Garmin search and rescue insurance

[Mamil]

Received this unfortunate notification. do others know of alternatives. 

Search and Rescue (SAR) Insurance Update

You are receiving this email because you have one or more Garmin SAR insurance plans with a billing address in South Africa. Garmin SAR insurance plans are no longer available for purchase in your country and existing plans are no longer renewable. Coverage for each plan will cease at the end of the current term for that plan. Note: This change does not impact the SOS capabilities of your device. You will continue to have SOS monitoring and response by Garmin Response℠. You can review plan details and update renewal settings at Garmin.com/subscriptions. You will receive additional emails with more information prior to the term end date(s) for your plan(s). We apologise for any inconvenience.

[Dusty]

Is this for the InReach devices etc?

[droo]

1 hour ago, Dusty said:

Is this for the InReach devices etc?

Probably insurance for the bill you get after a few InReach messages...

[Duane_Bosch]

Why do you need SAR insurance?

I can only comment from my perspective.

I'm part of a group called K9-SARA. We primarily use our dogs to search for missing people. If you'd followed the collapse of that building in George you would have seen a few of our members and their dogs also assisting in that tragedy.
For the most part we are self funded and completely voluntary.

We fall under WSAR (Wilderness Search and Rescue)

If you hurt yourself on the mountain and WSAR is called out you are not billed. See their website for confirmation of this.
 

https://wsar.org.za/

[shaper]

Alternative if wanting to go down a bit of a rabbit hole. Meshtastic, feels a bit hobbyist to a degree at the moment but is slowly gaining traction as alternatives to a digital footprint and with long range radio and free.  The long range radio makes it ideal for outdoors when no cell signature,

https://www.seeedstudio.com/blog/2024/12/10/all-you-need-to-know-about-meshtastic/

Set up nodes, you carry, in your car, at you house as well as relay off others with meshtastic nodes to send messages etc. Interface can be to your phone, or in-built lcd screen, even to a laptop 

It is developing as it gains more traction with people who find out about it.

Devices are cheap, fairly easy to set up.  more reading https://meshtastic.org/

[dave303e]

1 hour ago, Duane_Bosch said:

Why do you need SAR insurance?

I can only comment from my perspective.

I'm part of a group called K9-SARA. We primarily use our dogs to search for missing people. If you'd followed the collapse of that building in George you would have seen a few of our members and their dogs also assisting in that tragedy.
For the most part we are self funded and completely voluntary.

We fall under WSAR (Wilderness Search and Rescue)

If you hurt yourself on the mountain and WSAR is called out you are not billed. See their website for confirmation of this.
 

https://wsar.org.za/

WSAR does do some amazing things locally.

There are a few other reasons one could want insurance. I had to buy insurance for emergency extraction for an international event recently, because there is no WSAR type option in the country I was visiting. I also know a few guys who had to bail off big mountains and it is not a cheap exercise.

Locally I have also used other services here and there. 1 of which is Rocket aviation, then if the sh...t hits the fan you know a helivac is on the way. For R75 a month it is a nice peace of mind if you are the kind of person who likes getting into sticky situations for fun. kayak trips, big hikes across the berg, etc