Kiteboarder Rescues Stranded Boaters Off Sunset Beach

A “creative” kiteboater gets points for an assist in the rescue of boaters stranded off Sunset Beach May 23.

The incident happened just before the monthly concert series kicked off Thursday night, according to Joan Jennings-McCabe, spokeswoman for the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, Flotilla 9, Division 11 out of Tarpon Springs. The auxiliary was at the beach to promote National Safe Boating Week prior to the concert when a woman ran up to their table “saying that some people had heard cries for help coming from a small boat that appeared to be aground west of the beach.,” Jennings-McCabe wrote in an email to Patch.

Auxiliary member Vicki Pierce called 911 and then asked a man on jet ski to help the stranded boaters while waiting for the Tarpon Springs Fire Department to arrive, Jennings-McCabe said.

When the man said the boat was in grass too thick for his jet ski to navigate safely, kiteboarder Hunter Gentry came to the rescue with a “creative” plan, she said.

Gentry used “wind off the Gulf to skim over the water and grass much like an airboat and he successfully reached the stranded boat. He loaded his wave board onto the boat and, using the wind power of his kite, Gentry ‘sailed’ the stricken craft into a channel where it could be then be brought to shore.”

Back on shore, Tarpon Springs Fire Department personnel examined the two young boaters and found them uninjured, Jennings-McCabe said.

With the rescue complete, Dave Corum of the auxiliary offered the boaters a safety inspection. He found they were traveling without a cell phone or a radio, while neither are required, they can come in handy in emergency situations. Corum recommended that the boaters attend one of the auxiliary’s upcoming About Boating Safety courses, which are taught at the Turtle Cove Marina on the first Saturday of each month.

For more information about the auxiliary and classes, call 727-938-8568. 

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