‘I’m A Dead Man’ – Kayaker Rescued After 8 Hours On Great Salt Lake Shares Story

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – One man who was rescued after spending hours in frigid weather on the Great Salt Lake after his kayak capsized said he wasn’t sure he and his three friends were going to survive.

From the start, things seemed calm and cool. But the three friends’ high hopes for a pleasant kayaking adventure on the Great Salt Lake were abruptly dashed to pieces Thursday night.

“I didn’t know waves in a lake could get this big honestly,” said Weston Barnett, who had already clocked more than 20 miles on his kayak trip with two friends when the winds and waves suddenly picked up.

“I capsized and I was like, welp, I’m a dead man,” he said.

Fortunately for Barnett, he had thrown his deflated tube around himself to keep warm not long before he was thrown out of his kayak.

But when the waves hit, he suddenly found himself alone with the sun going down on an unfamiliar lake, as he frantically worked to inflate his tube to stay above water.

“It would be easier to die,” Barnett remembered thinking. “I told myself I’m like, ‘I’m not drowning. I don’t care what I have to do, I’m not drowning.’”

But the idea of drowning was quickly replaced with the fear of hypothermia, as the waves and wind crashed on top of him. He tried different positions, including kneeling in a huddle position over his tube in an effort to keep warm as temperatures dipped into the 40s Thursday night.

“I was shivering the entire time,” Barnett said. “I was thinking if I’m going to die, I just want to die now because my whole body was shaking and my teeth were chattering.”

Little did Barnett know, one of his friends was in a much worse position, with no kayak or tube to help him stay afloat.

However, their third friend had safely made it to Antelope Island and called for help.

Utah National Guard crews responded, flying over the lake in search of the two missing kayakers, while Barnett did the only thing he could think of at the time.

“I was out there just yee yeeing, you know. Just yelling it as loud as I could. Apparently they heard me in the helicopter. I was like, ‘I must be on some next level yee yees up in here,” he later said, jokingly.

Meanwhile, a Utah National Guard helicopter spotted something in the water. In the video released online, one of the crew members asked, “What’s that?” Another responded, “Looks like a dude in a tube.”

The “dude in a tube” was Barnett. Not long after they spotted him, Barnett reached the shore of Antelope Island and was greeted by a search and rescue team.

It was only then he learned one of his friends was still missing and the crew informed him that it was 1 a.m.

“Are you kidding me?” Barnett remembered saying in disbelief. “I’ve been out here for eight hours already?”

Rescue crews ultimately found his friend, with only his face above water.

“They were worried about him for a while cause I guess he was going in-and-out of consciousness,” Barnett said. “But he pulled through.”

Barnett said his own body temperature dropped to 93 degrees. He spent the night at a local hospital and then went home, where he spent the majority of the day sleeping.

“That was a crazy adventure,” Barnett said as he reflected on the lessons he learned. “Just be prepared and ready because you never know what’s going to happen. Mother Nature – don’t underestimate it at all.”

Barnett’s family attributed his survival to the countless prayers offered on his behalf. And Barnett remembers thinking of his family.

“That’s what else was keeping me going,” he said.

Barnett’s mother, Kathie, said, “it was the longest night of my life. It was frightening. He means everything to us and our family.”

She couldn’t help but think of the moment she first saw him after he was rescued.

“I can’t tell you the sense of relief it was when I saw him walk off the helicopter and get onto the ambulance because I knew he would be okay,” she said.

In fact, Barnett was already looking forward to his next adventure on the water.

“My mom says, ‘yeah you gotta wait,’” he said. “But, I mean, if I got invited to one next week that wasn’t on the (Great) Salt Lake I would be like, ‘alright, let’s tear it up.’”