Two surf skiers were rescued by the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) in an ‘intricate operation’ at sea after they faced challenging weather conditions between Simon’s Town and Miller’s Point.
The NSRI station at Simon’s Town received a call from a concerned eyewitness who ‘saw the surf skiers in trouble’ on Thursday, according to Andrew de Kock, NSRI Simon’s Town station commander, as reported by IOL.
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The surf skiers pressed the SafeTrx emergency button on a cellphone, which alerted the NSRI.
‘On arrival on the scene, 0.3 nautical miles offshore of Fisherman’s Beach, conditions were poor with fading light, gusting gale-force winds, whipping sea spray, 1 to 1.5-metre sea swells, white water wind chop sea swells and near blinding sea spray,’ said De Kock.
‘This saw drenching waves come over the wheel-house and over the stern deck, and we found both men to be in peril,’ De Kock added.
One man was still onboard the surf ski, while the other man was in the water, holding onto the surf ski while appearing ‘to be severely hypothermic’, according to De Kock.
‘They had discarded one of their paddles and they were using the other paddle to signal their position towards our approaching rescue craft,’ said De Kock.
The rescue team circled the two men to approach them from an upwind direction, but due to the severity of the situation, it was decided to activate the NSRI’s rigid-hull inflatable boat and another NSRI craft, named Jack&Irene, to assist.
During the first attempt, the approach to the casualties resulted in the rescue craft ‘being blown away’.
It was then decided to circle the casualties a second time and despite the waves and spray, the rescue team managed to position the rescue craft ’10 to 15 metres’ from the two men, according to De Kock.
‘The first man, who was severely hypothermic, was assisted (swum) to the stern by one of the rescue swimmers, with the help of the deck crew after a safety rope was passed to them […] Two additional rescue swimmers assisted the man onto the platform before the other two deck crew recovered him onto the heaving deck and the man being severely hypothermic was not able to help himself,’ said De Kock.
‘Our crew assisted him into the shelter of the warm wheelhouse where they initiated rewarming treatment […] The second rescue swimmer then returned to the surf-ski where the first rescue swimmer had been maintaining a degree of control of it,’ De Kock added.
Both were then able to ‘wrestle the surf-ski to the stern of the rescue craft’ where the NSRI’s deck crew were able to assist in recovering the surf-ski onto the rescue craft, where it was secured.
‘Despite the casualty craft being secured to the stern, during the return leg our crew had to hold onto the surf-ski to prevent it from being swept off and blown away by the fierce winds and by the tumultuous seas,’ said De Kock.
‘The surf-skiers, both local adult males and highly experienced extreme sport surf-skiers, are commended for having and using our free NSRI SafeTrx app on their phones […] This, while participating in this extreme sport activity, where what appears to have been a broken rudder cable, rough seas and strong winds, that may have all contributed to their getting into difficulties,’ De Kock added.
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Picture: Brenton Geach / Gallo Images