re: Baw jumps off the tallest bridge in Austin

"I pulled this guy out of the water. It was a terrible experience and this guy is very lucky to be alive, and I personally don’t think he wanted to survive.

I’m the guy in a the White Cobalt that first pulls this idiot out of the water. I took my girlfriend and her father out on the boat for a afternoon cruise and picnic. On the way back from Emma Long I noticed this guy climbing the bridge. There is a no wake zone under the bridge (because of the nearby boat launch) and it’s the only reason I was going slow enough to notice him. He stood up there for a little and we were all debating if he was going to jump or climb back down. His waving and what not lead us to believe he wasn’t suicidal so we figured he wasn’t going to jump. Until he did. He landed maybe 20-30 feet from our boat. This dude basically did a bellyflop. You can tell by the way he immediately starts flailing he doesn’t know what he is doing. It takes him awhile to come out of the water and we are all sure he is dead. You can see me turn the boat away at first because I didn’t want to run this guy over. When he does come up he is whimpering “help swim” over and over again. I run up along side him and turn the engine off and pull him up onto the swim platform. The dude is clearly in shock, saying “I didn’t die, I thought I was going to die” over and over again. He says his back hurts and that he can’t move. He starts drooling blood filled spit on the back of the boat. His shirt is in tatters and the straps on his sandals are broken off and falling from his feet (think Tevas). The toon that comes by asks if he is ok and I give a definitive “No” and ask if we can transfer him to his toon because I couldn’t nose up to dock the same way a toon can (with the flat front deck of a toon you can push up against the dock and leave the motor running to effectively stay parked there.) we were worried about moving him due to possible back injury, but quite frankly we were freaked out and trying to get him to shore as quickly as possible. We ask him if he wants us to call an ambulance, and this dude says no. One was called anyway. At this point a cop showed up on the bridge asking if anybody jumped, we yelled back that he was on the toon, and being taken to the boat launch. Once this idiot gets to land, he tries to take off. Basically crawling away from the parking lot where emergency responders are now converging. I talked to the toon guy after and he said when he asked why he jumped the kid responded “YouTube.”

I just want to say that in my opinion this wasn’t someone “chasing their dreams.” It was a suicide attempt or at least a serious cry for help. He showed up to the bridge alone, with no plan, and basically the first thing out of his mouth after surfing was “I’m not dead, I thought I was going to die.” I was really hoping this wasn’t going to be picked up by the news and validate his actions. I’m lucky he only ruined my day instead of causing me and my family lasting trauma from seeing a person die right in front of us."