A KITE surfer had to be rescued after getting into trouble off the southern tip of the Furness Peninsula during Storm Ashley.

Just after 2pm on Sunday, members of the RNLI were called out to save a kite surfer who suffered an ‘unfortunate situation’ with his equipment  - leaving him swimming in the sea before being rescued.

Three friends were out kite surfing on the sea between Roa Island and Foulney Island when a line broke.

When one of their lines broke and his kite became uncontrollable, he had to let go and tried to swim back to shore.

The request for assistance was received from HM Coastguard in Holyhead at 2.15pm.

Barrow RNLI’s volunteer crew launched their inshore lifeboat, Raymond and Dorothy Billingham, at 2.28pm with Jonny Long at the helm along with crew members, Saul Tomlin and Fraser Livesey.

In challenging conditions, the lifeboat located the casualty who had managed to cling on to a mooring buoy on the east side of Roa Island.

The casualty had been in the water for some twenty minutes, when he was taken on board.

The RNLI said the high tide had just passed at 1.57pm with a predicted height of 9.6 metres which, with the wind behind it, made an actual tide height of 10.2 metres.