Wabamun Lake - Safety Tips!
Big Air Jim:
Hi everyone I’d just like to make sure that with fall and eventually spring coming we all should have a rescue protocol established for our own safety and the safety of our friends and relatives.
I spent far too long in the water yesterday, as I did three years ago as well. Similar calamities. The unthinkable or at least, the least expected.
Blaine mentioned a very long swim he had earlier this year. If it had not been for his wetsuit and his life jacket, there could have been a catastrophic end to the story he tells of watching his foil board get smaller as it foiled away from him as he stepped out the back door. Everyone knows you have NO chance of catching your gear if it gets away from you.
Lessons learned.
1. Never ever consider entering the water for a session on your wind-water sport unless you have all the gear on.
2. Never venture further from shore then you would like to swim home.
3. Have a contingency plan. Discuss it with all who are sailing, and those who are onshore. What happens if ......?
4. Never NEVER leave your board.
5. Keep track of where everyone in your group is. Oh, we haven’t seen Joe for the last two or three reaches! Where’s Joe?
6. Where is the nearest boat, jet ski, rescue vessel? Who has access to it? Is it ready to go?
We should be aware that the coming late season sailing will mean great wind with cooler water. Just like early season sailing cold waters will accelerate the need for action when your sailing partners are missing on the water.
Just Saying!
Special thanks to Cam, Kent, Mike, and Benjamin. Your actions were very much appreciated. I was sooo glad to see Kent and Benjamin on Cam's jet ski.
Thank you.
Jim
Shuswap Lake, BC
Andreas's Report:
No kiting for me this week but I did get out behind a boat a bunch in the Shuswaps.
Lac St. Anne - Alberta Beach
Harold's Report:
Here is the Wednesday report, such as it is.
Mike, Allan, and I drove out to Lac Ste Anne. We sailed for about an hour.
It was one of those days where if you caught a gust you had to choose between a rip or a planing jibe. As a result, there were a lot of pivot jibes, some successful (and some not so much).
Mike did just fine on his 15-meter kite, but even he noticed the lulls and gusts.
Still, I’m glad we went out, met some friends and had a little fun.
Dried Meat Lake - Ted's Place
Ted's Report:
We had a big wind storm last night and it did some damage to the flashing on our deck. It looked windy (although very gusty), but I had to spend the day repairing the deck. We got away lucky. Our neighbour to the South had their living room and bedroom windows broken and the glass railing torn off their deck.
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| Lou's photo from our deck. This one missed us, but the next one got us at about midnight! |
Pigeon and Slave Lake
No report, but I see from Strava that Blaine got out on Pigeon, although the weeds were interfering with is foil, and Gerry got out on Slave Lake.
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