Dylan Gartenmayer has been diving and spearfishing alongside the Florida coast since he was 10. That have helped him survive a daunting ordeal that left him stranded at sea for hours.
The 21-year-old was free diving on the Western Sambo Reef close to Key West final week when a powerful present swept him away from his boat.
By the point he resurfaced, the present had pulled him so far-off that his two associates by no means noticed him come again up. He quickly disappeared from view, his cousin Priscilla Gartenmayer informed CNN.
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His associates scoured the uneven waters for half an hour, then referred to as the Coast Guard to assist in the search. Gartenmayer might nonetheless see the boat, he informed folks later, however they could not see him.
Gartenmayer got here throughout a bamboo stick and used it to assist him float till he was capable of swim throughout the present again to the reef, his cousin stated.
By the point he’d performed the roughly 3km swim, it was about 5pm and his associates had left as a result of their boat did not have any lights, his cousin stated.
Exhausted, Gartenmayer lower three buoys to create a hammock-like gadget that helped him keep afloat. Whereas he was centered on survival, his family and friends labored frantically to seek out and rescue him, his cousin stated.
“I acquired a name from somebody on the boat that Dylan was diving from that he was lacking for 2 hours and I had them ship me the coordinates,” his good friend Sean Caggiano informed CNN. “I went to his grandfather’s home to fulfill along with his household and go discover him.”
Inside 15 minutes, household and associates gathered and jumped into their grandfather’s boat to go discover Dylan, Priscilla Gartenmayer stated.
“The primary thought was that he blacked out whereas diving and drowned. It was horrible – the worst feeling I’ve ever felt,” she stated.
The household plugged within the coordinates of the placement the place Dylan was final seen and dashed that means at excessive pace. The sunshine was fading, and so they did not have a lot time earlier than darkness would make their rescue effort tougher.
“Every little thing was silent on the boat till the flashlight hit him and he put his arms up – we lastly knew he was OK,” Priscilla Gartenmayer stated.
In a video of the rescue posted on Fb, his relations jumped up and down once they noticed Dylan alive.
Moments later, his household pulled him, shivering, onto the boat. Movies shared to Fb present his relations hugging and squeezing him, crying “Oh my God” and saying his identify again and again. Dylan’s first request was for water, his cousin stated.
CNN has reached out to Dylan Gartenmayer to listen to his account of the ordeal.
The Coast Guard arrived, checked on Gartenmayer and found his core temperature was barely low. They took him to the station for statement for about an hour till he was again to regular, his household stated. CNN has reached out to the Coast Guard for remark.
Dylan Gartenmayer has been diving and fishing persistently for 11 years. His Instagram account is filled with photographs of him holding proper now, grouper, purple drum, wahoo and different fish he has caught.
“If he was anybody else, I do not suppose it might have been the identical consequence,” Priscilla Gartenmayer stated. “He nonetheless knew the place he was, he knew which means land was. That is the rationale he survived.”
