Brody Kidd, a guide for Door County (Wisconsin) Kayak Tours, was on a Lake Michigan beach preparing to lead a kayak tour scheduled for noon on June 8th. He spotted three people clinging to the side of their own kayak, which was drifting further out into deep waters because of an offshore breeze. Kidd jumped into his kayak, towing an additional small boat out to the threesome.

It turned into a daring rescue when he realized all three were tangled in ropes, near death and suffering from extreme hypothermia. Kidd pulled out his old John Wayne commemorative folding knife he always carried to cut them loose. He helped a woman into his kayak and two men into the boat, got them to shore and began performing first aid when emergency crews arrived.

Apparently the kayakers went out into Lake Michigan without life vests and got overturned. “I paddled over there as fast as I could,” Kidd said. “It was one of those lucky things that I was there.” 

A man and woman in their early 20’s were transported to a Door County hospital where they were treated for hypothermia after spending about 90 minutes in the lake near Cave Point in the town of Jacksonport. The second man was treated and released at the scene of the rescue.

Following this episode, Kidd’s boss, the owner of Door County Kayak Tours decided to buy him something better suited for water rescue – that’s when he received a new CRKT orange-G10-handled “Neckolas” neck knife with a full-tang 8Cr13MoV stainless steel blade, a large hole for a finger and a G10 retention sheath.