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Super Simon’s selfie shows he was in no difficulty riding waves

When is a paddleboarder battling gale force winds near Trial Island not in trouble? When that paddleboarder is Simon Whitfield.
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Olympian Simon Whitfield takes a selfie while paddleboarding near Trial Island, just before search and rescue volunteers arrived to see if he was in distress. Whitfield said he was too busy playing in the waves and listening to his audio book to notice the person on shore trying to determine if he was in trouble.

 When is a paddleboarder battling gale force winds near Trial Island not in trouble?

When that paddleboarder is Simon Whitfield.

The Victoria Olympian was taking his usual recreational paddle through Enterprise Channel off Oak Bay shores on Monday afternoon when a concerned citizen thought he was in distress because of the wild weather.

The Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue station 33 in Oak Bay was asked to investigate.

While the rescue team was en route, the Trial Island lighthouse keeper told them he saw the paddleboarder heading west through the channel.

The crew arrived just northwest of Trial Island to find “Simon Whitfield in no difficulty at all. In fact, he was having a blast in the swells!” according to a post on the station’s Facebook page.

Whitfield was wearing a dry suit and a life-jacket, and was tethered to the paddleboard in the heavy weather.

The 38-year-old said he was a little surprised to see a rescue crew racing his way. He said he made an error in being “too busy playing in the waves and listening to my audiobook to see the person calling in from shore.”

Whitfield said the marine rescue members were “all class.”

“Search-and-rescue [members] are volunteers and I felt badly that they dropped what they were doing and put on all their gear to come out for me,” he said.

While Whitfield had the necessary safety equipment and had told friends where he was going, the search-and-rescue volunteers recommended he get a VHF radio so that he could respond to a general marine broadcast that’s put out to vessels if there’s a report of possible distress.

“Overall, Simon showed a positive outlook on being as safe as possible while doing the activity he enjoys,” station 33 wrote in its post.

While it’s not mandatory, Whitfield said he’s going to take the advice and buy a VHF radio.

“I have two children and don’t want to ever have to use [a VHF radio], or wish I had one.”

Paddleboards are a relatively new type of marine vessel so they’re not specifically named in marine safety regulations. They are classified as a human-powered pleasure craft and paddleboarders must carry a personal flotation device, a sound-signaling device and a buoyant heaving line.

Whitfield said he’s out exercising on the paddleboard at Discovery or Trial Island on a regular basis. And for the record, the audiobook was Suttree by American novelist Cormac McCarthy.

kderosa@timescolonist.com