A kite surfer was saved by a lifeboat crew today

A lifeboat crew saved a 20-year-old surfer from the King’s Lynn area after his kite was seen drifting off the coast of Norfolk today.

The Hunstanton RNLI lifeboat ‘Spirit of West Norfolk’ was launched at about 3.20pm and the surfer was found to be suffering from hypothermia and only just managing to hold on to his board.

Crewman Sam Richardson dived into the water to help him on board and back at the station he was placed in the stretcher to enable the crew to lift him out of the boat into the care of the ambulance crew.

The East Anglian Air Ambulance also landed at the car park behind the boathouse, but it was decided by the ambulance crew to take him by road to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King’s Lynn.

Geoff Needham, from Hunstanton RNLI lifeboat station, said: “This was our first launch this year, and credit must go to the crew who without doubt saved this young man’s life.”