Mom of 22-Year-Old Diver Who Was Missing at Sea Says Finding Him Was A 'Miracle'

A Florida family is just so grateful after finding a loved one who went missing in the ocean last week.

Dylan Gartenmayer, 22 years old, was freediving and spearfishing near Key West last January 19, when he drifted nearly a mile away from the boat, which took him out to sea and the men he was diving with "just left" him without calling the Coast Guard.

The moment they knew he was missing and stranded in open water, his family piled onto his grandfather's boat and did a search and rescue mission, racing across the water at "58 miles per hour nonstop."

Dylan was rescued after hours, and his traumatic rescue and the heartwarming reunion of the family was captured in a now viral video.

'Definitely had to be a miracle'

Days after the rescue, Dylan and mother Tabitha "Tabby" Gartenmayer appeared Wednesday in an episode of Today, where Tabby declared that finding her son safe on that open sea as daylight was fading "definitely had to be a miracle."

"It had to be God protecting him the whole time, our angels above, because for us to land right on him, you can see it was a needle in a haystack out there," she expressed in her interview with Today hosts Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie.

Tabby could still vividly recall that when she was called by Dylan's father, her ex-husband, that their son was missing for already an hour on the open sea, it was receiving the "worst call" in her life. She described how the message just "literally" took her breath away that she was left standing and stuck.

She further shared that it only took the family seconds to come together to search for their "baby," that though they are not anymore together as a family, they are always going to be there to protect each other.

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No plan to stop freediving or spearfishing soon

Dylan narrated how he created a raft out of buoys he found by a reef, with the goal to keep himself as high as possible for warmth and less body exposed in the water for potential predators. Luckily, he was wearing a wetsuit and it protected him from a couple types of jellyfish that he encountered.

There was only less than 10 feet of visibility when the sun started setting. And, Dylan's heart was starting to sink with it because he knew it would be harder to find him when it gets dark.

Hope was also fading in the family as the night began to fall. They were racing at high speed but at one point, Tabby instructed the boat to slow down in order to better see the water.

A short time later, her son emerged on the right side of the boat.

According to Dylan, he recognized his grandfather's boat and it did not take him long to realize that his family had come to his rescue. He hugged his mother as soon as he was pulled safe onto the boat, which he described was "the greatest relief ever."

Dylan has no plan to stop freediving or spearfishing anytime soon, despite what happened, and Tabby will continually allow him as long as he is safe, People reported.

Tabby said that it is what he loves to do, and she does not want to rob his son from his "passion." She just has one condition though, for Dylan to be with people who will be close to the boat and can watch him.

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