{"id":18271,"date":"2019-09-07T08:31:28","date_gmt":"2019-09-07T14:31:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skyhinews.com\/?p=59939"},"modified":"2019-09-07T08:31:28","modified_gmt":"2019-09-07T14:31:28","slug":"summit-water-rescue-team-recovers-lost-wedding-ring-from-lake-dillon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/local-news\/summit-water-rescue-team-recovers-lost-wedding-ring-from-lake-dillon\/","title":{"rendered":"Summit Water Rescue Team recovers lost wedding ring from Lake Dillon"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"swift-gallery p402_hide\" readability=\"6.5321336760925\">\n<ul id=\"imageGallery-59939-766\" class=\"gallery list-unstyled\">\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/www.skyhinews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/09\/Ring-SDN-090719-3-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.skyhinews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/09\/Ring-SDN-090719-3.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Courtesy Summit County Sheriff\u2019s Office | A diver enters the water at Lake Dillon to find Valdis Zebauers\u2019 missing wedding ring.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-1.5\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"8\">\n<p><strong>A diver enters the water at Lake Dillon to find Valdis Zebauers\u2019 missing wedding ring.<\/strong><br \/>Courtesy Summit County Sheriff\u2019s Office<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.skyhinews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/09\/Ring-SDN-090719-3.jpg\" alt=\"A diver enters the water at Lake Dillon to find Valdis Zebauers\u2019 missing wedding ring. \"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/www.skyhinews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/09\/Ring-SDN-090719-3-150x150.png\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.skyhinews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/09\/Ring-SDN-090719-3.png\" data-sub-html=\"Courtesy Summit County Sheriff\u2019s Office | Valdis Zebauers\u2019 ring, which was recovered from Lake Dillon.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-1\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"9\">\n<p><strong>Valdis Zebauers\u2019 ring, which was recovered from Lake Dillon.<\/strong><br \/>Courtesy Summit County Sheriff\u2019s Office<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.skyhinews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/09\/Ring-SDN-090719-3.png\" alt=\"Valdis Zebauers\u2019 ring, which was recovered from Lake Dillon. \"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/www.skyhinews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/09\/Ring-SDN-090719-1-1024x576-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.skyhinews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/09\/Ring-SDN-090719-1-1024x576-1024x576.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Courtesy Valdis Zebauers | Valdis \u201cZeke\u201d Zebauers and his wife, Yvonne, show off their wedding rings following the recovery.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-0.5\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"10\">\n<p><strong>Valdis \u201cZeke\u201d Zebauers and his wife, Yvonne, show off their wedding rings following the recovery.<\/strong><br \/>Courtesy Valdis Zebauers<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.skyhinews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/09\/Ring-SDN-090719-1-1024x576-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"Valdis \u201cZeke\u201d Zebauers and his wife, Yvonne, show off their wedding rings following the recovery. \"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"caption-toggle\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.skyhinews.com\/news\/regional\/summit-water-rescue-team-recovers-lost-wedding-ring-from-lake-dillon\/#\" class=\"show-captions\">Show Captions<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.skyhinews.com\/news\/regional\/summit-water-rescue-team-recovers-lost-wedding-ring-from-lake-dillon\/#\" class=\"hide-captions\">Hide Captions<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The Summit County Water Rescue Team spends most of its time training for emergency situations \u2014 jumping into action for a water rescue, recovering bodies and assisting in underwater investigations with evidence recovery.<\/p>\n<p>But on occasion, the team has a chance to go above and beyond to help out community members, even when the stakes are low.<\/p>\n<p>One such occasion presented itself last month, when a long-time boater at the Frisco Bay Marina had his wedding ring slip off his finger and into the lake. Luckily, 10 days later, the dive team was able to recover it \u2014 something Summit County Sheriff\u2019s Office special operations Sgt. Mark Watson called a \u201cone in a million\u201d find.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is another example of how our search and rescue team, the water rescue team, and this community of emergency responders helps our community in many ways,\u201d Sheriff Jaime FitzSimons said. \u201cThey can go in and rescue people and save lives in water environments but can also rescue the community in other ways. This was an emotional rescue. And to me a win is a win. If we can bring some happiness and closure to someone in the community like this, then that\u2019s awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Valdis Zebauers, better known to some by his nickname \u201cZeke,\u201d lives in Golden with his wife of 46 years, Yvonne. Zebauers \u2014 a Latvian native and former platoon leader and engineering company commander with the U.S. Marina Corps during the Vietnam War \u2014 said he has a slip at the Frisco Bay Marina and has been coming up to Summit County to boat a couple of times a week during the summer for more than 20 years.<\/p>\n<p>But things went awry during one excursion last month.<\/p>\n<p>Zebauers said he was out sailing with friends Aug. 17 and his unique wedding ring \u2014 casted from wax models he and his wife had made when they were married \u2014 fell into the bay as the group was putting the boat to rest at the dock.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was just a horrible feeling to see that thing go in the water,\u201d Zebauers said. \u201cI thought that it was gone forever. My wife and I have been married for 46 years, and I didn\u2019t have the ring off the entire time. I felt like I lost a part of me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Zebauers reached out to employees at the marina, who in turn contacted the Summit County Water Rescue Team to see if there was anything they could do. The team \u2014 a volunteer group that operates under the authority of the Sheriff\u2019s Office \u2014 decided to act.<\/p>\n<p>The team went to the marina Aug. 22 with a special underwater camera and was able to locate the ring 16 feet under the surface and mark it with washers lined with marking tape to help locate it again once divers were available.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were really fortunate to actually see the ring with the camera. There was some luck there,\u201d said Watson, who provides assistance to the team on the land-based side of operations. \u201cOur biggest concern is that it would disappear into the mud below, especially being such a small, little object.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Divers arrived Aug. 27 to retrieve the ring. Though even with the markers in place, the mission was no picnic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe biggest problem is visibility,\u201d Watson said. \u201cEven at just 16 feet, you can\u2019t see because it\u2019s so murky. So they dove down a couple of times. Fortunately, they managed to clear the silt from the area, and the next time they went down with their lights, they managed to get a glimpse of it glimmering below them. It\u2019s sort of one in a million that things came together and the ring was recovered considering the conditions in the lake and the size of the object. \u2026 But for the team, it was a great satisfaction to help out. It\u2019s a good group of guys with a passion for diving and helping people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For Zebauers and his wife, the sense of relief was palpable.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe was horrified when I told her about it,\u201d Zebauers said. \u201cShe was totally distraught like I was. The alternate plan was to re-create the ring somehow, or find something that looked sort of like the ring she was wearing. So she was, of course, thrilled like I was when it was found. \u2026 I initially had no hope of seeing it again. But the dive team did a remarkable job.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Summit County Water Rescue Team<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>According to Watson, the Summit County Water Rescue Team is one of just three volunteer-based dive teams in the state. The group typically assists with water and ice rescues, body recoveries and other work like helping to recover pieces of evidence for criminal investigations.<\/p>\n<p>Though according to Watson, sending divers into the water is often the group\u2019s last resort because of the heightened dangers of diving in high altitude locations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDiving at altitude is very dangerous,\u201d Watson said. \u201cWe don\u2019t want them to go down over 60 feet because all of the dive tables change due to the altitude. So if you\u2019re down 60 feet, it\u2019s probably the equivalent to around 100 or 115 feet at sea level. So that plays a big part because it changes your bottom line, it changes how you come up to the surface, and it changes your timeline if anything did happen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Instead, the team will use an underwater remote operating vehicle equipped with a camera and claw to complete \u2014 or at least help to plan \u2014 missions before sending divers into the water. The group also has a side-scan sonar device it can tow on the back of a boat to get sonar images on the side of the lake.<\/p>\n<p>Watson noted that the team doesn\u2019t often take on missions such as ring recoveries, though it occasionally will help out community members when schedules line up. Watson said that on Thursday, the team took six hours to help raise a sunken boat at the marina back to the surface using airbags.<\/p>\n<p>Nonemergent situations can provide valuable practice for the team for when real problems arise.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey got to train their skills for if they\u2019re ever doing an evidence search,\u201d Watson said. \u201cIt helps build their confidence. It\u2019s good to do a real life mission and make sure you\u2019ve got everything working correctly. And it\u2019s exciting to have that success. They really did feel a great sense of accomplishment, and it\u2019s a great reward to get that back to someone who\u2019s worn it for 46 years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.skyhinews.com\/news\/regional\/summit-water-rescue-team-recovers-lost-wedding-ring-from-lake-dillon\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Sky-Hi News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A diver enters the water at Lake Dillon to find Valdis Zebauers\u2019 missing wedding ring.Courtesy Summit County Sheriff\u2019s Office Valdis Zebauers\u2019 ring, which was recovered from Lake Dillon.Courtesy Summit County Sheriff\u2019s Office Valdis \u201cZeke\u201d Zebauers and his wife, Yvonne, show off their wedding rings following the recovery.Courtesy Valdis Zebauers Show CaptionsHide Captions The Summit County [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-18271","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-14 05:25:29","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KRKY Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18271\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}