Man dies on Lake Buchanan after kayak capsizes in high winds

FROM STAFF REPORTS

BUCHANAN DAM —Crews found the body of a 30-year-old Austin man Jan. 10 after his kayak capsized in choppy water in Lake Buchanan, according to Texas Parks and Wildlife Department game wardens.

Game wardens identified the man as Julian Everard Dahmen.

The incident happened sometime after 5 p.m. Jan 9 when a man and a woman in her 30s launched their kayaks at a Burnet County park on the north end of Lake Buchanan.

“They had the intention of kayaking to one of the islands to camp for the night. The waves were pretty big. The wind was blowing. It was cold,” Game Warden Cody Hatfield said.

Both kayaks took on water, and the victim’s boat most likely capsized, he said.

“They were sit-in-type kayaks. It was loaded down with gear. When it becomes full of water, you’ve got to pump it out. It probably flipped over and dumped him out,” Hatfield said. “Eventually, the second boat was swamped and dumped out the girl. She managed to get back to shore, about one to two miles from where they launched.”

Both were wearing life jackets.

The woman managed to make it to Rocky Point, a peninsula in the vicinity of where the accident occurred.

She went to a house, where the residents called 911.

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department game wardens and a Lower Colorado River Authority crew commenced a search for the victim just after midnight Jan. 10. The search was suspended at 5 a.m. and then resumed two hours later, according to the report.

Crews found the victim’s body about 10 a.m. that morning in about 10 feet of water in the vicinity of the peninsula.

The cause of death is pending autopsy results from the Travis County Medical Examiner’s Office.

editor@thepicayune.com