German Kiteboarders receive bravery awards from Sea Rescue

Last year at our Awards Ceremony and AGM, we honoured two German kiteboarders, Tim Steinfels and Sebastian Deneke with the prestigious Chief Executive Officer’s Letter of Appreciation for the rescue of kite boarder Markus Wolff near Melkbosstrand. The men were unable to attend the ceremony so the award was accepted by Mr Klaus Heidorn, Deputy Head of Mission at the German Consulate General on their behalf.Tim and Sebastian are visiting Cape Town again and this morning we met for a short ceremony. Deputy General Consul, Mr. Roland Seidler, and Vice Consul, Silja Gower, joined us for the special occassion.On Friday 22 January last year, Markus had been kite-surfing off Eerste Steen, between Bloubergstrand and Melkbosstrand (Cape Town, South Africa).An accident was witnessed by a local man on the beach who raised the alarm and called rescuers. In the meantime Tim and Sebastian (friends of the Markus) found him unconscious and lying face down in the water. They turned him over and drifted with him, keeping his head above water and they found that he was not breathing.Tim and Sebastian initiated rescue breaths and Markus regained spontaneous breathing as they continued to drift together, in the gale force winds, with Markus lapsing in and out of consciousness. Our NSRI sea rescue craft located them 700 meters off Derde Steen. Markus was rescued onto the Sea Rescue craft and brought onto the beach where paramedics initiated medical treatment. He was airlifted by the AMS/EMS Skymed helicopter to hospital in a stable but critical condition.To read more about the original rescue report follow this link https://goo.gl/Zxc0Lr Tim Steinfels and Sebastian Deneke receives a Chief Executive Officer’s Letter of Appreciation award from Howard Godfrey (Chairman of the NSRI Awards Committee) and Dr Cleeve Robertson (NSRI CEO) From left: Howard Godfrey (NSRI Awards Committee Chairman), Mr Roland Seidler (Deputy General Consul), Tim Steinfels, Sebastian Deneke, Silja Gower (Vice Consul) and Dr Cleeve Robertson (NSRI CEO) Tim Steinfels and Sebastian Deneke