In the wake of a series of big storms to roll through lately, we’d hope people might’ve learned a lesson. Unfortunately, such is not the case, as with this story about a personal watercraft rider attempting to pilot his ski in the angry seas left in the wake of Hurricane Joaquin from New Jersey-based newsworks.org. A video on Facebook shows an unidentified man riding his jet ski in Manasquan Inlet in the midst of Victory at Sea conditions. It was a pure wash cycle! The guy was somehow riding up and down the inlet and then…he wasn’t.
His poor judgment would have probably killed him if the US Coast Guard had not been in the area performing a training mission. Lieutenant Commander Edward Dipierro was piloting a helicopter above the inlet at the same time the unmanned ski was spotted by rescue swimmer, Billy Arrinson, as it was crashing into the jetty.
Arrinson knew that the rider would soon meet the same fate as the personal watercraft so he quickly changed into his rescue gear and was lowered into the water and was able to rescue the man before he was annihilated by the heavy waves.
Both men were hoisted just above the gnarly waves and set down safely onto the beach. According to www.pressofAtlanticCity.com, once Arrinson and the unidentified man reached the beach, they were met by EMS and Arrinson and the emergency medical services crew checked out the waterlogged man and discovered he was okay, just tired from fighting the waves. We can only hope that the rider learned a valuable lesson or two from his experience with the tumultuous seas.
