Grateful and exhausted, two men were pulled to shore Sunday afternoon at Waskesiu. (Submitted photo/ Ashley Meyers)

By Nigel Maxwell

Heroes

Lake goers involved in dramatic rescue at Waskesiu

Jul 7, 2020 | 3:19 PM

An afternoon of fun Sunday, took a dramatic and unexpected turn at Waskesiu Lake, but thanks to the efforts of a group of bystanders, one and possibly two lives may have been saved.

Saskatoon’s Trystan Meyers and his family were among many families enjoying the beach. Around 3 p.m. Meyers spotted two men in the water, roughly 50 m. from shore, between the breakwater and the first buoy.

“They started yelling and we thought are they yelling at each other or are they just kind of goofing around,” he said.

Moments later, Meyers realized what was happening as one of the men began to show signs of struggle, and was waving his hat for help. Equipped with paddle boards, provided by other people on the beach, Meyers and his brother-in-law Tye Anderson, swam out to help.

“I just wanted to get to him as soon as possible, even if it was just keeping him out of the water for a minute until somebody else got there. I just knew that’s what needed to happen,” Meyers said.

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Estimating the man’s age to be in the late 50s, Meyers said the heavy set man had a hard time getting up on the paddle board, comparing it to a young child who for first time is trying to climb up on a boat without a ladder.

“You kind of throw your arms up on the side of the boat and just to try to kick yor legs wildly,” he said.

When the man was safely on the board, Meyer’s said he appeared exhausted and was breathing heavily.

“He was relieved and relaxed,” Meyers said. “He had dentures so he had to pop them out so he could breathe.”

Meanwhile, the man’s friend who had been clutching on to a buoy, swam over and grabbed hold of one of the other paddle boards available.

“He was doing relatively okay comparatively but there was no way he was going to be able to get this guy in by himself without a floatation device of some sort,” Meyers said.

Anderson, who just graduated from a pre-med program, and also has lifeguard training, was coordinating the rescue in the water. He said the man on the board was very grateful, but also embarrassed.

“He knew he shouldn’t have been out there,” he said. “He told me I’ve been a chef for 10 years and this is something I don’t do.”

Anderson who was swimming in the lake earlier in the day, said the water was very cold, so it didn’t take long to realize after seeing the two men that things were going south.

With the help of another swimmer, Anderson and Meyers began the long process of pulling the two men to safety. Meanwhile, back at the shore, other people on the beach, including children and adults, were busy gathering blankets, calling park rangers, and just helping in any way they could.

“It was just an amazing feat of a community coming together to make sure this guy was okay,” Anderson said.

This wasn’t Anderson’s first heroic experience. In Nov. 2014, Anderson along with his brother Kyle, received bravery medals for an incident that happened north of MacDowall the previous May.

Anderson’s Aunt Carol was involved in a quadding accident, and was nearly swept downstream had it not been for the brave efforts of her family members.

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nigel.maxwell@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell