Captain Eddie

Thursday January 26th, two Canadian tourists, Brian Rundle and Jewel Black decided to head down to the beachfront of San Pedro. In between naps, they would watch a lone fisherman in a Yellow kayak, who was fishing just off shore. Both Rundle and Black were experienced kayakers, Rundle a kayak fisherman himself, so they enjoyed watching this man handle his paddle and fishing rod.

All of a sudden, the yellow kayak was overturned and floating upside down. The mans bucket, which was surely full of fish considering the duration of time that he had been out, was now submerged and the man was swimming in the water. "I think that man just flipped his kayak," Rundle said to Black, as he pointed to the kayaker. They both watched as the man struggled to get the kayak back upright, and get himself into his kayak again. It took him many times pushing up and out of the ocean, before he was able to lift back in successfully. No sooner did the tourists begin to breathe a sigh of relief, the kayak flipped over once again and dumped the man back into the ocean. This time, they couldn't see the fisherman, and his kayak stayed overturned. Immediately, Rundle and Black recognized that something was very wrong with this situation. They looked around at the boats on the pier in the hopes that they could find someone to help.

Eddie, a local charter boat, had just returned from fishing and was cleaning up and unloading his gear. Rundle approached him and pointed out the kayak and explained what he had seen. Eddie and a coworker hurried out to check on the fisherman. When they got to the kayak, they asked the fisherman if he needed any help. The man showed Eddie his legs, and around his legs was fishing line. He didn't have any knife to cut the line, which was wrapped around tightly, threatening to pull the man under. Eddie cut the line and pulled the fisherman up into his boat.

Click here to read the rest of the article in the San Pedro Sun