Coast Guard Rescues Kite Surfer From Sandy Hook Bay

SANDY HOOK, NJ — Sunday's high winds proved tempting to some, but it also resulted in a kite surfer having to be rescued from Sandy Hook bay.

The dramatic rescue occurred at approximately 10:30 a.m. Sunday, when members of the U.S. Coast Guard at the Sandy Hook station received a 911 call from a woman on shore who saw the kite surfer in distress. He had fallen off his board and was in the water.

The Coast Guard launched a boat and found the man within 15 minutes. Crewmembers safely brought the kite surfer aboard. He was wearing a wetsuit and a life jacket. He was brought back to Station Sandy Hook and is reported to have no medical concerns.

"Insane wind and waves out at Sandy Hook," eyewitness Kim Halligan Garrison, a 58-year-old Fair Haven resident, wrote on Facebook Sunday. "Just saw a kite surfer rescued on the bayside. Thank goodness someone on the beach spotted him in distress out there. The Coast Guard pulled him out of the water."

Last August, a 44-year-old Hoboken man died after he was kite surfing alone in Sandy Hook bay. It is believed that Sinisa Bjelajac, pictured below, was knocked unconscious by the kite, and his lifeless body, still attached to the kite in the harness, was found by a nearby boater. However, as the boater tried to pull him from the water, a large gust of wind pulled the kite line out of his hands, and the man was swept away. The Coast Guard searched for Bjelajac across hundreds of miles of water, from Sandy Hook to Coney Island. His body was recovered a few days later, on Aug. 9, 2017, off the beach at Long Branch. Read: Body Of Missing Sandy Hook Kite Surfer Found

Garrison captured video of Sunday's dramatic rescue below:

Photo from the scene used with permission from Kim Halligan Garrison