Three Virginia teenagers are hailed as heroes after helping save the lives of three people who capsized while kayaking last week.
Gavin Cain was on the second green during his high school golf tryout last week when he and his friends heard it.
“I had a birdie putt, and all of a sudden all I heard was this little kid screaming,” Gavin said.
Culpeper police were running to Culpeper Lake near the golf course as two men and a child screamed for help 50 yards off the bank.
“We were like, ‘Oh, we gotta do something right now, these people are gonna drown,” Gavin said. “There’s this little boy, he’s about 3 years old, right, and he’s in a life vest about three times, he’s in an adult life vest and he’s bobbing in and out of the water.”
Gavin and his teammates Andrew Tuggle and Jackson Castro dove in the lake and swam to the kayakers. Andrew grabbed one of the kayaks and brought it back to the three clinging to the other kayak just as it was going under.
“When Tuggle brought it over, I put the little boy into the kayak, and then we got Jackson and me helped one of the dudes into the kayak and gave him a paddle, and he went back to shore,” Gavin said
The three rescued kayakers told police they can’t swim. They capsized in an area of the lake nearly 20-feet deep, police said.
“The fact that they just immediately, without hesitation, made their way into the water and rescued these folks who were in distress speaks volumes for them and the kind of people they are,” said Nick White of the Culpeper Police Department.
The teen heroes will be recognized at the next town council meeting.
“I didn’t expect it go like, I didn’t expect it to be this big of a deal, you know,” Gavin said.
But what about that putt for birdie?
“I lipped out,” he said.
But he did make team captain.
