Have you ever had a moment where you ended up at the right place at the right time whether by chance, luck, coincidence , karma , serendipity, or whatever? It happened to Ron and I on Tues. We had a 1001 little chores to do for our trip, but the wind was blowing , the sun was shining and we said, nope....laundry can wait, the day is beautiful, let's hit the beach with our kites. It was supposed to be a no wind day but by chance we had wind. At the beach there were the regulars, Denise and John (excellent kiters) Jim, Ron and I who are the rookies on the beach and a late arrival Rob who is an excellent kiter as well. Everyone was in the water but Jim who was packing up to head home and Gloria and Claus who while waiting for a lesson were sitting in their truck watching us. As Ron stood behind me giving me pointer #101 yet again Denise yelled at Ron "John needs help". She had already kited to the beach, got Claus to phone 911 and was on her way out to John when she saw the both kites down, released and floating away. She again ran to the beach, relaunched her kite and headed off to try and capture them. If you have ever run thru thigh deep water you will find it exhausting. We looked just ahead of us and saw John, kite down with another kite almost on top of his floating down wind.Our first thoughts were he and Rob had collided and they were both down. I headed to the beach and dumped our kite while Ron ran through thigh deep water to John. When he got there John was struggling to keep Rob above the water, trying to drag him closer to shore. Understandably he was exhausted trying to keep from dragging down wind, hold onto Rob, and at the same time trying to drag him to shore. He told Ron he had just found him floating face down in the water and unable because of the depth of the water to do CPR . No idea how long he had been there. He had given him two Heimlich maneuvers and when Ron arrived Rob was throwing up huge amounts of sea water, gasping for air. By the time I arrived he was having trouble breathing and still throwing up seawater. Seeing emergency vehicles on the beach Ron figured he would meet them before they headed out ,to let them know we need oxygen and a floater board to get him ashore. Once again running through thigh deep water a good 1/4 mile to shore Ron met up with the two coast guard personnel who just arrived. He yelled at them as to what we needed but they totally ignored him and arrived to John and I with, if you can believe it nothing more than a pair of flippers and a life sling . Incredible....what were we going to do with that !!!!!! More emergency personnel on the beach, Ron yelling the same instructions that we need oxygen and a floating board. By now we have 4 or 5 emergency vehicles parked on the beach and at least a dozen emergency personnel daintily picking their way through the sand and water, but not a one is making any effort to get the show on the road. Gloria had to dial 911 twice as she heard the sirens down the road but they stopped at the wrong place !! The emerg guys were asking Ron asinine questions as to how deep the water was and I guess they should take their shoes off but making no effort in this fashion dilemma to get to us. Frustrated Ron finally grabbed the floating board they had finally discovered and would have had the oxygen as well if the guy had not had such a tight grip on the bag, and took off running. I guess a little leadership by a civilian was all that was needed, because they all hastily rolled up their pants, took off their shoes and followed Ron. Meanwhile with 2 useless coastguard personnel who told us they thought they had to swim out to us (Reason for flippers) I wondered why, after being stationed on an island for some time and constantly doing training maneuvers, they would not have known one side is open ocean and one side is bay with 6 inches of water! I had been asking Rob simple questions as to whether he was taking any medication (yes) high blood pressure and he was diabetic, if he had had breakfast (yes) etc. So, the gang is finally all here (thank god) and we get Rob onto the floating board, oxygen applied and head for shore. As I looked behind me I noticed Ron, John and I were somehow doing all the pulling with the fatty emerg guys slogging behind us. On the beach things finally began to move a little faster and Rob was transferred to a helicopter waiting on the beach.
Now were are keeping our fingers crossed for a happy ending to this story. We went to the hospital yesterday and met Rob's brother who told us he had had a brain aneurysm. This explained the mystery of how a good kiter was found face down in the water. As you can imagine it was a very emotional meeting as he had arrived with Rob in a coma not knowing what had happened to put him there. Surgery last night for Rob and now it is a wait and see game .
Yes, our superwoman Denise did get the kites back . After kiting at least 2 miles down, and handing the retrieved kites to Jim on shore, she somehow managed in dying wind to get back upwind to us. As Ron landed her kite you could tell it was all she could do to get to the beach. Her partner John turns out to be a retired doctor and is the real hero in this story with Ron and I being the background characters. Without Claus and his cell phone and Jim helping to retrieve kites I am sure there would have been a different ending to this gong show. So, time is precious, life is short....savor every moment while you can. That's the message...... AGAIN!!!
