Manstone…
Excerpted from an article from The Fresno Bee:
A man drowned Sunday in the Kings River trying to help another man whose kayak became tangled under a bridge below Pine Flat Dam. The victim died about 10:15 a.m. after he went into the river on an inflatable kayak to reach a man yelling for help, witnesses said. The victim, who appeared to be about 40 years old, was wearing a life jacket but did not have it buckled when he entered the water. The victim made it to the bridge, only to become entangled as well. Both men struggled to stay above water as several other men, who were fishing nearby, dangled a 75-foot rope from the bridge. The first man was finally able to grab the rope and was pulled to safety, but the victim was unable to reach for the lifeline. “He couldn’t grab the rope. He was too weak already,” a witness said. “I guess he stopped trying to fight it. He knew he wasn’t going to get out. He just laid on his back with his life jacket open.” A friend of the victim eventually pulled him out of the water. Rescuers tried to revive him. Sgt. Kevin Smith of the Fresno County Sheriff’s Department said the victim, who was an experienced kayaker, was in the water for about 15 minutes. Nearly two hours after the accident, the victim’s red kayak remained stuck under the bridge, violently bobbing against the waves. The victim’s life jacket floated down the river, past the spot along the shore where his tarp-covered body lay.
The victim’s name was Scott and he was a geocacher with the screen name of Manstone (no bad jokes, please). Apparently, he even attended Joani’s Buggy Birthday Bash here in San Jose…
