SUPs make awesome rescue devices

[sflinux]

I know I am preaching to the choir...
I used to carry a SUP in my light wind kite arsenal to prevent getting skunked, but foiling has been so impactful, I have to admit that I have been traveling light with one kite, a foil board, and a surfboard in case the winds pick up.
This evening a woman was out and became separated from her board, then her kite ended up in the water.  The tide was high.  The current is not bad at this location.  I kept my eye on her and she was the last one out still in the water and we were losing daylight  She was making very little progress.  Thinking I sure wish I had my SUP.  I walk to the water with my surfboard when a pedestrian at the water's edge asked if I was going out to help the person in the water.  I said, I was thinking about it, but wished I had my SUP.  She said, I have a SUP and offered to let me borrow it. 
Paddled out to the very appreciative women in distress.  I help her onto the inflatable SUP and take control of her kite (proceed to disconnect the lines.  I put her in charge of winding up all the lines making sure nobody would get tangled.  I put the kite up in self rescue mode and started sailing back to shore with the two of us sitting on the board (something she neglected to try on her own (didn't know how).  We got about halfway in when the real fire rescue team met us on paddleboards.  One of them helped us paddle the rest of the way back to shore.
SUPS are awesome.  I wouldn't have been able to do anything with my shortboard.

[PonoBill]

True. I've pulled several people to shore with my SUP, and once with a boogie board. Not a lot of people learn to self-rescue, which is fairly weird. The other weird thing is that no one I've helped has ever thanked me. Not a big deal, but it seems odd. Embarrassed I guess.