The great thing about windsurfing is that you don't need a boat to take you at full speed through the ocean waters: just a breeze to propel the giant sail attached to your surfboard.
The bad thing about this sport is that when the breeze dies down, or you are protected by huge cliffs, you may only need a boat to get back to the starting point.
An experienced windsurfer found himself caught in that second unfortunate situation, forced to take shelter on a remote Santa Cruz County beach Sunday afternoon with no way to get his sail and board moving again.
Trapped between massive seaside cliffs and a rising tide, he quickly found himself stranded.
But the man channeled the actions of many desperate castaways and marooned sailors before him with no radio or flare gun at his disposal, using stones to spell out “HELP” in large letters on the beach in the hopes of catching the attention of a passing airman. . .
And exactly that happened.
“That was a different type of 911 call than we normally get,” said Fire Capt. Skylar Merritt, of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection's San Mateo-Santa Cruz unit. A private helicopter pilot detected the windsurfer's distress call and alerted local rescue teams, directing a rescue helicopter to the man's location on a secluded beach south of Davenport Landing, according to the Cal Fire unit.
California State Parks lifeguards were able to swim to the beach, making initial contact with the man and determining that he was medically fine, but physically trapped, Merritt said. Firefighters also reached the top of the cliffs, about 200 feet above the stranded windsurfer, who was not identified.
Merritt said the man was seen just hours after landing on the beach, which made the recovery operation easier.
“At the very least, the helicopter that spotted him did so much faster, so he didn't have to worry about hypothermia or dehydration,” Merritt said.
Due to the rising tide and surf conditions, the multi-agency rescue team determined it would be best to remove the man from the beach. Merritt said they performed a “static pick-up,” connecting the man to rescue devices lowered from the helicopter and flying the craft high enough to place him over the cliffs, where support teams were waiting.
The man was an experienced windsurfer, Merritt said, but the conditions that day became exceptionally challenging, even for someone with keen skills who knows the area well.
“It was a combination of decent-sized waves and what they call a wind shadow,” said Merritt, which he described as the condition in which high cliffs block the nearby ocean from the wind, decreasing windsurfers' ability to control their boards. “It can be a difficult area to predict what the conditions are, as conditions change very, very quickly.”
When they saw him on the shore, the man was very excited and sent a gesture to the private helicopter that he later laughed at and which may have sent the wrong message, Merritt said.
“He felt very lucky when he first saw the helicopter, he gave them the thumbs up,” Merritt said. “I was so happy to see them… [but] “I wasn’t exactly sure I communicated that I needed help.”
Fortunately, the helicopter pilot called 911 and returned with more help.
“It turned out well and we are very lucky to have all of our partner agencies that made the operation so quick and successful,” Merritt said.
