A teen surfer rescued a man from treacherous currents after his boat capsized at Jupiter Inlet in Florida and the 13-year-old's heroics were captured by a camera-equipped drone.
Sam Ruskin was out surfing on Friday when he saw a 24-foot boat tossed onto its side and the man on board struggling to swim through choppy waves reaching three to four feet, My Palm Beach reported.
Ruskin paddled over to the man, offered him his surfboard, then helped get the distressed safely to shore.
“He said thanks when we got to the beach,” said Ruskin, per My Palm Beach. “He was in shock. He was calm.”
The entire episode was caught on camera by drone pilot Kevin Cadby who, according to Fox News, was flying his remote-controlled craft at Jupiter Inlet to capture video footage of the water and boats.
“The wind was blowing in at 20+ miles per hour, that inlet can be treacherous,” Cadby said, per Fox News.
“My first concern was to make sure nobody else was on the boat,” he added, recalling how he flew his drone over the capsized vessel.
The name of the man thrown overboard from the capsized boat hasn’t been released.
South Florida’s inlets have been the site of numerous tragedies over the years, most recently claiming the life of a 21-year-old swimmer, Amantay Brown, who was swept out to sea on Oct. 19, The Sun Sentinel reported.
In 2015 a 15-year-old boy drowned at the Jupiter Inlet after he was pulled into the inlet by a strong current and, in 2012, a diver died in the Hillsboro Inlet when she was thrown from a capsizing boat that was struck by a large wave.
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