Rescue video of stranded kayaker who spelled out HELP with sticks on tiny island

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/04/17/rescue-video-of-stranded-kayak.html

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Good thing he had time to finish writing.

image

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How? What? I mean, that’s less than 2 miles from JFK airport. They didn’t bring a cell phone?

I mean, I sympathize with a kayaker getting stranded, but at the same time it’s like getting lost in Central Park.

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Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/04/17/kayaker-who-spelled-out-help-w.html

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Stranded on an island in Jamaica Bay? Didn’t pretty much the same exact thing happen in this old This American Life episode?

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Take one wet phone, add getting set by the (significant) tide, wind, or chop, and you’ve got yourself an issue.

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Just stopped by to post this. Lol

I would be tempted to swim, but then it looks like it was winter. (If my life depended on it I might even try swimming in winter, but then getting ashore in wet clothes might be a death sentence too.)

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Kayaking in winter, or even now in spring, when the water is still dang cold, the responsible person ought to be wearing a drysuit. Speaking as a former sea kayaking instructor…

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Sad to admit, but these aerial black-and-white vids always feel to me like the targeting computer from an attack helicopter in a "Medal of Duty Warfare: Commando Ops IV" videogame, I almost expected a hail of bullets to streak down and turn the kayaker’s (strangely yeti-like) silhouette into a little black blob.

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Video link for the BBS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wr5IUMZzBhA

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Can someone explain to me what’s happening in the last few seconds of the video? The guy getting out of the chopper seems slightly aggressive—do they just need to stand extremely close so they can hear each other over the noise of the helicopter?

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From working with LifeFlight teams, it’s also to keep people not familiar with helicopters from wandering into the blade zone. At lower rotor speeds, the blades dip on the outer edges.

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I want to know what happened to the guy’s kayak.

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Its a free boat, just waiting for the right person to go get it.

A friend of mine is an experienced kayaker and once he was officiating at a white water event. It was his job to check the course for stragglers and he came across a kayak marked with a message which basically said that if you could get it out of there it was yours. So he got a free boat.

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fancy I saw before the before…

I thought that it might be a good idea to mess up that help sign before he leaves. Otherwise there could be an effort to rescue someone who isnt there.

I’ve kayaked along the Hudson and other rivers and lakes in the area. While I haven’t ever been in the water around Jamaica Bay, it seems odd to get stranded there. It also is extremely stupid to be solo in a kayak anywhere unless you’re very experienced.

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Kudos for not spelling out #HELP with sticks.

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Indeed. I have capsized a kayak on Lake Michigan in March. The drysuit took what should have been life threatening and made it kind of annoying, and slightly refreshing.

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