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On this Coast Guard Day, we pay tribute to the courageous men and women who risk their lives to ensure our safety.
We have an incredible rescue story to share: Nathan and Kim Maker were lost in the Gulf of Mexico for almost 40 hours starting July 24, 2024, but thanks to the prompt action of the Coast Guard, they survived. The Makers attribute their survival to the reliability of their equipment, specifically the F8 Regulator, Zena BCD, and Backplate BCD System. Tested. Trusted. Zeagle is built with innovation.
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VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
Nathan: So we surface, shoot our marker buoys and just wait. And I’m thinking, we’re probably 150, 200 yards behind the boat. So we’re just sitting there and we’re like, kind of just joking around, you know, like, ah, they’ll see us. You know, they’ll come get us. They’ve got a dinghy. They already told us, you know, in our, in our safety briefing, you know, if you get blown out, don’t, don’t freak, you know, they’re going to come pick us up. And we’re not experienced divers like you guys, but you know, we got over 500 dives each. Like this isn’t our first rodeo. We weren’t worried. But we keep getting further and further and further apart from the boat. And at some point, the boat just goes out, just completely out of sight. So I said, okay, they’ve got divers in the water. They’re going to have to finish their dive. And at this point, we hadn’t been in the water, literally.
Kim: The whole thing took about five minutes, that whole ordeal. We were calm. We knew it might take a while. And then, like I said, in our end, we didn’t have a storm, so we didn’t realize that, that they were experiencing a storm.
Nathan: And I knew in my head, we got 72 hours max. And I don’t think we’re gonna last that long without water. I mean, in the elements, you know, I know your body can go 72 hours in the water, but so we see a Coast Guard plane flying over, but it’s too far west of us there’s no way they can see us.
Nathan: And so we’re like, okay, they know though. So they’re out looking for us. We’re going to get picked up. No big deal. Well, it starts getting nighttime. I said, I think we need to go north towards, towards shore. I have no idea how far shore is. Can’t see it.
Kim: So to keep our heads above water, you know, you really have to engage your core the whole time. We would take a break and try to kick ourselves and just, you know, float back up on our backs, but more of your body was exposed then, so you just start shivering and you have to get back in the water and swim some more. You can’t see anything in any direction. But we’re trying to head north, you know, we figure there’s got to be land north, but we were so tired of it, you know, at one point I realized, oh gosh, my eyes are closed. I’ve been swimming, swimming, swimming. My eyes are closed the whole time and I try to wake myself up.
Nathan: We can feel our bodies are shutting down and shutting down. That’s a long time in the nearly 40 hours in the water. It’s exhausting, dehydrating. The lady that was over like the whole search and rescue operations on a hunch sent the plane into another sector that wasn’t showing up on their computer modeling.
Nathan: The plane sees us, they circle overhead multiple times, and I mean they swing down low, right on top of the deck, on top of us, so we know they’ve seen us.
Kim: Well, but there was still a part of us that was in denial because so many planes had come by before that we thought saw us, but didn’t. So I am just, I’m just flashing that guy, like, trying to get the attention, you know, trying to get their attention.
Nathan: But those guys on the Coast Guard, man, they picked us up, got us in their, their fast boat, threw warm towel or blankets on us. But those guys and girls, man, they took us down and, you know, checked us out medically, got us into hot showers, they even gave us the clothes off of their backs. We didn’t have any dry clothing.
Nathan: I mean the XO gave me his socks, so I had warm socks to wear. She had on, her Zeagle Zena, we both had the F8 regulators, I had a Zeagle backplate, and I know that stuff’s not designed to do that, I know it’s not. But your shit held up. It’s why we survived.
Zach: I bet you were totally famished, hungry, thirsty, just happy to be alive and back on the boat.
Zach: So that’s incredible. Let’s talk maybe early next week about getting measurements for your wife, building a custom BC for her and either servicing the regs or getting you guys just replacement regs.
Nathan: That would be awesome, man. Thank you so much. Really, really appreciate it.
Zach: No, you’re welcome. You’re welcome.