David Walker gained some ardent fans when the GEICO Bassmaster Classic presented by DICK’S Sporting Goods last visited Lake Hartwell – fans who are giving their “guardian angel” a life’s worth of gratitude.
Around noon on Sunday, Feb. 15, 2015, Walker saved Brandon Ardister from drowning in Hartwell. Now Ardister and his family can’t thank the Elite Series angler enough.
“David Walker, he gets prayers every night,” the Elberton, Ga., man said. “Me and my boys, we take turns. Prayers never stop.
“My youngest one, Zaiden (6), he even takes over. He really enjoys it. It’s funny, when he leads prayers, he calls him Mr. Fisherman Walker.”
Cuteness aside, the boys realize had it not been for Walker arriving where he did, when he did, and acting, their father would not be there for them. Since he was struggling in practice, Walker deciding to make a run down lake near the dam, where a commotion at a boat ramp piqued his interest. He moved closer to decipher the hubbub, then saw and pulled Ardister from the 40-degree water.
Later that week, Ardister was invited to Greenville for the Classic weigh-in as a guest of the Walkers. Ardister’s mother had died exactly one year before the accident, and he said he believed Walker was a guardian angel sent by her.
‘Still here with my boys!’
“We here! Going on three years now. What a life change. I’m still here with my boys!”
Ardister posted those words on Facebook with a picture of the ramp where Walker dropped him. Paramedics warmed the 6-7, 340-pound man inside an ambulance, and he quickly recovered.
More than three years have passed since Walker and Ardister last met at the Classic weigh-in, and they hope to visit again this week during the 2018 GEICO Bassmaster Classic presented by DICK’S Sporting Goods. They made plans to fish but that has not yet come to fruition.
“He’s kind of a busy guy,” Ardister said. “With his schedule and with my schedule – I travel with my job and he pretty much travels the world – we haven’t gotten out. We still keep in touch. He’s messaged me about we still need to go fishing together.”
Walker said he enjoys seeing Ardister’s frequent posts on things like his faith or his boys’ sports competitions. Walker said Ardister being such a family man makes the whole story better for him.
“I’m hoping to meet up with Brandon when we get down there for the tournament,” Walker said. “One of the first things I’m going to do is, I’m going to go back to that same spot and refresh my memory as to just how far out in the lake he really was.”
Reliving, rehashing fateful day
Walker also might want to see how far away he was from Ardister. Looking in the distance, he said he couldn’t tell the vehicles at the boat ramp were police cars.
“I’m seeing these cars pull up and drive down the ramp and parking. That’s just odd,” he said. “Another one pulls in. I’m like, that’s just really weird. I gotta get a little bit closer look at this.
“That’s when I see Brandon in the water, and I had no idea it was a person. I’m like, ‘What the hell is that?’”
It was just a fortuitous set of circumstances. Walker was supposed to be focused on finding fish. Instead, the strange goings-on made him want to untangle the mystery, and even he wondered why.
“Why didn’t I just fire up and head off? I got the Classic on my mind. I need to be finding some fish, not trying to decipher what this thing is out in the water,” he said. “It wasn’t like I knew I should be there.”
Walker said he was proud to be in that position and do what “you’re supposed to do. You don’t have to do anything super human – you just have to be there – be in the right place and you can change the outcome.”
‘It happened so fast’
Ardister had been fishing for an hour and half and visited several spots. When he started the motor for the last time, he noticed the boat was “really taking on water,” so he moved to the bow and grabbed two children’s life vests before jumping out.
“It happened so fast,” he said.
Ardister guessed he only swam about 40 yards before Walker idled up.
“I stop, and he turns around and looks at me,” Walker said. “What the hell are you doing out there?”
“My boat sunk,” Ardister said.
“You picked a hell of a day to go for a swim,” said Walker, in disbelief that a boat would sink. “None of this made any sense to me, and he was really so incoherent. It’s not like we had much of a conversation.”
Walker got near Ardister and put his ladder down. Hypothermia was setting in, preventing Ardister from pulling himself in the boat. He finally got his foot in the ladder and Walker helped pull him in.
“Trying to get in there, my legs wouldn’t move,” Ardister said. “We struggled for about 10 minutes to get in there.
“By the time I got off and walked to the ambulance, I couldn’t feel my legs. That was a scary feeling.”
Focus on family, bank fishing
Zaiden alerts his father to details on Walker, like he is pulling his Ranger boat with a Chevy 3500 this year and that he just made the cut in the first Elite.
“To be honest, I think he tries to follow him more than I do,” said Ardister, adding Zaiden even gave him a rundown of his main sponsors, Cabelas, Bass Pro Shops, LiveTarget and GEICO.
Walker said GEICO is working hard with him, hoping to make their presence at the Classic more personal this year, doing things like collaborating with his other sponsors to give away their products at the GEICO Bassmaster Classic Expo presented by DICK’S Sporting Goods.
“That’s really smart on their part. I’m impressed with how they go above and beyond,” Walker said. “GEICO is such a great title sponsor for the Classic. They don’t just put down some money and walk away. They have skin in the game and a strong presence.”
Ardister might have been better served if he had insurance with them. While he had an older boat, it remains on the bottom of Lake Hartwell because of the cost to retrieve it. He didn’t receive any replacement funds and is left to bank fishing, but he’s really happy to be alive.
“As I think about it, it’s just a blessing to actually be here,” Ardister said. “I could have missed a lot of stuff with my boys. It’s such a blessing … don’t take life for granted.”