it's a cool tale of how the internet really changes the way the world works.
For more than 10 months, Zach Wilson's camera was lost at sea in the Atlantic Ocean just off the coast of Hatteras, North Carolina.
The man from Emerald Park got quite the surprise last week. The camera was found, the images are still intact and he's getting it back all thanks to Facebook
Last May, Zach Wilson was in North Carolina on a half business, half pleasure trip. The 25-year-old from Emerald Park went there with some buddies, to get some photos and video of kite boarding for his company -- Two Brothers Films.
One day, when there wasn't a lot of wind, they decided to head out on paddle boards and he brought along his GoPro camera.
“So that evening, it was just beautiful, it was a glassy ocean and there were just dolphins everywhere and we went out for a paddle and after…we decided to come in because we were all paddled out and last wave in, right at the beach, in like three feet of water, the camera got knocked off the board,” recalled Wilson.
He and a friend walked side by side, searching the water for half an hour with no luck. The camera was gone.
“It wasn’t, I mean, it wasn’t completely unexpected,” he said.
That's because the board was a rental, so instead of using a big adhesive, he used a suction cup. So he ended up buying another camera.
The crazy part is how close he came to finding it.
“(We) just combed the bottom with our feet, just back and forth right in the immediate area, as quick as we could,” Wilson said.
Because the camera was set to take photos every few seconds, there's actually a picture of his legs no more than three feet from the camera.
Then, last Tuesday, he got a text from his friend who works in North Carolina telling him to check REAL watersports Facebook page because it looks like his GoPro washed up on shore.
“I was like, ‘no way, there’s no way it came up’,” he remembered.
Wilson checked and sure enough, there's a really cool photo of him paddling into a wave on the page. But there's a reason this is so incredible.
“Between last May and now, Hatteras was basically wiped out by a hurricane, a massive hurricane and there was some massive surf that came through and so the fact that it was still in the area, I was so surprised,” said Wilson.
He got a hold of person who found it. Apparently the camera was dry thanks to its case and the SD card is safe. Now it's in the mail en route back to Canada.
The story is getting a lot of attention, right up to the highest level. Wilson is now in talks to share it all with the Discovery Channel's Daily Planet.
For more than 10 months, Zach Wilson's camera was lost at sea in the Atlantic Ocean just off the coast of Hatteras, North Carolina.
The man from Emerald Park got quite the surprise last week. The camera was found, the images are still intact and he's getting it back all thanks to Facebook
Last May, Zach Wilson was in North Carolina on a half business, half pleasure trip. The 25-year-old from Emerald Park went there with some buddies, to get some photos and video of kite boarding for his company -- Two Brothers Films.
One day, when there wasn't a lot of wind, they decided to head out on paddle boards and he brought along his GoPro camera.
“So that evening, it was just beautiful, it was a glassy ocean and there were just dolphins everywhere and we went out for a paddle and after…we decided to come in because we were all paddled out and last wave in, right at the beach, in like three feet of water, the camera got knocked off the board,” recalled Wilson.
He and a friend walked side by side, searching the water for half an hour with no luck. The camera was gone.
“It wasn’t, I mean, it wasn’t completely unexpected,” he said.
That's because the board was a rental, so instead of using a big adhesive, he used a suction cup. So he ended up buying another camera.
The crazy part is how close he came to finding it.
“(We) just combed the bottom with our feet, just back and forth right in the immediate area, as quick as we could,” Wilson said.
Because the camera was set to take photos every few seconds, there's actually a picture of his legs no more than three feet from the camera.
Then, last Tuesday, he got a text from his friend who works in North Carolina telling him to check REAL watersports Facebook page because it looks like his GoPro washed up on shore.
“I was like, ‘no way, there’s no way it came up’,” he remembered.
Wilson checked and sure enough, there's a really cool photo of him paddling into a wave on the page. But there's a reason this is so incredible.
“Between last May and now, Hatteras was basically wiped out by a hurricane, a massive hurricane and there was some massive surf that came through and so the fact that it was still in the area, I was so surprised,” said Wilson.
He got a hold of person who found it. Apparently the camera was dry thanks to its case and the SD card is safe. Now it's in the mail en route back to Canada.
The story is getting a lot of attention, right up to the highest level. Wilson is now in talks to share it all with the Discovery Channel's Daily Planet.
