Im laying down trying to heal from the creepy crud thats been going around and watching the California 500.
Dale Jr. has just changed his second flat tire and was a couple of laps down when I hear the dreaded BEEEP, BEEEP, BEEEEP, BEEEEP.
My first thought is this is a joke. Who would do something stupid while I'm watching the race. Im not a Football or Baseball nut but I do like to watch the races, so leave me alone!!!
I grab the pager hoping to see just a number to call for whatever but it reads, 2 MEN THROUGH THE ICE 22131 N. ROSE LANE LOWER TWIN LAKES PUBLIC LAUNCH CENTRAL 1320 HOURS.
Those two are lucky I had the videotape rolling already or they would have just had to wait a while longer.
I get dressed, kiss my sweetie, fly out the door, into the car, light it up and check into service at 1322 hours.
Now a 12-mile fight through heavy, heavy traffic. One group of over 100 motorcycles was just a B to get through without picking up a few like mosquitos on the windshield.
I get on scene at 1331 hours behind two other divers that were on duty. Already on scene was Timberlake Fire/Rescue whose station is only 500 yards away. They already had one Rescue Alive deployed and as I exited my car to get dress Rescue Alive arrived.
I suited for surface with one other diver while all others suit up to dive. Boy was that a mistake on my part. The victims were 650 from shore. If you have never used a Rescue Alive, it is a great tool but exhausting to use over distances like that.
This is my third actual rescue using the Rescue Alive but never over this kind of distance. The Firemen got the first victim while we got the second. Once they were secure we went back to recover the boat and sled with all the fishing gear on board.
That was the first time I have ever seen our team leader sit down from exhaustion. He was beat. I kept up a good show but he is only two years older than my son. Hey this old poop stayed with the snotty nose kid.
Anyway we ended up saving two lives today along with their gear. The first guy through the ice was in his mid 70s and Im not sure of the other ones age but he appeared much younger. Both are going to be fine after they warm up.
We still have a lot of ice but our air temps have been in the 50s or higher. That ice is very rotten so we are expecting more calls of a similar nature.
Here is the Sat photo of the area. It was straight out from the end of the boat ramp, which is the road headed to the lake from the right side. Zoom out to see the entire lake.
http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image.aspx?T=1&S=11&Z=11&X=1276&Y=13255&W=1
OK, Im back watching the race but Im totally lost as to what has happened
We ended up with 5 divers on scene with three suited to dive in a hurry. They made me proud of them again.
Gary D.
Dale Jr. has just changed his second flat tire and was a couple of laps down when I hear the dreaded BEEEP, BEEEP, BEEEEP, BEEEEP.
My first thought is this is a joke. Who would do something stupid while I'm watching the race. Im not a Football or Baseball nut but I do like to watch the races, so leave me alone!!!
I grab the pager hoping to see just a number to call for whatever but it reads, 2 MEN THROUGH THE ICE 22131 N. ROSE LANE LOWER TWIN LAKES PUBLIC LAUNCH CENTRAL 1320 HOURS.
Those two are lucky I had the videotape rolling already or they would have just had to wait a while longer.
I get dressed, kiss my sweetie, fly out the door, into the car, light it up and check into service at 1322 hours.
Now a 12-mile fight through heavy, heavy traffic. One group of over 100 motorcycles was just a B to get through without picking up a few like mosquitos on the windshield.
I get on scene at 1331 hours behind two other divers that were on duty. Already on scene was Timberlake Fire/Rescue whose station is only 500 yards away. They already had one Rescue Alive deployed and as I exited my car to get dress Rescue Alive arrived.
I suited for surface with one other diver while all others suit up to dive. Boy was that a mistake on my part. The victims were 650 from shore. If you have never used a Rescue Alive, it is a great tool but exhausting to use over distances like that.
This is my third actual rescue using the Rescue Alive but never over this kind of distance. The Firemen got the first victim while we got the second. Once they were secure we went back to recover the boat and sled with all the fishing gear on board.
That was the first time I have ever seen our team leader sit down from exhaustion. He was beat. I kept up a good show but he is only two years older than my son. Hey this old poop stayed with the snotty nose kid.
Anyway we ended up saving two lives today along with their gear. The first guy through the ice was in his mid 70s and Im not sure of the other ones age but he appeared much younger. Both are going to be fine after they warm up.
We still have a lot of ice but our air temps have been in the 50s or higher. That ice is very rotten so we are expecting more calls of a similar nature.
Here is the Sat photo of the area. It was straight out from the end of the boat ramp, which is the road headed to the lake from the right side. Zoom out to see the entire lake.
http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image.aspx?T=1&S=11&Z=11&X=1276&Y=13255&W=1
OK, Im back watching the race but Im totally lost as to what has happened
We ended up with 5 divers on scene with three suited to dive in a hurry. They made me proud of them again.
Gary D.
