THE
Robin Mousley recounts the rescue of surfskier Casper Kruger and how, as a result, the surfski fraternity has lent their support to the NSRI.
C
ASPER KRUGER WATCHED AGHAST as the safety boat motored past, a mere 20m or so away. He yelled as loudly as he could, but amidst the noise of the wind, the breaking waves and their own motor, they just couldn’t hear him. The boat chugged further and further away, finally disappearing into the distance. It was December 2006 and an unseasonal cold front had swept into Cape Town, a howling northwesterly whipping up lines of breaking waves in False Bay. A surfski race had been scheduled for late that morning, but event organiser Billy Harker had taken the unpopular decision to cancel. ‘I had paddled that stretch in a previous race in similar conditions,’ he said. ‘But this was even worse – there was mist on the water, limiting visibility.” In the shelter of Monwabisi Beach, though, the sea didn’t seem particularly threatening and Harker’s warnings were shouted down. The race might be cancelled, but the paddlers were determined to go anyway. 34 |
SEA RESCUE SUMMER 2019
Herbert Conradie, a local paddler, had arranged for safety boats to follow the surfskis. And, knowing who was on the water from the list of race entries, Harker went to the finish to check them off the water. Twenty minutes later, conditions changed abruptly. The wind was swinging even more to the north and increasing to near gale force. Now blowing directly offshore, the wind and waves were side-on, and the paddlers found themselves fighting to avoid being blown out to sea. That was when Casper, paddling an unfamiliar new surfski, fell off his craft. He clambered back on but was knocked off again. He tried once more, slower this time, and briefly sat upright – but as he reached for his paddle, he fell off yet again. After several more attempts, he realised he was too cold and too weak to go on. At that moment he saw the safety boat go past without seeing him. Meanwhile, at the finish, Harker was concerned by the deteriorating sea conditions and had already contacted
the Gordon’s Bay NSRI crew to warn them that they might be needed. So when Casper failed to arrive at the finish, the search operation swung into gear quickly. Crews from Gordon’s Bay, Strandfontein and Simon’s Town were launched and the Metro Red Cross AMS and Vodacom Netcare 911 helicopters were scrambled. But the missing paddler’s surfski was impossible to spot amid the maelstrom of breaking waves – the searchers simply could not see him. Ironically, he could see them. ‘They were so close, I could see the faces of the pilots,’ he said. ‘The sun came out several times and I wished I had a mirror or something I could signal with.’ By now Casper had drifted further out into the bay, where the waves had grown much larger. ‘About every seventh wave, I could hear one coming,’ he said, ‘and it would break right over me.’ Being tumbled by these breakers was terrifying. He knew that his only hope was to stay with the surfski but, unable to feel his hands, he wasn’t sure he
PHOTOGRAPHS: TREVOR STEENKAMP, SUPPLIED
RESCUE that launched a fleet
