VALEMOUNT, B.C. – Former Oilers anthem singer Paul Lorieau was rescued on the weekend from frigid Kinbasket Lake near Valemount, B.C.
Lorieau, who lives in Edmonton and was the anthem singer for the Oilers for 30 years, has spent the past 10 summers at the lake an hour west of Jasper.
Saturday was hot and sunny, but as usual gusts of wind came up the Kinbasket Reservoir, blowing across the marina.
After Lorieau had untied his boat to load it onto his trailer, a gust of wind pushed it away from the dock. He tried to jump onto the boat, but bounced off into the water. He grabbed the side of the boat but failed to get back in. Nobody saw him fall.
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It was just after marina custodian Kerri-Lynn Fontaine and husband Marc Lohse had finished their morning coffee in the cook shack when they decided to offer Lorieau assistance putting his boat on the trailer, even though he had already turned down their help.
As they approached the marina, the boat was travelling in circles “and we couldn’t see him,” Lohse said.
The wind was blowing north and Lorieau’s 17-foot Lund had already drifted 100 yards down the lake.
The water – between 12 and 14 C – lapped up against Lorieau and his boat, as his rescuers finally spotted him and heard his yells.
Lohse and fellow camper Len Chisholm jumped in a boat and motored to the rescue.
They used nylon dock line to help pull him out – it wasn’t easy.
“When they were trying to fish me out of the water, I kept going up and down,” Lorieau said.
He had been in the water “long enough that he started changing colours,” Lohse said.
He didn’t have a life-jacket on. He had been in the water at least 20 minutes.
“They saved my life,” Lorieau said.
After the rescue, they managed to retrieve several hundred dollars that had fallen out of his pocket, as well as his wallet and shoes, but $900 was still missing.
“As long as I came out of it, it’s OK,” Lorieau said.
Laura Keil is editor of The Rocky Mountain Goat News
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