‘Great Windsurfer Himself’ Is Saved 4 Miles Short of Catalina

‘That guy ought to get down on his knees and pray to God that he was saved.’

--Coast Guard Lt. Robert Randall

Day had just given way to night, with the only light provided by a sliver of moon, when lifeguards pulled a weary, 59-year-old windsurfer from the ocean about 4 miles off Santa Catalina Island.

The man was foolish to try riding a sailboard 20 miles from San Pedro to the island, one lifeguard said, and was lucky to be found.

“That guy ought to get down on his knees and pray to God that he was saved,” Coast Guard Lt. Robert Randall said. “It was close.”

What rescuers did not know was that the person they pulled from the water late Wednesday was not just another would-be macho man but Jim Drake, who is credited by many enthusiasts with inventing the sport that combines surfing and sailing.

“I was a little chagrined to be pulled out of the water,” Drake acknowledged later with a laugh. “The great windsurfer himself!”

Back at his Santa Monica home, Drake said he had set out at noon Wednesday from Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro to test an experimental new craft--the “Water Spyder,” an elongated sailboard with a small outrigger on each side designed to provide stability on long-distance excursions.

Drake, who has twice windsurfed from the mainland to Catalina and back, said an escort boat was following as he and another man set out on the latest venture. He was about halfway through the journey to Isthmus Cove, his equipment performing “admirably,” when he decided to trade boards with his sailing partner, Kaz Yamada, who was riding a conventional model.

The escort boat followed Yamada, expecting to find Drake waiting on the beach at the island. But he never arrived.

It was three hours later, at 8:35 p.m., when a county lifeguard patrol boat, aided by a Coast Guard helicopter’s spotlight, found Drake well offshore, lifeguard Richard Bates said.

When the winds died late in the afternoon, Drake recalled, he lashed up his sail and began paddling for the island.

Drake fought off the threat of hypothermia with a full-length wetsuit and by paddling regularly to keep his body warm.

Did Not Panic

“I was not disoriented or panicky at all,” said Drake, an engineer and founder of a Marina del Rey firm that does consulting for the Defense Department. “Although I was concerned that the winds would come up and blow me back toward the mainland.

“I had decided that if I had to paddle all night, that’s what I would do.”

But the wiry Drake said he was happy to get an assist this time.

Drake spent the night at an inn on the island and planned to sail back to the mainland Thursday but thought better of it when the escort boat had engine problems.

Drake and his former partner, Hoyle Schweitzer, were granted the original sailboard patent in 1970, although they disagree slightly over their roles.

Drake says he designed the craft alone and that Schweitzer provided only financial backing and the perseverance to make a success of the new sport, which now has an estimated 11 million enthusiasts worldwide.

“Without both of us, it never would have happened,” Drake said.

Schweitzer has said he also assisted with the sailboard design.

Drake sold his interest in the partnership in 1972 for a reported $36,000, and Schweitzer has since built Windsurfing International Inc. of Compton into one of the major manufacturers of sailboards.

First Patent

Although Drake and Schweitzer obtained the first patent, a Pennsylvania man, S. Newman Darby, claims to have invented the sailboard in 1965, two years before the California pair announced their design.

Drake said he hopes his new board will encourage more long-distance sailing by “the same class of people who are attracted to bicycle touring and backpacking.”

But he said he has “learned a lesson” about his hobby: “I should have stuck with the other guy, or asked to be pulled in by the chase boat.”