What and how to do when things go sideways in a drift away to shark food situation? Considering there is no plb on you and noone waiting for you to come back to shore/home. Olso there is strong current channel pushing out downwind of the reef break wave.

I am worried about breaking mast when getting washed as i switched to full carbon mast and some big waves coming this week. I don't have much idea how to deal with that if there is noone around to ask for help.

First thing comes to my mind is ditch the rig completely and paddle hard to shallow white waters, not to get caught by channel, try to hold on to footstraps when waves hit, try to get in the lagoon.
Very expensive and still dangerous.

Whats the correct way to deal with these kind of situations, in general or specific to this scenario?

So far my self-rescues haven't been in too hairy of situations:

Mast Break 1: Happened to be close to the shore and would drift downwind. Got rescued by another IQFoiler with a boat anyway, which saved me a bit of time
Mast break 2: Probably a quarter mile swim in flat water dragging board/sail
Board too small and wind died and unable to uphaul: About quarter mile swim in current. This one felt the scariest due to the deep channel, current, and seeing lots of "sealife". Jumped on the board and laid on it when I saw something (turned out to be manatees)
Rig separation: Luckily only ~0.15miles out. Swam board and rig back while in water

I usually can at least get my body on the board and just let the sail do what it does. I try not to go too far out and stay away from offshore winds. I've started doing the tactic, if going far, to only do jibes near land, regardless of how far I am from home. That way, if something breaks or I crash hard during a turn then at least I have a short swim.

When I'm wavesailing there are at least a few others out usually and lots of people at the beach. The rip runs towards the area with the coast guards, so at least there's that. Some people go out way further than me but I prefer to stay pretty close in. Having swum back a few times, and gotten lucky with where equipment broke, I don't want to push it. If I was going further out than ~0.25 mile then I would probably invest in a personal beacon and be ready to ditch the rig and just paddle on the board like a surfer. I saw a video recently of a wingfoiler getting rescued at night by the coast guard. Usually at least there are some boaters around, but I don't like relying on that as a plan.

Often rigs break at the top of boom clamp. I have gotten in after this happen by stuffing the top section of mast into the luff pocket below the boom and lashing the mast sections together near the boom clamp with the uphaul. I was actually able to get foiling on the ride back in this way!

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utcminusfour said..
Often rigs break at the top of boom clamp. I have gotten in after this happen by stuffing the top section of mast into the luff pocket below the boom and lashing the mast sections together near the boom clamp with the uphaul. I was actually able to get foiling on the ride back in this way!

I was halfway into getting there with my first real mast break until I got rescued by boat. I was struggling, however, with wrangling my 9.0. It's gotta be easier with a smaller wave sail.

It helps to be a bit handy. There are many ways to get back to shore depending on break.

1. Always carry at least a 1m or 3' piece of line

2. Maybe carry spare tendon

3. Be able to swim back no matter where you are on the water

4. Stay with your gear or at a minimum your board

5. Slide top of mast upside down inside bottom broken piece when mast breaks

6. Sink your sail as deep or at least at 45 degrees below breaking waves and hang on the boom with your feet towards the sail tip

7. Roll up in a ball of caught in big waves with no gear

8. Breathe in before a wave crashes or you're about to fall in

9. Stay calm even you think you desperately need to breathe, we have much more time than we think

10. Position yourself between the wave and your gear, rotate your gear around quickly if it's facing the wave

This is one of the main topics for my next videos.

Local shallow reef break, 1-2km offshore, have had to do this a bit. Snapped board: body dragged in behind half a board.
Broken boom: took the remaining arm off and put on upside down to use to sail in.
Broken/lost fin bolts and lost fins: strapped harness to tail of board and used bar as a 'fin'. Also sailed nose first for this one.
Snapped masts: have unrigged in water and paddled in, also done similar to utcminusfour above.

Best preparation for me when I was sailing this spot was to go to the pool or beach once a week and swim 1500m+ so you can physically swim or paddle in, and also mentally know that you can.

Keep hold of your board. It's nice to save your rig as well however sometimes you have to be prepared to make the decision to chuck your rig if it's destroyed and holding you back.

Very good advise to swap boom around. You do it via the tip right?

I saw Diony pack up after breaking his mast. There is a risk of losing stuff, inconvenient to swim, and takes much longer to reach shore. I prefer using the upside down mast top technique.

Thanks for info guys.
I will get an uphaul rope for sure.
Putting both pieces of mast in the lower pocket sounds like can be done fast and safe. But i got confusef about that photo, why did you attach the boom to top part of mast? And what do you do with top part of sail flapping around?

You place the mast top inside the broken bottom piece. The mast top is inserted upside down (you first pull it out, then insert back where it was just upside down) and then it just drops in the bottom section. You can pull the sail up to take the wrinkles out and minimize sail damage.
I planed without issues like that, going upwind is limited though!

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Sea Lotus said..
What and how to do when things go sideways in a drift away to shark food situation? Considering there is no plb on you and noone waiting for you to come back to shore/home. Olso there is strong current channel pushing out downwind of the reef break wave.

I am worried about breaking mast when getting washed as i switched to full carbon mast and some big waves coming this week. I don't have much idea how to deal with that if there is noone around to ask for help.

First thing comes to my mind is ditch the rig completely and paddle hard to shallow white waters, not to get caught by channel, try to hold on to footstraps when waves hit, try to get in the lagoon.
Very expensive and still dangerous.

Whats the correct way to deal with these kind of situations, in general or specific to this scenario?

Yeah the age old question. Do I go out cause it's looking nasty if things go wrong? If I don't go out, it looks like I'll miss an epic sesh.
I think the correct way of dealing with this stuff is to use common sense, but that can be interpretted in many ways....
The first thing that gives me SOME confidence is if anyone else is out and how they're coping compared to my skill level.
I think you have to look at the conditions for some time before heading out - analysing wind direction, gusts, water currents, wave sizes and set consistency plus obstacles out there. Then assume a ripped sail which renders it non usable (or a bit of broken body - bone, tendon or ligament) and then consider what you would do from there. I'm now 50+ so the physical component for my body condition plays on my mind much more now where it rarely used to surface a decade ago.
As others have said, if you can take some cord/light strong rope with you to lash gear to your board and then paddle in, that's a good start.
I've been stranded over 1km out and have pulled the rig apart fully, and wrapped everything up and laid on the board to paddle home. Big thing when doing that is straddling the board while sitting on it and ensuring things that sink are held onto firmly or teathered so they don't go to the bottom if you accidentally let go. Easyish to do when it's calm, harder when it's windy and full on waves. If the waves are big and hollow, there's a big current running in a bad direction and/or offshore wind and your next port of call is Antactica (4000+ kms away), then I'd look for another alternative. Hopefully the worst case scenario is you ditch your rig and paddle the board back. If you don't make way paddling, then it's a pretty grim situation to be in. One that you'd regret putting yourself in.
Sailing with someone else is always a good thing as at least there's someone else to potentially help you out or go for help if you are compromised.
I've been in a situation where rig and board parted company. Board washed in 100m on a big wave which left me out the back with the rig in the middle of a rip. Swam into the rip trying to get assistance from the waves to make it in. Less than 3 mins of that showed no progress. Change it up then. Go sideways (which is what you should always do in a rip). Tried 10 mins heading down the beach but couldn't make any progress. OK, other way then. 15 mins there and still no progress. I was getting swamped by the inconsistent sets and was copping hold downs of 5+ seconds which is actually a fair bit when you're working hard to keep the rig afloat. In the end I let the rig go and it sank, but I know if I'd gone 5 mins longer I reckon I'd have drowned. I felt huge relief when I'd let it go and took about 5 more mins to swim in. I didn't have much left in the tank when I got onto the beach. FWIW, I don't regret the situation; I learned a LOT from it. I think if you sail in sketchy conditions, you HAVE to be prepared to jettison gear if things start looking bad. Your life is worth a lot more than a rig.
I now have an Apple watch, purely for rescue situations. It means I can go out with more confidence that if things get messy, I have some sort of backup. However, I need to be mindful that if the conditions are terrible (freezing cold and low viz), then a helicopter emergency rescue could take hours to find me. So I have to be able to keep warm while they come and get me. And the watch also doesn't mean I'll throw caution to the wind. It's just further backup if things go unexpectedly worse than anticipated.

Some great ideas/videos and tips given so far, but at 68 and sailing in waves and offshore reefs apart from keeping calm my tip is have a tow rope ( 2-3mtrs) thin but manageable, very strong wrapped on your harness hook and easy to release. It can keep your kit together and if there is anyone sailing kite /wingding or board they can tow you and your kit to shore more easily. Mine has helped me and others on many occasions over the years from up to 2k offshore.

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Gonewindsurfing247 said..

It will be definitely harder in the water than those guys show on firm ground

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Manuel7 said..
It helps to be a bit handy. There are many ways to get back to shore depending on break.

1. Always carry at least a 1m or 3' piece of line

2. Maybe carry spare tendon

3. Be able to swim back no matter where you are on the water

4. Stay with your gear or at a minimum your board

5. Slide top of mast upside down inside bottom broken piece when mast breaks

6. Sink your sail as deep or at least at 45 degrees below breaking waves and hang on the boom with your feet towards the sail tip

7. Roll up in a ball of caught in big waves with no gear

8. Breathe in before a wave crashes or you're about to fall in

9. Stay calm even you think you desperately need to breathe, we have much more time than we think

10. Position yourself between the wave and your gear, rotate your gear around quickly if it's facing the wave

This is one of the main topics for my next videos.

I will stick to these. As for the vids- nice but not doable in 40 knots and 2.5 waves and mush. I had once a situation like this- I was quite far out(do not do that)-when the rig desintegrated and the board slipped away from my feet- no way catching it. I stayed with the rig but was not moving (I thought I was but actually wasn't which is not very reassuring...). I did not dare to leave the rig, because swimming is not effective in 40 knots of grey mushy mayhem with all sorts of current. No one saw, of course. Thanks God I noticed a kiter and started waving and yelling. Maybe the bright colors of the sail and my neon green cap helped. The guy approached me- but I had no rope-so a hugged his knee with my left hand and pulled the rig with my right one clinging with all my strength towards salvation. No need to tell you that two days after that I couldn't unflex my left hand.. When I hit hard bottom the kiter disappeared never able to thank him. I am a windsurfing purist but hats low to kiting. Afterwards I found my board unscathed on the sand,my mates joking and laughing. So I was able to save myself, brand new rig and board. My tips- 1. double, triple check your gear, joint, ropes. 2never go too far out-think what might happen if... not very positive approach but it helps.3. Warn your friends to keep an eye on you when possible (do not sail alone in gnarly conditions). 4 sail should be in bright colors-avoid black, grey, blue, purple etc.5. be in good shape but always stick to whats left of your gear. Never rely on how good swimmer you are-the rough sea is not a swimming pool. Swimming must be your last option-better try floating first and let the waves eject you to shore if possible with saving energy as much as possible.

Great topic it's something we should all know. Had to help someone a couple of weeks ago self rescue. In the end a winger helped tow him back to safer water. Was a little reminder. uphaul ropes are handy but now thinking having some extra cord stuffed in harness pocket. Just in case.

Besides all the usefull infos you can also carry a mobile phone in a watertight bag. That is what we often do on winter times. There are also some smart watches on the market like: safetrxactive.com/en

On my last session (30 knots + waves) I forgot to lock in the mast base. I have no idea how it stayed on for so long before eventually disconnecting on a jump.

After falling in, I pulled the sail flat on the water and swam hard to the board. Got to it quickly and swam back to the sail.

1. When the board isn't connected to the sail one must watch out that the board doesn't fly away flipping over when lifted off by a wave! Try and keep it down wave / down wind of you.

2. Flip the board upside down. This is the trick to easily connect the sail back to the board.

3. With luck one can recover the base pad floating around downwind, I did!

Does most of my sailing alone here in Northern Norway.
I always try to keep within swimming distance from the shore and if conditions are rough I always sail on places where I end up on a beach drifting downwind.
This was a great tip
"Broken/lost fin bolts and lost fins: strapped harness to tail of board and used bar as a 'fin'. Also sailed nose first for this one."
Never occured to me that I could do this but it will work , and would have saved me for some hours of swimming in zubzero conditions.
Learning something from this forum constantly.
keep it up.....

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Gonewindsurfing247 said..

Some good tips there. The few times I've broken a boom it's been blowing 25kts with a 1-1.5m windswell and chop.. I can't imagine being able to take everything apart and stack it in those conditions.. Lucky I sail on a lake.

Yesterday was a pretty big day with very light winds, nobody outside the lagoon, so i went for slog and ride inside the lagoon 100mt away from coast, couldn't time transition and top turn on a 1,5mt wave which closed on my sail, mast broken and luff sleeve ripped, first time i used that mast and my first broken mast.

First tried paddling to shore as it was so close, 15mins paddling and i was still 100mt away, stong current pushed me downwind towards channel entry and no more breaking waves to help get closer. Then tried to tie the mast as you guys showed with uphaul rope, even that took 10mins and it was not a tight tie, mast was moving around too much, wavy water and very light wind made it incredibly hard to uphaul without rope (never practiced uphauling from mast before), impossible to waterstart. I was thinking about making a better tie with the rope i carry in my pocket but at this moment i was already sucked into the channel so i asked a kiter to tow me in as last resort.

Learned that lagoon is not so safe as i thought, was a mistake not to carry cell phone. Its not easy to fix things in wavy water and takes a lot of time if you did not practice before, not having a plan to make a good tie resulted in trial and errors. Time is crucial, especially in more nasty situations than this, having a plan and knowing priorities saves time.


Couldn't get the piece out, tried with pliers, any idea?

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martyj4 said..

Sea Lotus said..
What and how to do when things go sideways in a drift away to shark food situation? Considering there is no plb on you and noone waiting for you to come back to shore/home. Olso there is strong current channel pushing out downwind of the reef break wave.

I am worried about breaking mast when getting washed as i switched to full carbon mast and some big waves coming this week. I don't have much idea how to deal with that if there is noone around to ask for help.

First thing comes to my mind is ditch the rig completely and paddle hard to shallow white waters, not to get caught by channel, try to hold on to footstraps when waves hit, try to get in the lagoon.
Very expensive and still dangerous.

Whats the correct way to deal with these kind of situations, in general or specific to this scenario?

Yeah the age old question. Do I go out cause it's looking nasty if things go wrong? If I don't go out, it looks like I'll miss an epic sesh.
I think the correct way of dealing with this stuff is to use common sense, but that can be interpretted in many ways....
The first thing that gives me SOME confidence is if anyone else is out and how they're coping compared to my skill level.
I think you have to look at the conditions for some time before heading out - analysing wind direction, gusts, water currents, wave sizes and set consistency plus obstacles out there. Then assume a ripped sail which renders it non usable (or a bit of broken body - bone, tendon or ligament) and then consider what you would do from there. I'm now 50+ so the physical component for my body condition plays on my mind much more now where it rarely used to surface a decade ago.
As others have said, if you can take some cord/light strong rope with you to lash gear to your board and then paddle in, that's a good start.
I've been stranded over 1km out and have pulled the rig apart fully, and wrapped everything up and laid on the board to paddle home. Big thing when doing that is straddling the board while sitting on it and ensuring things that sink are held onto firmly or teathered so they don't go to the bottom if you accidentally let go. Easyish to do when it's calm, harder when it's windy and full on waves. If the waves are big and hollow, there's a big current running in a bad direction and/or offshore wind and your next port of call is Antactica (4000+ kms away), then I'd look for another alternative. Hopefully the worst case scenario is you ditch your rig and paddle the board back. If you don't make way paddling, then it's a pretty grim situation to be in. One that you'd regret putting yourself in.
Sailing with someone else is always a good thing as at least there's someone else to potentially help you out or go for help if you are compromised.
I've been in a situation where rig and board parted company. Board washed in 100m on a big wave which left me out the back with the rig in the middle of a rip. Swam into the rip trying to get assistance from the waves to make it in. Less than 3 mins of that showed no progress. Change it up then. Go sideways (which is what you should always do in a rip). Tried 10 mins heading down the beach but couldn't make any progress. OK, other way then. 15 mins there and still no progress. I was getting swamped by the inconsistent sets and was copping hold downs of 5+ seconds which is actually a fair bit when you're working hard to keep the rig afloat. In the end I let the rig go and it sank, but I know if I'd gone 5 mins longer I reckon I'd have drowned. I felt huge relief when I'd let it go and took about 5 more mins to swim in. I didn't have much left in the tank when I got onto the beach. FWIW, I don't regret the situation; I learned a LOT from it. I think if you sail in sketchy conditions, you HAVE to be prepared to jettison gear if things start looking bad. Your life is worth a lot more than a rig.
I now have an Apple watch, purely for rescue situations. It means I can go out with more confidence that if things get messy, I have some sort of backup. However, I need to be mindful that if the conditions are terrible (freezing cold and low viz), then a helicopter emergency rescue could take hours to find me. So I have to be able to keep warm while they come and get me. And the watch also doesn't mean I'll throw caution to the wind. It's just further backup if things go unexpectedly worse than anticipated.

Thanks a lot for your sharing!
Can I ask does Apple Watch send message if we need? Is that base on SIM card signal/reception? I am a non Apple Watch user, if yes, it worth to have one, like you said, life worth than anything.
cheers, from Tom

I'm sorry I may have misunderstood your post but can you tell us how the tips on this thread helped you?

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Sea Lotus said..
[...] mast broken and luff sleeve ripped, first time i used that mast and my first broken mast.

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Motsbane said..
Can I ask does Apple Watch send message if we need? Is that base on SIM card signal/reception? I am a non Apple Watch user, if yes, it worth to have one, like you said, life worth than anything.
cheers, from Tom

Short answer you need either the Apple Watch Ultra or any standard Apple watch with GPS + Cellular function.

Long answer you will need to connect the watch to a mobile account. Optus and Telstra have a $10 add-on plan for that. You also want to make sure you are in an area that has reception.

I also would try out making a call while out sailing without being in an emergency situation. The Apple Watch touch screen becomes almost impossible to use with wet fingers. Not sure how well Siri works when there is a lot of background noise from wind and water.

I have heard of people using Apple watches while windsurfing to call sea rescue for help but I wouldn't sole rely on it.

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Motsbane said..

martyj4 said..

Sea Lotus said..
What and how to do when things go sideways in a drift away to shark food situation? Considering there is no plb on you and noone waiting for you to come back to shore/home. Olso there is strong current channel pushing out downwind of the reef break wave.

I am worried about breaking mast when getting washed as i switched to full carbon mast and some big waves coming this week. I don't have much idea how to deal with that if there is noone around to ask for help.

First thing comes to my mind is ditch the rig completely and paddle hard to shallow white waters, not to get caught by channel, try to hold on to footstraps when waves hit, try to get in the lagoon.
Very expensive and still dangerous.

Whats the correct way to deal with these kind of situations, in general or specific to this scenario?

Yeah the age old question. Do I go out cause it's looking nasty if things go wrong? If I don't go out, it looks like I'll miss an epic sesh.
I think the correct way of dealing with this stuff is to use common sense, but that can be interpretted in many ways....
The first thing that gives me SOME confidence is if anyone else is out and how they're coping compared to my skill level.
I think you have to look at the conditions for some time before heading out - analysing wind direction, gusts, water currents, wave sizes and set consistency plus obstacles out there. Then assume a ripped sail which renders it non usable (or a bit of broken body - bone, tendon or ligament) and then consider what you would do from there. I'm now 50+ so the physical component for my body condition plays on my mind much more now where it rarely used to surface a decade ago.
As others have said, if you can take some cord/light strong rope with you to lash gear to your board and then paddle in, that's a good start.
I've been stranded over 1km out and have pulled the rig apart fully, and wrapped everything up and laid on the board to paddle home. Big thing when doing that is straddling the board while sitting on it and ensuring things that sink are held onto firmly or teathered so they don't go to the bottom if you accidentally let go. Easyish to do when it's calm, harder when it's windy and full on waves. If the waves are big and hollow, there's a big current running in a bad direction and/or offshore wind and your next port of call is Antactica (4000+ kms away), then I'd look for another alternative. Hopefully the worst case scenario is you ditch your rig and paddle the board back. If you don't make way paddling, then it's a pretty grim situation to be in. One that you'd regret putting yourself in.
Sailing with someone else is always a good thing as at least there's someone else to potentially help you out or go for help if you are compromised.
I've been in a situation where rig and board parted company. Board washed in 100m on a big wave which left me out the back with the rig in the middle of a rip. Swam into the rip trying to get assistance from the waves to make it in. Less than 3 mins of that showed no progress. Change it up then. Go sideways (which is what you should always do in a rip). Tried 10 mins heading down the beach but couldn't make any progress. OK, other way then. 15 mins there and still no progress. I was getting swamped by the inconsistent sets and was copping hold downs of 5+ seconds which is actually a fair bit when you're working hard to keep the rig afloat. In the end I let the rig go and it sank, but I know if I'd gone 5 mins longer I reckon I'd have drowned. I felt huge relief when I'd let it go and took about 5 more mins to swim in. I didn't have much left in the tank when I got onto the beach. FWIW, I don't regret the situation; I learned a LOT from it. I think if you sail in sketchy conditions, you HAVE to be prepared to jettison gear if things start looking bad. Your life is worth a lot more than a rig.
I now have an Apple watch, purely for rescue situations. It means I can go out with more confidence that if things get messy, I have some sort of backup. However, I need to be mindful that if the conditions are terrible (freezing cold and low viz), then a helicopter emergency rescue could take hours to find me. So I have to be able to keep warm while they come and get me. And the watch also doesn't mean I'll throw caution to the wind. It's just further backup if things go unexpectedly worse than anticipated.

Thanks a lot for your sharing!
Can I ask does Apple Watch send message if we need? Is that base on SIM card signal/reception? I am a non Apple Watch user, if yes, it worth to have one, like you said, life worth than anything.
cheers, from Tom

Yeah my apple watch has a Sim card in it, so I don't need the phone within range of the watch to be able to use the phone or message services of the watch. If you don't have a sim, then the phone can't do that without being within range. I think the Sim costs $10 (Aus) a month extra. For me it's worth it.
I've been out on the water and can verbally send messages by talking to the applewatch which can be really handy.
If you don't want to get a sim card for your applewatch, then you can also carry the phone with you in a waterproof pouch/case and have your applewatch on you so you can use it and not need to get the phone out of the case.

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Manuel7 said..
On my last session (30 knots + waves) I forgot to lock in the mast base. I have no idea how it stayed on for so long before eventually disconnecting on a jump.

After falling in, I pulled the sail flat on the water and swam hard to the board. Got to it quickly and swam back to the sail.

1. When the board isn't connected to the sail one must watch out that the board doesn't fly away flipping over when lifted off by a wave! Try and keep it down wave / down wind of you.

2. Flip the board upside down. This is the trick to easily connect the sail back to the board.

3. With luck one can recover the base pad floating around downwind, I did!

How do you do 2?

This is how I got my base back on

With the board upside down it's much easier to twist the base to get it to lock in as there'll be little tension on the base.

One may need to push the sail down a little especially with a standard mast. Just need to step on the mast.

In the video above you can see how difficult it is to pull the base in when the board is in normal position. Imagine in big swell with lots of wind!

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patronus said..

Manuel7 said..
On my last session (30 knots + waves) I forgot to lock in the mast base. I have no idea how it stayed on for so long before eventually disconnecting on a jump.

After falling in, I pulled the sail flat on the water and swam hard to the board. Got to it quickly and swam back to the sail.

1. When the board isn't connected to the sail one must watch out that the board doesn't fly away flipping over when lifted off by a wave! Try and keep it down wave / down wind of you.

2. Flip the board upside down. This is the trick to easily connect the sail back to the board.

3. With luck one can recover the base pad floating around downwind, I did!

How do you do 2?

To Hydrosurf: If board separation occurs in strong wind and big swell chasing the board is mission impossible. Stick to your rig and hope for the better...

Rig will float for some time (outside of the break) split second decision though. I recovered my board but it'll depend on your current situation. Otherwise yes stick with your sail.

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sprayblaze said..
To Hydrosurf: If board separation occurs in strong wind and big swell chasing the board is mission impossible. Stick to your rig and hope for the better...

Swim regularly to be fit enough - and - be prepared to ditch anything that's not helping you get to the shore. If separated from your floatation at decent distance from the shore and no help around, you should ask yourself the next question: "Do I want to waste energy and time in trying to save my rig"? Take temperature in consideration also, in cold water you'll "consume a lot of energy" in staying warm enough. When in doubt, ditch it.
Best preparation should be a quick risk assessment before every session. Take a few minutes to assess the conditions and you're own state of health.

Listen to Zane Schweitzer's podcast. Zane Schweitzer on risk assessment and management - YouTube