ANDERSON, S.C. – Brandon Ardister said he feels David Walker is an angel sent by his mother.
His mother, Rachel Brawner, died exactly a year ago to Friday’s first day of the 2015 GEICO Bassmaster Classic presented by GoPro. Ardister, a 31-year-old from Elberton, Ga., knows he would have died if Walker had not been there to pull him from the frigid waters of Lake Hartwell last Sunday. (See rescue story)
“He actually, really did save my life,” said Ardister, whose boat sank 300 yards from shore. “I don’t think I would have made it.”
“The only thing you can do is thank God that you’re still here. I’ve been sending (Walker) messages saying how much I admire him, appreciate him for what he did.”
Ardister repeatedly thanked Walker and told him he wanted his four children to meet the man who saved their father’s life. Walker’s wife, Misty, touched by the request, arranged for Ardister to come sit in their family seats during Friday’s weigh-in.
“I watch it on TV, but I’ve never been to a Classic,” Ardister said. “I hate to get it like this, but I got a special invite.”
Ardister, a spiritual man, said he’s not sure how he will react to being introduced into the B.A.S.S. family at bass fishing’s grandest event.
“As I’m sitting there, will I cry, will I not cry? We’ll have to wait and see how emotional we get,” he said.
Contacted Thursday, Ardister, a quality control specialist at a plastics manufacturer, said it took his oldest boy to put what almost happened to him in chilling perspective.
“My mom, tomorrow will be one year since she passed away,” Ardister said. “He said if I would have died that Sunday, they would have buried me on the same day that my momma passed. That actually hit me pretty hard.”
Instead, fate led Walker to Ardister, turning tragedy into triumph. Walker had just moved down lake and noticed a commotion at a launch ramp. That drew his eye to see something in the slick water and take the initiative to investigate. It was a fortuitous right place, right time deal.
“Me and my fiancé, Carrie, have said David could be my angel that my mom sent down to me,” he said.
Ardister, who enjoys catch-and-release bass fishing, said he went out by himself Sunday. The boys — Martrez, 14, Jamel, 12, Camron, 7 and Zaiden, 3 — wanted to go along but he said it was too cold. He wanted some alone time anyway, and was out awhile before tragedy struck.
“I’m mostly sure the plug was in. I was out there for an hour and half and nothing happened,” he said.
He said his 21-foot bass boat rides really low in the water to begin with, but he believes water was coming in every time he took off and stopped.
“Once it went, it went pretty quickly,” he said. “I tried to start the motor back up and it wouldn’t push the boat. That’s what made it worse. The front of the boat went straight up in the air, and that’s when it started to sink.”
Ardister rushed to the bow, realizing he had to grab life jackets and abandon ship.
“I tried to put mine on but it was too late. The boat just tipped over and I jumped because I didn’t want the boat to flip and get trapped under it,” he said.
There are other angels, he said. A couple at the boat ramp more than 300 yards away witnessed it and called authorities, setting off the rescue. Ardister lost his life jacket but clung to two of his children’s lifevests as he attempted to get to shore.
“I know how to swim, but the biggest thing I kept saying to myself was, I’m not going to die today, I’m not going to die today,” he said. “I tried to keep myself calm and wanted to keep swimming to the shore. Don’t look and see how far, just keep swimming.”
Walker was not even in the area yet. When he arrived, it was several moments before he noticed the strange activity at the ramp on the mostly abandoned lake. When he realized there was a person in the water, he went into rescue mode.
Ardister was in the water 20 minutes, suffering symptoms of hypothermia, and said he might have covered 40 yards before Walker arrived at his location. Even with a ladder on the back of Walker’s Ranger, it took another 10 minutes to get the 6-foot-7, 340-pound man inside.
“I didn’t want to grab anything on his boat — he has a nice boat and I didn’t want to mess it up,” Ardister said. “I was about frozen. My hands were starting to freeze and my body didn’t work properly. I started getting tired and I couldn’t move.”
After several futile attempts to yank him into the boat, Ardister suggested that Walker tow him in.
“He refused to tow me in. He said I’ve got to get in the boat,” said Ardister, who finally got his right foot on the bottom rung of the ladder.
With both men pulling, he made it in. Advanced stages of hypothermia were setting in – he said he was feeling hot – and he began to take off his wet clothes as Walker took him to the sheriffs at the ramp. An ambulance arrived several minutes later, and Ardister was taken inside and wrapped in warm towels.
He called his fiancé, who brought him dry clothing. After a half an hour, Ardister said he exited the ambulance, jogged around the parking lot to warm up some more, then was cleared to get in his vehicle and drive home.
“I didn’t have any more problems,” he said.
Walker’s wife, Misty, said the story of David’s action hit home with her and their two girls. Similar to a police wife, she worries when he’s out practicing by himself.
“As a wife of a fisherman, that’s my biggest fear,” she said. “He fishes from daylight to dark. It’s always on my mind, if he falls in or something happens.”
So when he called at 12:30 p.m., right after the incident, she knew there was a problem.
“He told me the story and you just had to sit down,” Misty said. “You can’t believe it happened. You can’t believe that situation.”
She’s heard the horror stories of other incidents, mentioning that a young boy fishing by himself drowned near their home in Sevierville, Tenn. Walker and Ardister both spoke of the ongoing search for a missing kayaker on Hartwell.
“You hear so many stories, then when we were driving to the hotel, David’s message went off,” she said. “Actually reading the message from Brandon — he wanted to introduce his kids to the man who saved his life — it just kind of hit what David just did.”
The Walkers have two girls, 6 and 11, and Misty said all the women in David’s life now see him as more of a hero.
“Oh yeah, absolutely. It’s something to be proud of,” she said. “When I explained it to the girls, they had some pretty big smiles on their faces.”
Ardister’s family will not be able to attend the weigh-in, he said, but he’s looking forward to meeting with Walker once again, albeit in much better circumstances, to thank him in person.
“I really admire him,” he said. “I really appreciate him coming and picking me up and seeing why the commotion was going on on the bank. A lot of boaters might have really just rolled on by. I really appreciate him actually going and seeing up close what they were doing. He saved my life.”
For Ardister, and for his fiancé and children, professional bass angler David Walker has earned his wings.