Summer drownings: Kayaker survives capsize in Wellington Harbour, talks lessons

Chris Casey works with New Zealand’s appalling drowning numbers - and in 2021 the data scientist almost became one, after an afternoon kayaking trip on Wellington Harbour went horribly wrong. As Kiwis escape the summer heat for our beaches, lakes, rivers, pools and the sea, he tells Cherie Howie about the day he nearly drowned.

Chris Casey isn’t sure if it was a seal or dolphins that sparked a chain of events that could’ve taken his life - either way, it all happened in a flash and into the drink he went.

Only luck and a couple of good decisions, amid a swag of bad ones, mean he’s still here to tell his story of survival at sea.

“This could be curtains,” says Casey of the realisation he couldn’t get back into his capsized kayak and was now floating lightly clad in Wellington Harbour in the fading light of a late autumn afternoon, his life jacket broken and no way to call for help.

His thoughts turned to his wife and their two teenage daughters.

“Your survival instinct kicks in and you think, ‘No. Let’s make a plan. I’ve got a family, I cannot die’.”

Casey, a reserve junior naval officer and drowning data number cruncher for Water Safety NZ, knows his sex, ethnicity and - almost - his age landed him among the most at-risk Kiwis on the water that day in May 2021.

As his employer and other water safety-focused organisations urge Kiwis to take care on and in rivers, lakes, pools and the sea this summer - with 86 drownings already provisionally recorded this year - the 55-year-old hopes his story can save others.

“I know my friends are going to rib me about this, but if it saves one life it’s worth it.”

The lesson never learned

“I’m off for a kayak”, Casey told his wife as he left their Wellington home around 2pm on an otherwise normal May weekday.

“I’ll be back for tea.”

Our capital isn’t celebrated for its placid weather, but on this day the watery jewel at its centre presented as a benign host to Casey and his brand new 4.2-metre fire engine red and white Delta Touring kayak.

There was almost no wind and the sun was shining as he began the 3.4km paddle south from Petone Beach to Matiu/Somes Island, Casey says.

“There wasn’t much chop, and it was a pretty nice day for kayaking.”

Matiu/Somes Island in Wellington Harbour. Photo / Positively Wellington Tourism

After reaching the island, a Department of Conservation-managed scientific and historic reserve, Casey continued south another 4km to tiny Mākaro/Ward Island before turning back for home.

But around 200m or 250m south of Matiu/Somes Island, disaster.

Spotting either dolphins or a seal flash past, Casey leaned to take a photo.

“And having no idea about kayaks, the whole thing rolled and tipped me in the water. It was like slow motion, it was just disbelief - ‘This is not happening to me’.”

His untethered iPhone 12 was sinking to the bottom of the harbour as Casey, clad only in rugby shorts and merino T-shirt, calmed himself from the initial cold shock panic response and tried to get back into his kayak.

Chris Casey pictured on Makaro/Ward Island on a kayaking trip soon after he nearly drowned after capsizing off nearby Matiu/Somes Island.

To the former social rower’s surprise, he couldn’t do it.

“Every time I got in, I rolled again. I’d never tipped into the water before and I didn’t know what it was like. I didn’t know how to self-rescue, because I didn’t think I’d fall in.”

He now tells others to practise falling out of their kayaks, to learn how to arrest their fall and, if they can’t, how to get back in.

“You can’t just go and buy all the gear and expect to be safe with it.”

Don’t panic

It was now time to pull the cord on his self-inflating life jacket, Casey decided.

But when he did, nothing happened.

He’s since learned failures aren’t uncommon - cylinders can easily get punctured - and he’d never had the life jacket serviced.

Inflatable life jackets should be checked regularly by their owner and serviced by a licenced service agent every two years, Coastguard NZ says.

All life jackets likely need to be replaced after 10 years, or earlier if showing signs of deterioration, they say.

Life jackets are a simple way to increase your risk of survival while boating, but some aren't getting the message. Photo / Gary Carruthers

After his life jacket failure, Casey turned to his VHF radio. But he didn’t know how to turn off the keypad lock used to prevent false alarms.

“You’re cold and you think you’re gonna drown, and I was so trying to use it. I’d bought a radio and hadn’t even learned to use it properly. I’d just put it in my bag and thought, ‘Well, I’ll never use that apart from weather reports’.

“So that was it really - I was stuck out in the sea with a life jacket that wasn’t working, an upturned kayak, my phone gone and a radio I didn’t know how to use.”

It was at this point Casey made a good decision.

The Invercargill native remembered his naval sea survival training: Don’t panic. Make a plan.

“I knew swimming to the island was do or die. If you don’t make it, that’s it. So my plan was not to leave the boat, and to kick towards the island - because that’s all I really had going for me.

“And all the time I’m thinking, ‘I hope the tide’s going the right way’, because of course I hadn’t checked it.”

Bravado and pride

A kina shell to the knee was Casey’s welcome to the island’s rocky southern shore about 45 minutes later.

“I think I’ve still got spikes in my knee. But you don’t care, you just want to grab hold of land.

“It felt really good because I thought, ‘I’m not going to die now’, which was actually pretty dumb because I then proceeded to kayak back to Petone in the same conditions.”

He didn’t go to the ranger station or seek help from an anchored boatie.

“Going past a guy in a big flash boat, you want to carry on as if, ‘I’m a pro here, I’m not some muppet who’s just messing around’. So that was just pride.

“The lesson here is to use all the assistance you can get.”

No one's ever drowned swimming between the flags in this country, according to Surf Life Saving NZ Northern region. File photo / Dean Purcell

As he paddled towards Petone in the dark he also knew his family would soon be wondering where he was - although his wife was also used to him not always being easy to contact while on adventures, Casey says.

“I always told her, ‘I’m a survivor’. That’s the male bravado - you think you’re bulletproof.”

His daughter would later tell him she could see his phone pinging from Wellington Harbour on her Find my iPhone app, but couldn’t understand why the location wasn’t changing.

“Initially you think, ‘It’s possible I can get away with this and just go home and no one will even know’. But when you get home, it’s quite late and you’re forced to tell.”

Luck and the second chance

Casey knows he’s lucky.

Aged 53 in May 2021, he was just outside the 55+ age cohort of Kiwi males who drowned in record numbers that year.

Males consistently far outnumber females in our annual drowning figures.

In both 2021 and last year - our worst year for drowning in a decade, with 94 deaths - 85 per cent of those who died were male.

Drownings of older men usually involve boating - more often powered - and victims are more likely to be NZ European and live in the upper North Island, according to Water Safety NZ’s 2021 Drowning Report.

The lives of those from other ethnicities are over-represented in drowning figures, including male Māori with an average age of around 40 dying while gathering kai and Asian males with an average around 45 lost while rock fishing, the report shows.

The day after he nearly drowned in Wellington Harbour when his kayak capsized, Chris Casey, pictured at Lake Manapouri, bought a swag of safety gear, including a wetsuit, spray skirt and new life jacket.

New “toys” and complacency, says Casey, of the over-representation of older men in our drowning stats.

“Boats look easy. You forget about the wind, the tide and the current, the waves and - even more so on a kayak - you’re at the mercy of everything.

“I was definitely complacent … it looks so easy and it’s a nice day, and away you go. And it’s pretty easy for it to turn to custard.”

The Water Safety NZ general manager of data science and insights is trying to get police and NZ Search and Rescue records about near misses.

“I’m researching drowning causes - who drowns and why - and in order to do that I need all the data, because there’s actually 10 times as many incidents where they would’ve been drownings, but people got lucky.”

People like him.

Among the new safety gear Chris Casey bought after his close call with death in Wellington Harbour, after his kayak overturned, was a back-up paddle - as seen on his kayak during a trip to Lake Manapouri last year.

The day after his close call, he bought a regular life jacket, wetsuit, spray skirt, back-up paddle and other gear that’s allowed him to continue kayaking, but safely, including solo around Lake Manapouri last Christmas.

He now checks tides and weather forecasts for the entirety of his outing - he knows a favourable wind direction and incoming tide helped save him in 2021 - and he tells Harbour Control his intentions before setting out.

“You learn from your mistakes, but only if you get the good luck to learn from them.

“A lot of people aren’t lucky. They don’t get that second chance.”

Staying safe in the water

• Know your limits - if in doubt, stay out
• Always keep young kids within arm’s reach
• Swim between the red and yellow flags - no one’s drowned between them in NZ
• Raise a hand to alert lifeguards if you’re struggling in the water, or see someone else struggling. If none are around call 111 and ask for surf life savers
• Rips often occur when there’s shallow patches in the surf. Look for discoloured or foamy criss-cross water, and be wary of headlands/rocky outcrops as rips can be in those areas too

Source: Surf Life Saving NZ Northern region

Cherie Howie is an Auckland-based reporter who joined the Herald in 2011. She has been a journalist for more than 20 years and specialises in general news and features.