Rowan Marais, NSRI Melkbosstrand station commander, said: At 16h43, Wednesday, 8 July, NSRI Melkbosstrand duty crew were activated following reports of a man appearing to be in difficulty offshore of Van Riebeekstrand – North of Melkbosstrand – on a foil board.
While our duty coxswain investigated the nature of the emergency NSRI rescue swimmers responded towards Van Riebeekstrand and our duty crew responded to our NSRI Melkbosstrand station 18 rescue base to prepare the NSRI rescue craft to be launched.
Netcare 911 ambulance services and Community Medics were placed on alert.
While responding towards the scene NSRI made contact with the man’s wife – she reported that he was on an e-foil (electric hydrofoil) about 700 meters offshore and she was watching him appearing to be in distress – trying to paddle towards shore.
Our NSRI rescue craft Rotary’s Gift was launched while rescue swimmers arriving on the scene got visuals of the man in the water.
On the rescue craft arriving on the scene the adult man and his e-foil board were taken onboard the rescue craft and he was brought to shore.
The adult man, a South African living in Dubai, was reunited with his wife and son – he was not injured.
It appears that the electric hydrofoil (e-foil) experienced motor failure while he was hydro-foiling offshore.
No further assistance was required and NSRI returned to base.
