so apparently the spot tracker either spent the batteries or a crash submerged the dry bag, but had the wife a little worried when my last known point was RACE ROCKS! attached to a 12 at that!

KUS wrote:facebook oh well, I'm sure you will post some where old guys can see them too

its a public gallery, you don't need to be a FB member

https://www.facebook.com/Surfasaur/medi ... 322&type=1

Awesome job guys! So whens the next one?

A BIG Thanks To everyone who helped in organizing the downwinder. What a trip. Thanks to the spotter/camera person in the boat for all the pictures. Most of all thanks to my wife and son for being apart of this with me. WOW 100+kms of kiting. Kicking up my sore legs today!!!

Cheers,
Scott

Well done Cook st. 8 Waiting impatiently for some go-pro footage

skywalker wrote:

KUS wrote:facebook oh well, I'm sure you will post some where old guys can see them too

its a public gallery, you don't need to be a FB member
https://www.facebook.com/Surfasaur/medi ... 322&type=1

u think I would post that if I could see it thx for posting some pix JL looks like a fun event, nice going. That swelly spot looks like the reef just east of Otter Pt

Those are from Lukes facebook pics. I'm hoping he's o.k. with that

trying to get a BWD album started, only 15 up so far: http://www.bigwavedave.ca/gallery/displ ... play_media

I'd like to ask the people involved to send me a PM on what they thought could be improved upon for the next time.
Personally I felt that we got very seperated quickly. Riding along in the front of the pack I bailed twice and was way back within a couple minutes. When JDS went down at Race we kinda left him... and for me to have returned and helped it would have been almost impossible... so huge props to Rod saving the board! I probably couldnt have found his board and probably would've put myself in danger of losing mine!
I feel as if we need two boats on in the front and one in the back. or at the least one kiter that nobody passes and has a radio on him/her to communicate with the boat.
Overall though we got very lucky without any major freighter traffic or crazy bouncing ebb tide against the winds. Most were wearing PFDs and helmets.
however, the boat took a beating and nearly ran out of gas... so to resolve that I'd drive the boat up in the early morning and stock lots of gas!
glad this was a huge success and I will be chatting everyone up at the yacht club tomorrow bragging about it!!! come join us for wednesday night racing at 5 ish on the docks.. my boat Zig Zag is always looking for crew

abetanzo wrote: one kiter that nobody passes and has a radio on him/her to communicate with the boat.

That is the ticket, having a lead kiter on the VHF.

Three gas tanks

Everyone with a spot tracker

tighter group, max 500m spread

Ideally everyone has a VHF, and a small flare kit and flashlight gets dark fast.

Thoughts:

One boat is ok, as two is probably not realistic. Boat ABSOLUTELY must have an airhorn to establish immediate contact.

Spreading out is ok but there needs to be pre-established rally points – say off beechey head and at the Race Rocks approach, and after Race Rocks. Those ahead wait at those spots, regroup, then leave together.

At 15-20mph, we are moving fast…so if someone wipe outs or loses board, the crowd is way ahead…..and much less fun trying to race to catch up if there’s big seas and overpowered...rushing just leads to more wipeouts.

Any time air horn blows once, time to rally. It was unclear what 2 blasts mean...."medical emergency, get to shore"....but there's nowhere to go on shore....really can only keep going?

Boat should ideally stay at the back of the pack, can see everyone in front, so can tell if there’s trouble. Especially in Race area.

Rest: at one point, my toes were numb in my straps and it felt like calves were cramping up … but couldn’t stop or the group is gone. Would be nice to be able to stop for a breather now and then…even 30 seconds to float in the water and flex your toes. Rally points.

Spare board: should have at least one spare board in boat in case anyone loses one or something breaks. But also would be fun to stow a 2nd board, change it up part way.

Visibility: if someone had an emergency and had to punch out, it would be quite difficult to find them how the seas were around Race. As I was body dragging in 3-4’ waves off Race to find my board, I was thinking about how my black on black colour pattern isn’t exactly optimal for search and rescue. High-vis vest would be very useful. Bright coloured helmet optimal or strips of reflective tape.

Mobile VHF: I didn’t have a pocket, so gave mine to RainX…..but that could save your butt, and also open up communication possibilities with rest of the team. They are about $100.

Flares / whistle / light: the basic stuff you keep in a “go bag” in a boat, so they can find you if you go overboard…if things go really bad, you’re just a little black dot floating in a churning sea, somewhere in a 5km square patch, at dusk.

PFD: mandatory…in the very wrong situation, it’ll save your life.

Personal locator: many Swiftsure fishermen now carry personal epirbs, cost about $300, when you flip the switch, it sends out your GPS coordinates to search and rescue, and also has a bright blinking light. I don’t have one (yet) but when I get one, I’d bring it on next one for sure. That feeling of comfort should things go poorly.

Not wanting to be a buzz kill or get silly about safety … but those are some things that come to mind.

Overall.....super fun.....I'd do it again fore sure. Maybe next time on a strapless foilboard.

I will give some thought to improvements although I was so stoked it seemed perfect to me!
1. some rally points along the way. Could be as simple as the lead kiter slowing right down and we all kite towards him/her or the boat passes all of us and stops.
2. we do need a good spread in those conditions but at times we were probably too far apart.
3. the buddy system worked well, I thought.
4. once past Race Rocks it seemed to turn into a speed test for a while.
fun but if you fell in, you were way behind.

Would do it again tomorrow....okay, maybe in a week or so!

Thanks once again to Luke and Adrian!

martin

Luke,
Any chance of getting the pics on a USB flash drive/thumb drive so we could get the full megapixel image as it came off the camera.
I am happy to provide the flash drive.
Some terrific shots!

Thanks, martin

Well I submitted what I thought was a 'hot' piece for the Sooke News Mirror about the Downwinder. But then the whole building burnt down just a few hours after I made the submission! Seriously. My Bank, Beer Store, and Pizza Joint is gone too

Without a beer and pizza joint, you probably don’t need cash!