Diver Whose Personal Mother Rescued Him In Viral Footage Remembers Getting Dragged Out To Sea

22-year-old Dylan Gartenmayer was spearfishing in Key West when a robust Gulf Stream present dragged him miles away from his fellow divers. He stayed afloat by tying some buoys collectively — whereas his whole household hopped on a ship to search out him, ranging from his final recognized location. Whereas the Coast Guard additionally searched, it was his family who discovered him floating within the ocean.

Showing together with his mom Tabitha on “TODAY” collectively Wednesday morning, Dylan claimed the individuals within the boat he was initially in “did not even name the Coast Guard” and “simply left.” He stated he met the group on Fb and easily hit the water with them as a result of he “was simply attempting to get on the market to go diving.”

After making it clear he could be diving once more very quickly, his mom cautioned him to be “safer” about it sooner or later — one thing which incorporates discovering higher diving companions.

“He is a grown man, it is his ardour. Each time he goes out, he is like, ‘That is what I like to do,’” stated Tabitha, getting emotional. “So long as he is doing what he likes to do however he is safer and goes with people who will probably be there and ensure he is near the boat and watch him … that is a giant deal for me.”

Of the rescue, she added that it “undoubtedly needed to be a miracle.”

“It needed to be God defending him the entire time, our angels above, as a result of for us to land proper on him, you may see it is a needle in a haystack on the market,” she continued. “He was so good to get the buoys to know his head would not be sufficient to search out him. I felt like we wanted to decelerate at this second … we slowed down and we actually appeared to the correct and Dylan is correct there.”

Dylan recalled “getting dragged additional and additional” out to sea, noting that he knew “that is beginning to get severe” because the boat he was initially on saved getting “smaller” within the distance. He continued to fret as visibility continued to dwindle, earlier than recalling Portuguese man o’ battle jellyfish “bouncing off” his physique as he was floating.

“Watching that solar drop was form of making my coronary heart sink, like, that is gonna be an extended night time out right here,” he stated, earlier than including that he used the buoys to maintain him out of the water to maintain him warn and away from “any potential predators.”

Tabitha stated discovering out about her son’s disappearance from her ex-husband was “the worst name I ever obtained in my life” — explaining that she worries “each time” her son goes out to dive.

“My ex-husband, his dad says, ‘Dylan’s been lacking for an hour.’ The way in which he sounded, it actually took my breath away,” she added. “I could not even breathe, all the pieces went away and I used to be simply standing there caught.”

However the household shortly mobilized into motion. “It took the entire household to come back collectively inside seconds as a result of that is our child and that is what you do,” she stated, “that is how we’re and we’re at all times gonna be there to guard our household.”

As for what he was feeling when he was pulled out of the water and onto the household’s boat, Dylan stated, “The best reduction ever.”