Downwind safety

That’s some hardcore stuff. I’m sure SUP paddling has made you develop more shoulder muscle, did it help with stabilization of the joint?

I’m sure paddling helps! In general a baseline amount of weight training keeps it feeling good / supported. I had about 10 dislocations arround COVID time - every now and then it gets a bit hung up nowadays, but mostly don’t think about it anymore.

My litmus test is can I sleep facedown with my arms over my head without feeling like it’s gonna come out haha

Nightmare fuel:

Another reason to pack that Tourniquet.

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It would seem that the Mistral France region is the best shark adjusted downwind destination

Possibly the most important safety equipment is a parawing? It’s not useful in all scenarios, but I can imagine being a highly competent parawinger would be an excellent safety strategy in many safety situations. (eg foil falls off mid channel crossing, and you can still parawing to get to safety)

It’s also large so increases your visibility. Any thoughts against this? Seems pretty sensible

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The canary islands has some sharks but are not known to cause attacks and have strong trade winds too. They’d rank pretty high on that scale

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Mmm…last year in Fuerteventura.

Without floatation I think you’ll have a difficult time launching that parawing while treading water. (Speaking from experience breaking a board leash while parawinging)

I do some dockstart PW in marginal winds sometimes and it’s not too hard to launch while swimming. In a clean 10 knots or more it’s pretty easy.

Fuertaventura

Looks a small shark :shark:

Yes I think the biggest safety risk by far for downwind is losing your board. I think leash snapping is underrated risk, and if it does you could be in serious trouble, parawing will be useless too

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A Mako they think. From 2 to 3m long.

Big enough for me :slight_smile:

I just spent 20 days over there, sharks are not a concern but…they are always around.

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Good thing he wasn’t on a hollow board!

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great tips from Josh Ku :folded_hands::united_states: :united_states:

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That’s gotta be the 5th KT board I’ve seen chomped! Definitely need to change that paint job. Confusing the poor sharks with the red flashes on silver.

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And the new paint job is yum yum yellow.

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you don’t hear of more instances of people needing rescue or help because of having no PFD

No PFD leads to being “found”, not rescued.

I sink like a rock. Can not imagine going offshore with nothing but a little leash next to a blade keeping me alive.

Could it be that shiny silver colour?

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re sharks:

Seems some merit in this idea that it’s KT boards getting hit

Also the comments on the shiny fishing lure looking AFS titanium fuse

Sharks are color blind, they lack lack teh ability to see red, green, and blue

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Those boards do have some distinct patterns as well. But yeah I’m unsure if it matters…

The bite shown above occurred after the foiler unavoidably hit the shark.