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injured or unconscious kiter, how to help?

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Created by lovelife > 9 months ago, 10 Aug 2015
Dl33ta
TAS, 461 posts
14 Aug 2015 7:24PM
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glendog said..
I was kiting along one day and a board came randomly from the sky and almost hit me. I had no idea where it came from then about 50m away i saw a kite down but couldnt see the person. I kited straight over and found what i thaught was a dead body attatched to the kite.
We were about 50m out but still only knee deep, first thing i did was call out as loud as i could then rolled the body over because it was face down. This was quite hard because i was in boots but i got him so his face was out then just sat there. Kites still attatched ( i didnt pull safety because they were slowly dragging us into shore) i saw people running in and it felt like it took ages for them to get to us. I felt so useless just sitting there as he i dont think he was breathing but he was so limp and heavy its all i could do. When the guys got there they took him off me and floated him back to shore. Me and one other guy sorted landed the kites. And went over to help.
My gitlfriend was on the phone straight away to the ambos from when i first called out, they stayed on the line and told us what to do. I still thaught he was dead and it started to set in so i went up to the road and waved down the ambulance who took just 8 minutes from when my girlfriend called.
By now there was lots of foam coming out his mouth and he started having fits or sciesure or something. Then they took him.
He ended up in a comer for a few days but made a full recovery. Haha now hes a base jumper.
The ambo drivers came back the next day to congradulate us for saving his life but at this time we still didnt know if he would survive.


I reckon this has to be about the sum of what you could effectively do with anyone close to your own weight without making the situation worse. Trying to come in through a shore break trying to hold someone and your kite would be an unimaginable nightmare. If you attach yourself to them you risk some serious whitewater collision with the inert body and if you don't he gets swept away in the wash, probably going under.

I reckon I would stay outside the break until help arrived, if that wasn't an option I'd probably ditch both kites put him/her on my surfboard and ride tandem into shore. Very low chance of success in anything above waist high surf.

Kamikuza
QLD, 6493 posts
14 Aug 2015 8:03PM
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awkward customer said..

CAVEAT: That was 20 years ago and things may have changed


You can tell by the way I use my walk I'm a woman's man, no time to talk...

glendog
QLD, 520 posts
14 Aug 2015 8:56PM
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Dl33ta said..

glendog said..
I was kiting along one day and a board came randomly from the sky and almost hit me. I had no idea where it came from then about 50m away i saw a kite down but couldnt see the person. I kited straight over and found what i thaught was a dead body attatched to the kite.
We were about 50m out but still only knee deep, first thing i did was call out as loud as i could then rolled the body over because it was face down. This was quite hard because i was in boots but i got him so his face was out then just sat there. Kites still attatched ( i didnt pull safety because they were slowly dragging us into shore) i saw people running in and it felt like it took ages for them to get to us. I felt so useless just sitting there as he i dont think he was breathing but he was so limp and heavy its all i could do. When the guys got there they took him off me and floated him back to shore. Me and one other guy sorted landed the kites. And went over to help.
My gitlfriend was on the phone straight away to the ambos from when i first called out, they stayed on the line and told us what to do. I still thaught he was dead and it started to set in so i went up to the road and waved down the ambulance who took just 8 minutes from when my girlfriend called.
By now there was lots of foam coming out his mouth and he started having fits or sciesure or something. Then they took him.
He ended up in a comer for a few days but made a full recovery. Haha now hes a base jumper.
The ambo drivers came back the next day to congradulate us for saving his life but at this time we still didnt know if he would survive.



I reckon this has to be about the sum of what you could effectively do with anyone close to your own weight without making the situation worse. Trying to come in through a shore break trying to hold someone and your kite would be an unimaginable nightmare. If you attach yourself to them you risk some serious whitewater collision with the inert body and if you don't he gets swept away in the wash, probably going under.

I reckon I would stay outside the break until help arrived, if that wasn't an option I'd probably ditch both kites put him/her on my surfboard and ride tandem into shore. Very low chance of success in anything above waist high surf.


i was so lucky in this situation that it was shallow water although thats probably why he KO'd himself in the first place. but this guy was about 85kgs and im 60kg it woulda been so different if it was deep or in the surf especially with boots on.
funny enough a few days later i was running my lines out and a mate came from high up and landed head first on the sand right beside me. this one was alot easier to deal with a few of us ran straight over and pulled the safety. he was out cold for a bit tho then he was all dopey and kept saying the same **** over n over. one of the other guys took him to hospital.

Kay1982
NSW, 274 posts
14 Aug 2015 8:58PM
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Kami you nerd! Well done my friend I thought no one whatched my movies since I did escape plan!

Kamikuza
QLD, 6493 posts
14 Aug 2015 9:58PM
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awkward customer said..
Kami you nerd! Well done my friend I thought no one whatched my movies since I did escape plan!


Cool! What was it like to have Vinnie do chest compressions on you? I bet sliding across the floor was fun...

Kay1982
NSW, 274 posts
14 Aug 2015 10:17PM
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Di##head, fair enough you win this round. But remember the sandwich you walk past is the sandwich you eat later.

Kamikuza
QLD, 6493 posts
15 Aug 2015 12:38AM
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awkward customer said..
Di##head, fair enough you win this round. But remember the sandwich you walk past is the sandwich you eat later.



S'alright, I had to google Escape Plan... Must say, as "body sliding across the floor", you weren't nearly as attractive as "Abigail".

lovelife
SA, 160 posts
18 Aug 2015 1:55PM
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glendog said..

Dl33ta said..


glendog said..
I was kiting along one day and a board came randomly from the sky and almost hit me. I had no idea where it came from then about 50m away i saw a kite down but couldnt see the person. I kited straight over and found what i thaught was a dead body attatched to the kite.
We were about 50m out but still only knee deep, first thing i did was call out as loud as i could then rolled the body over because it was face down. This was quite hard because i was in boots but i got him so his face was out then just sat there. Kites still attatched ( i didnt pull safety because they were slowly dragging us into shore) i saw people running in and it felt like it took ages for them to get to us. I felt so useless just sitting there as he i dont think he was breathing but he was so limp and heavy its all i could do. When the guys got there they took him off me and floated him back to shore. Me and one other guy sorted landed the kites. And went over to help.
My gitlfriend was on the phone straight away to the ambos from when i first called out, they stayed on the line and told us what to do. I still thaught he was dead and it started to set in so i went up to the road and waved down the ambulance who took just 8 minutes from when my girlfriend called.
By now there was lots of foam coming out his mouth and he started having fits or sciesure or something. Then they took him.
He ended up in a comer for a few days but made a full recovery. Haha now hes a base jumper.
The ambo drivers came back the next day to congradulate us for saving his life but at this time we still didnt know if he would survive.




I reckon this has to be about the sum of what you could effectively do with anyone close to your own weight without making the situation worse. Trying to come in through a shore break trying to hold someone and your kite would be an unimaginable nightmare. If you attach yourself to them you risk some serious whitewater collision with the inert body and if you don't he gets swept away in the wash, probably going under.

I reckon I would stay outside the break until help arrived, if that wasn't an option I'd probably ditch both kites put him/her on my surfboard and ride tandem into shore. Very low chance of success in anything above waist high surf.



i was so lucky in this situation that it was shallow water although thats probably why he KO'd himself in the first place. but this guy was about 85kgs and im 60kg it woulda been so different if it was deep or in the surf especially with boots on.
funny enough a few days later i was running my lines out and a mate came from high up and landed head first on the sand right beside me. this one was alot easier to deal with a few of us ran straight over and pulled the safety. he was out cold for a bit tho then he was all dopey and kept saying the same **** over n over. one of the other guys took him to hospital.


This is the exact kind of scenario I am affraid of seeing while out riding. Thanks for sharing your experience.


Overall, some great suggestions in this thread, thanks everyone!
Cya on the water and safe riding

Kit3kat
QLD, 139 posts
22 Sep 2015 8:20AM
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For CPR and chest compressions, the recommendation used to be mouth-to-mouth and timed compressions. People felt icky about putting their mouth on a "dead" person and it didn't really do much good. There was all that stuff about pressing in the right spot at the right rhythm and all that. Now the recommendation is "push hard on their chest", it's better than nothing. So, do the best you can. If you can't don't worry about it.


.


This is not just about ickyness. Afaik the recommendation got changed as it has been shown that for most out of hospital arrests giving rescue breaths at all made very little difference to survival rates in adults - probably coz a)Most adult problems are caused by an initial cardiac problem rather than a breathing problem and b) People who try to do mouth to mouth and aren't (well) trained in CPR will usually do ineffctive breaths and waste too much time doing those while at the same time doing ineffective chest compression.

HOWEVER, if your co-kiter looks like hes about 25 years old I would seriously scratch my head as to why he suffered a cardiac arrest while kiting. I'd probably put my money on something like a seizure or a high impact knock out. In that case doing just chest compressions on its own are likely to be highly ineffective without trying to get some oxygen into their lungs first...
Either way, in all cases of arrests in water there will be a degree of drowning involved so do not skip mouth to mouth.


@lovelife
I havn't seen anyone loosing consciousness in water but here is what I'd probably do:

Ditch my board. Release their kite. Unleash from the bar (I have a switchblade, so not essential to be connected)*.

Wrap my leash below their arms and back onto the harness. If leash is too short for that then just connect to his/her harness. Keep him/her face up. Kite to the edge of the window and touch water, pray that there is enough pull on the kite and put right arm around his/her chest.

Left arm through the bottom of the bar and pull towards you. That will hopefully keep the kite powered and on the sea without bouncing around so you can now take your left hand and pinch their nose and tilt the head back a bit. Then rescue breaths until at shore. There is perhaps a chance that he/she is still breathing but you probably do little harm if you have good opportunity to give breaths.**

If its a sandy beach without rocks i would just keep bodydragging onto the sand (people are heavy, trust me...) then flag kite or pull safty. Then do CPR if no pulse/breathing and try to get someones attention.

No point doing chest compressions on the water. Won't work. If your mates head doesnt float close enough to your face while bodydragging and you can't get a seal with your mouth while pinching their nose there's also no point giving rescue breaths imho.


*realistically you need to attach yourself in one form or another if you are that far out. Just imagine what would happen if you bodydrag and let go by accident or because the other person is sort of heavy.

** Let's assume your mate had a seizure or was hit by a board on their head and your mate is wearing an impact vest and has got a kite with decent downwind pull so that the head was never underwater. In that case you only have to get them safely to shore and while they won't like you interfering with their breathing it will cause relatively little harm.



s_h_a_n_o
WA, 88 posts
22 Sep 2015 9:43PM
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I've been trying to think through whether you'd be better off ditching your kite, and instead using the casualties kite - assuming it's still able to be relaunched.

Essentially roll them on their back, position yourself behind them, reach under their arms and fly their kite to body drag back to shore. The kite helps keep their torso up out of the water, you only have to focus on flying their kite, as by doing that you're attached to them. Can wrap your legs around them to help keep them stable against you. Use your board for added floatation and steering.

Like the idea of using your safety leash to attach yourself to them - got taught a similar technique in rope access rescue.

king of the point
WA, 1836 posts
23 Sep 2015 3:38PM
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Drive / Ride forward
Reverse / Ride Back

Drive / Ride Forward
Reverse /Ride Back


Drive / Ride Forward
Reverse / Ride Back

Be sure 4 times is recommended after all its a kiter and we know what there on

Drive / Ride Forward
Reverse / Ride Back

Joking ill read your thread now


Kit3kat
QLD, 139 posts
25 Sep 2015 2:34AM
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shano82 said..
I've been trying to think through whether you'd be better off ditching your kite, and instead using the casualties kite - assuming it's still able to be relaunched.

Essentially roll them on their back, position yourself behind them, reach under their arms and fly their kite to body drag back to shore. The kite helps keep their torso up out of the water, you only have to focus on flying their kite, as by doing that you're attached to them. Can wrap your legs around them to help keep them stable against you. Use your board for added floatation and steering.

Like the idea of using your safety leash to attach yourself to them - got taught a similar technique in rope access rescue.



what if you let go by accident and it's windy? yes, modern bow kites depower pretty sweet if the bar is set up well and you let go, but there is still a significant downwind pull even if at the edge.

noodelsrominov
VIC, 265 posts
25 Sep 2015 11:16AM
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The second thing we were always taught after removing any danger is checking that the air ways are clear. They could have seaweed or something else lodged in their throat turning an unconscious person in to suffocating unconscious person.



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"injured or unconscious kiter, how to help?" started by lovelife