A kitesurfer was rescued Wednesday in Nahant, Massachusetts, thanks to the quick thinking of his 11-year-old son.
The man, who wanted to be identified only as Francesco, is speaking out because he wants people to take water safety seriously.
“You could be Lou Ferrigno from ‘The Incredible Hulk,’ or [Arnold] Schwarzenegger, and they still would have trouble going back,” he said. “My calves feel like they’re going to explode from being out there for an hour and a half.”
He’s on dry land now after a tough rescue Wednesday afternoon just off the shore of Nahant Beach.
“Five minutes, in one of my lines snapped, and that was it,” Francesco said. “There was nothing I could do.”
Francesco’s 11-year-old son spotted his father from the shoreline and immediately knew something was wrong.
“He’s seen, maybe once or twice, that my kite is dropped in the water, and he was like, ‘Alright, well, Papa will relift the kite,’” he recalled. And after like five minutes, he’s like, ‘The kite’s not going up,’ and then he starts to get worried. Then 20 minutes, I’m floating over there, and that was it. He was like, ‘I want to call somebody.”
“I’ve got to give this kid a lot of credit,” Nahant Police Chief Timothy Furlong said. “He should be labeled as a hero.”
The Swampscott Fire Department launched a rescue watercraft and pulled Francesco aboard, then headed toward the shore for a reunion.
“I came out, I gave him a kiss, gave him a hug, I told him I loved him,” he said. “I told him that the biggest lesson to learn from this is stuff happens.”
Francesco says he’s never experienced anything like this in his 11 years of kitesurfing.
“It’s a simple accident that doesn’t happen often — it’s not something that happens a lot,” he said.
He’s urging people to take water safety seriously, no matter how experienced they are.
“We just try to keep it safe — for us, for people on the beach and everybody else,” Francesco said.
He added that he’ll continue to kitesurf, but that he’ll also continue to wear his life jacket, pointing out thta in this instance, it made all the difference.
Source: News – Boston – necn
