Apparently there are people who would rather kayak up to a bear than frantically run away from one.
Matthew Garrity was at beautiful Hemlock Lake in Upstate New York on Saturday when a black bear made an appearance in the water. Garrity apparently has superhuman levels of bravery, because he hopped in his kayak to investigate.
The video shows the edge of Garrity’s kayak, proving that he was only a few feet from the calm animal.
“The bear definitely noticed me,” Garrity wrote to Mashable. “At one point, not captured on video (because I was paddling at the time rather than holding my phone) he did turn his head and look directly at me for a split second, but he never stopped swimming towards the shore.”
Relaxing water sounds and heavy breathing, which Garrity told Mashable belong to the bear, underscore the clip.
“I heard that loud breathing sound even before I knew what I was looking at,” he said.
Garrity was actually only in the lake because he saw the bear and wanted to figure out what it was.
“I was with two friends who decided to stay on shore,” he wrote. “I was the curious one who absolutely needed to know what I was looking at moving across the lake so quickly.”
What’s even more impressive than Garrity not getting eaten alive is that once he realized the mysterious moving creature was a bear, he casually stayed in his kayak.
“I suppose I didn’t flee because once I realized it was a very large black bear, I knew this was a once in a lifetime moment,” he said. “I think my curiosity and my adrenaline got the best of me.”
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