COROLLA, N.C. — Dangerous rip currents in the Outer Banks over the weekend almost put a Northern Virginia family through a double tragedy. They came together to spread the ashes of a loved one they lost. But the evening took a terrifying turn.
The Outer Banks beaches were Kerry Kane’s happy place.
“She passed away a year ago and because of COVID we were not able to have any type of memorial for her,” said Kane’s sister Shannon Smith.
That’s where her family set out to spread her ashes.
“We had also spread my mom’s ashes in the ocean there,” Smith said.
Smith and about 40 family members gathered in Corolla to say a proper goodbye on May 21. It would have been her 43rd birthday.
“That is when my dad, my sister Kelsey, my sister Lauren and I walked into the ocean with the urn,” Smith said. “It was a biodegradable urn.”
The surf was getting rough. Everyone got out, but Smith’s father Dennis Kane, 71, saw the urn wasn’t sinking, so he rushed into the waves.
“You can imagine how emotional, upsetting that might have been for anybody, it certainly was for him,” said his younger brother Michael Kane. “I think he was distressed that that urn was still floating in the ocean and he did not want it to wash up on shore.”
Michael Kane and their brother-in-law Brian went in after him.
“For every 10 yards we got, he was 10 to15 yards further,” Kane said. “We were not making up any ground.”
The two realized he was caught in a rip current and screamed for family to call 911.
“Fighting the waves, it just seemed like a football field, it just looked like a long way,” Kane said. “At this point, all I saw was the back of his head and just his hands out of the water.”
That chaotic scene still haunts Smith.
“I remember just standing there in sheer panic, because I’ve already lost my sister, I’ve already lost my mom, and my dad was out there in trouble,” Smith said.
Without hesitation, a stranger who was putting away beach rentals nearby jumped right in.
“At that point, I turned around, I knew I had a board close by, went and got that,” said Corolla resident Adam Zboyovski.
Zboyovski pulled everyone to safety.
“I saw somebody I didn’t recognize, racing toward the ocean with the surfboard,” Kane recalled. “I just remember thinking, 'Oh God, please get out there faster than we can get out there.'”
“People run away from that kind of thing and he didn’t know us,” Smith said. “And he just went and didn’t even think twice.”
The ordeal lasted 40 minutes. Zboyovski told us he would’ve done it for anyone.
“I don’t know, I am glad they could still have their father, brother, and grandfather,” Zboyovski said. “It sometimes brings a tear to my eye... don’t tell my girlfriend that.”
The next day Smith posted this photo of Zboyovski and her father, praising his bravery. Thousands of people have shared it on Facebook.
“Not all heroes wear capes, sometimes they wear a surfboard and he definitely was our hero that day,” Smith said.