Langdale paddleboarder rescued after fall in ferry wake

Photo: Elizabeth Rains

A paddleboarder bashed and immobilized in a ferry wake was rescued Sunday by a Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue team that had been training nearby and some quick-thinking neighbours.  

About 11 a.m., as RCMSAR Station 14 members were practising rescue docking in Plumper Cove. Meanwhile, about three kilometres away in Smith Cove, Katie Behboudi glided on a paddleboard. 

Smith Cove is the second inlet after the Langdale ferry dock, going toward Port Mellon. As ferries cruise by, they generate strong waves that sweep toward shore. Such a wake tossed Behboudi off the paddleboard. 

The board flipped and she shot into the air near a floating raft. As she came down, her arm hit the raft.  

“My shoulder just popped,” Behboudi, a Grade 1 teacher and Langdale homeowner, said later. 

Neighbour Marilyn Crichton, a former nurse, was nearby in the water. She saw Behboudi was wearing a life jacket. Crichton was able to grab on and help her injured neighbour toward shore. Another neighbour called 911 and asked for marine search and rescue. 

“It took half an hour [for me] to get her close to shore,” said Crichton. “I was worried that she was starting to show signs of hypothermia.” 

By then, many neighbours had gathered on the beach and Behboudi’s two young children stood by.  

With her injury, Behboudi hurt too much to move. 

Three neighbours managed to lift her onto a beach chair, which they positioned in the water. She could not get up and walk to shore, much less make it across rocks that stood between the beach and stairs mounting a 50-metre cliff to the road.  

One of the many frantic calls at that point went to Marilyn’s husband, Ian Crichton, who is a RCMSAR volunteer and was engaged in the practice drills. The RCMSAR boat soon arrived. Low tide allowed the rigid-hull inflatable to land close to Behboudi.  

As Behboudi couldn’t lie down, the crew performed a four-handed seat lift in which two rescuers form a seat with their arms. They got her into the boat and then to the ferry terminal where an ambulance whisked Behboudi to Sechelt Hospital. In a few hours she was back at home, where she is recovering from a fractured shoulder.