Does anyone do downwinders alone? I lost my leash in the surf the other evening and the board took off like a rocket. Further out to sea it will be less speedy but I have seen my kitefoil board disappear over the horizon at times. and a bigger SUP board has way more windage. Although leashes need to be quick release in the surf - do we think it would be better to have a more secure connection for downwinders? I am also thinking a life vest would be a good investment. I am looking at doing shorter runs for now but even 1k is a long way if the board disappears.
In the end it is the same as going out on a boat ,if something happens and you can,t get back you need to attract attention or call for help. Depends what you want to carry if anything but the safest would probably be a personal locator beacon, which calls for help ,has built in gps , is waterproof and about the size of a packet of cigarettes. Less than $500 and 5 or 10 year battery life. Apart from that tell someone what you are doing so someone knows where to start looking if you don't get back. Sup's can be a problem if the wind switches to 30 plus knots offshore and you can't paddle in against it.
For kite foiling I ride with an Apple Watch series 3. Provided you have reception you can make calls and the people at home can use the apps to get my current location.
For paragliding I have used SPOT and now Garmin Inreach trackers. Both of them send out your location every 10 minutes and you have a range of messages and the SOS button. The SPOT sends pre-configured messages. The Garmin can send texts and emails and do a heap of GPS things as well. You need a subscription to use them. Garmin now has the Inreach Mini which is not much bigger than a watch.
The advantage of SPOT and Garmin is that they do useful things when you are out and the people at home can monitor you remotely. We have worked out people were in trouble and given assistance purely from watching the progress of their location points.
EPIRB or PLB do nothing until you push the button. When you do it's a full rescue operation. You can't be tracked. You can't send an "I'm having fun all is good and I'll be late" message.
The other thing is to never ride further out than you're prepared to swim and to always go in conditions that will bring you to safety if things go wrong.
