BayAreaKiteboarding.com

Soooo, was at alameda yesterday and ended up saving somebody's twin tip that was waaaaaay out there (board was just floating around with no owner in sight).
Took me FOREVER to try to find a way to carry it (I was riding strapless). To the point where I was like, f#ck it, I clipped my leash to it and towed it back to shore.
I know it's not the safest thing to do (board could have Slingshot back at me) but I was slightly under powered and I was so far from shore that body dragging with both boards on top of each other didn't seem like an option.
I'm sure it would have been easier if I had been riding a twin tip (at least to water start), but water start strapless while trying to carry a board in my hands was just impossible.

So to the "board savers" out there (especially the one riding strapless): how do you guys do it?
Do you just ride by the board and grab it from the water as you pass by? Or is there a proper way to water start with 2 boards?
Thanks in advance for the tips.

Double decker strapped on top of strapless?

I'm not an expert (usually it is me who's board needs to be saved), but wonder if switching the boards (riding the twin-tip that you are rescuing and carrying your board) would help?

y2kbug wrote:I'm not an expert (usually it is me who's board needs to be saved), but wonder if switching the boards (riding the twin-tip that you are rescuing and carrying your board) would help?

I tried that too but straps were too small and since I was already under powered on the surfboard, I was going nowhere on that tiny TT.

As someone who rescues a lot of boards I have a couple different ways of doing it, heres my best attempt at describing them...
1. If I'm riding on my twintip and picking up another twintip board from the water I will sometimes ride past the board and just reach back with my leading hand and grab it by the handle as I passed by and lean out on the board that I'm picking up and ride it like a catamaran pontoon so I'm basically riding two boards on the water, one on my feet and one in my right hand that I'm leaning out onto...this takes a little bit of practice but it's kind of fun to do as well.
2. This second method can be done if I'm on twintip or even on my surfboard strapless or Strapped. I will stop the water pick up the board and laid across my knees then do a regular water start with the board held on my knees buy remaining bent over forward at the waist until I get up to speed then I might grab it by the handle and hold the board in my forward hand while steering the kite with one hand on the bar. If I need to gain speed by diving my kite up and down a bit, I will hold the bar at end of the bar and use it steer my kite up-and-down strokes using one hand from the end of the bar for leverage . This works well for picking up surfboards as well because you can carry the surfboard under your arm on one side while steering the kite with my backhand only.
3. This is similar to Method number two but I will grab the board I'm picking up by the handle and hold it in my right hand with my hand on the bar as well, so that I have both hands on the bar and then in one hand I am holding the board handle as well as my bar. This can sometimes be difficult if it's very windy because the board in my hand acts as a big wings sort of and get blown around making hard to steer but with a little practice you can do it pretty easily.
Hopefully this helps in someway if you're confused by my descriptions come see me anytime and I'll show you what I'm talking about. good luck and keep up the good work helping out those who need help out there!
P.S. If you're still at the level where you may lose your board occasionally or even if you're advanced riders, I highly recommend writing your name and phone number on all of your equipment !!

Vincent I have opposite problem I'm not very good at rescuing boards while on twin-tip, but when I'm on board with float (surfboard / raceboard etc.) I can usually water start by diving the kite with one hand, stand up on it, then sort of get it together & sheet-in and start moving still one-handed

The problem I have with water-starting twin-tip is that one-handed flying of kite to get me out of the water takes too much finesse because you need full power from the start to begin planing

I think as your strapless water starts get more comfortable you'll find the same thing... Can you waterstart the surfboard without touching it with your hands yet? That is definitely step 1...

I like this technique http://www.iksurfmag.com/issue20/?t=Boa ... ue&page=93 for twin tip rescue. Its really hard with wider boards though. You essentially just put the board between your upper body and your bar and rest it on your main power line / chicken loop. With wider boards its hard to pull the bar in enough to fly the kite.

Kiteboardertony: thanks for all those techniques! I'll give it a try next time!

Phil: totally fine with my water starts without the straps, but I never do it one handed though. I should practice on that for sure! I feel like it would have been less of a struggle if I had been nicely powered to start with. It was humbling for sure!

Pvb: nice! This seems like the easiest technique so far! I don't know why I didn't think about that!

I think most people do it like this:

PvB wrote:I like this technique http://www.iksurfmag.com/issue20/?t=Boa ... ue&page=93 for twin tip rescue. Its really hard with wider boards though. You essentially just put the board between your upper body and your bar and rest it on your main power line / chicken loop. With wider boards its hard to pull the bar in enough to fly the kite.

I tried it that way once and the board accidentally triggered my QR and I ended up having to self-rescue. Ended up losing both boards and someone had to rescue mine. My current rescue method is to start with the board on my knees and then put it under my arm once I am planing. I'm still learning on the strapless directional board, so I don't even attempt to rescue boards unless I am riding the twin tip.