Drama on The Devil's island

On Sunday I was having a coffee with Alec before he left for the UK. 

 

Alec is a Cornishman who, back in the day, surfed a 14ft wooden long-board, when long-boards were the fashion and not because of the retro calling for them.  Alec loves diving and has made great strides in his progression from being a non-diver to being able to dive at 18 meters, controlling his buoyancy.  He comes to Lanzarote and Calypso Diving in particular whenever the urge to submerge overcomes his spirit.

After the coffee, we took the air, which was blowing hard and we watched the surfers for a while. 

The wind was pretty strong and the sea was rough.

 

Alec noticed that one surfer was not doing too well.  I did not see what the problem was. 

Then I saw the lifeguards running towards and passed us.  I gave chase on my cycle following them around the coast line past the lagoon with the breakwater and around to the next beach. 

I followed them onto some outlying rocks and could see the same windsurfer sitting astride his board.  He looked exhausted.

The lifeguards and local police, who had arrived on the scene, were remonstrating for the windsurfer to steer into an inlet to the sandy beach between the rocks.

The guy could do nothing.

The lifeguards radioed for a helicopter.  Moments later the helicopter came.

 

They dropped a rescuer into the water before winching both the victim and rescuer up to safety.

A lifeboat was also scrambled from Arrecife, which attended to retrieve the windsurf board and sail.

Back on dry land the man was offered an Ambulance but refused.  His details were taken by the local police and ambulance service before he walked off with friends.

 
The helicopter flew back to base.

The lifeguard gave a statement to me saying the victim is a local man with many years experience as a surfer, but he was not able to confirm the reason for the accident.

I stopped in at the surf rental shop on the beach and enquired there.  I was told that the reason the man could not steer was because his sail had lost tension.  Windsurf sails are tensioned at two points.  One point is referred to as the 'outhaul' which attached to a grommet at the 'clew'(the rear corner to which the boom is attached).  In this guys case, his outhaul had snapped and he was spilling wind, unable to steer.

The reason so many resources were thrown at the rescue is because had the windsurfer been blown any further down the coast he could very well have been swept out to sea and toward Africa.

Nothing but drama on what is sometimes referred to as ‘The Devil’s Island’.