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Windsurfer details rescue from Hudson River

A windsurfer who was rescued from the Hudson River last Sunday sat with News 12 to detail his ordeal. Ben Kaufman, of New City, says that when he set out to windsurf amid what he considered ideal conditions,

News 12 Staff

Sep 23, 2015, 1:50 AM

Updated 3,360 days ago

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A windsurfer who was rescued from the Hudson River last Sunday sat with News 12 to detail his ordeal.
Ben Kaufman, of New City, says that when he set out to windsurf amid what he considered ideal conditions, he could not have predicted that things would go so awry.
A GoPro camera was running as Kaufman's mast suddenly snapped in the middle of the river.
Kaufman maintains that he wasn't in any danger, but says he is lucky that a boat from the Rockland County Sheriff's Office was on the river.
After being notified by a boater of Kaufman's plight, two officers on a small vessel pulled him out of the water. Kaufman had been wearing a life vest and safety helmet, but a swim to shore, with board in tow, would have taken hours.
Officer Todd Farmer, of the Rockland County Sheriff's Marine Unit, tells News 12 that while conditions may have been ideal to Kaufman, the wind that day made waters rough and dangerous.
The experience hasn't put a damper on Kaufman's enthusiasm for windsurfing. He says he just has to wait to get a new mast before hitting the waters again.
Kaufman is one of more than 100 members of the Hudson River Windsurfers, an informal group of like-minded people which he founded in the early 1990s.