#Frostbit

Buy me a coffee - https://ko-fi.com/connorclements 'Frostbit Boy' Ruairí McSorley rescued among dolphins after 12 hours at sea

https://www.irishnews.com/news/northe...

'FROSTBIT Boy' Ruairí McSorley has been rescued after getting into difficulty while swimming off the coast of Co Kerry.

The former viral video star was found on Sunday at around 8.30pm 12 hours after he had begun his swim. He was discovered surrounded by a pod of dolphins four kilometres from the shore of Castlegregory Beach, close to Tralee. He was described as "hypothermic".

Mr McSorley was wearing only a pair of swimming trunks, and told the lifeboat crew he had been trying to swim to Mucklaghmore Rock, an island around 8.8 kilometres from the beach.

Speaking to the Irish Independent, he said he was feeling “100% per cent” after his 12-hour ordeal.

“The only thing was my kidneys needed to readjust, so there has been no serious harm," he said.

“It was only a matter of going into the hospital to heat up a bit. Other than that, I was fine.”

The rescue effort, which involved a helicopter, began following the discovery of clothes at Castlegregory Beach, with the RNLI launching the lifeboat from their station at Fenit Harbour shortly after 12.40pm.

Mr McSorley paid tribute to those who rescued him.

“They’re very professional and very slick. They’re incredible people, I have to say. They aren’t like doctors or paramedics — paid professionals. They’re volunteers,” he said.

“They’re definitely a great group of people, there’s no doubt. They wrapped me up in the blankets and took my body temperature and everything and then just rushed me into the hospital.”

Those involved in the search were initially stood down in the afternoon after finding no sign of the swimmer, but began again at around 6pm.

Gerard O'Donnell of Fenit RNLI said the crew had been "worried" during the search as light was beginning to fade before the swimmer was spotted at around 8pm conscious in the water after crew members noticed a pod of dolphins.

Describing the swimmer as a "lucky individual" and his survival after so long in the water as a "miracle", Mr O'Donnell said the waters of the Atlantic coast can be very cold even in the summer months.

"When the lifeboat crew found them they were a good distance from the shore and were exhausted," he said.

"We would advise that anyone undertaking a swim to let people know where they are going and when they are expected back," he added.

Following the rescue, Mr McSorley was taken for treatment at University Hospital Kerry.

He first came to public attention in January with a news clip that went viral after UTV interviewed him about the perils of a recent cold snap.

The teenager, who said his mother wouldn't allow him to have the day off school, commented: “Ye wouldn’t be long getting frostbit”.

You've seen the clip - and so have hundreds of thousands of people around the world - now see the whole interview as Ruairí McSorley talks to UTV about the wintry weather and the dangers of getting 'frostbit'.

In 2015 we were graced with one of the best viral videos of a generation, the frostbit boy.

With hectic snow and ice pelting down upon Northern Ireland, one schoolboy was forced to brave the sleet and cold as he walked home from school but unlike the infamous man falling on the ice clip, a slippery slide wasn’t the reason this boy went viral.

Ruairi McSorely was stopped by a camera crew to be interviewed about going out in the snow and he begins chatting about how he still had to go to school despite the harsh weather, becoming a celebrity as soon as he opened his mouth.

Speaking to the reporter, he chatted away about how cold the walk to school was but it was when he said frostbite, the world lost it.

‘Oh God it’s desperate, wild time in the snow alright,’ Ruairi tells the interviewer before he’s asked if it put him off going to school.

‘Ah well the mother says we had to go anyway, hadn’t much of a choice in the matter but sure look it.’

And that’s when the famous line was born. Asked if his walk was a cold one he responded: ‘Oh god, you wouldn’t be long getting frostbit.’

He then goes on to explain, in words that are very hard to make out, that he had to change the way he had his socks on so his ankles wouldn’t get ‘frostbit’, or as he put it, ‘you wouldn’t be long getting the ankles frostbit off ya.’

After the clip went viral, Ruairi was on countless TV shows across Ireland, with the most memorable being when he went on Brendan O’Connor’s Saturday Night Show.

The best part of this appearance was that Brendan, along with the audience, couldn’t make out a word he was saying.