived the ordeal with help of energy drinks, some water, two energy bars and a trusty knife to fight off sharks up to six metres (yards) long.

"I was stabbing them in the eyes, the nose and gills," Lisewski told Polish state news agency PAP.

Mark's shark

Mark shark.jpg (47.65 KiB) Viewed 1613 times

My daughters Kathryn and Linnea keeping watch over me.

IMG_3144 Kevin kiting fog linnea Kath waving low rez.jpg (23.01 KiB) Viewed 1613 times

[windthrash]

Me being in Guam, where many ships and planes were sunk in WW2, see sharks quite often. I have yet to get out, but I believe I am prepared. Guam is known as the number 2 dive location in the world because of it's variety of coral reefs and underwater caves, but also because of sooooo many sharks. You have literally 60% or more of all the species of sharks on the planet around Guam. The Pacific side is cooler and very very deep so there are Great Whites and Reef sharks, Hammerheads and the ever known Tiger sharks. The Philippine Sea side has less but still many. The water is soo deep too that you can't see shadows either until it's too late. But I picked up an SOG (http://sogknives.com/store/FX-10.html), in belief that carrying it may potentially save my life. All the windsurfing shark attacks you hear about are Tiger sharks and just the other night while on watch, I was looking over the side of the ship and saw 2 8-12 ft sharks playing around in the shallows by the pier. In the morning, I could see two more that looked about the same length, and they were Tiger sharks chomping on a loose mooring line.

They are out there, and this story is definitely one to pay attention to. I am glad you posted this Kevin. Great info! And sweet pics!