When heavy rain drenches Martha’s Vineyard, flooding at Five Corners sometimes feels inevitable.
But under the elements on Monday morning, the rising water wasn’t the only spectacle in the Vineyard Haven streets. As cars slowly, and partially submerged, drove down Beach Road, 25-year-old Island resident Ben deBettencourt took a more whimsical approach, paddling a friend’s kayak through the flooded intersection.
He wasn’t trying to get anywhere specific, more following up on a challenge from a friend, making online content, and doing it for the sake of having a good time.
DeBettencourt said a friend jokingly mentioned in a group text earlier Monday that someone should paddle through the flooded Five Corners.
“And for some reason, I thought that was a great idea,” deBettencourt told The Times. “I’ve been creating content on social media, and thought it would be a great video for it.”
“Yes, it was absolutely freezing, and no, I never considered doing something like that in the past, but I had the day off from work today and had nothing else going on, so why not kayak in front of XtraMart and get a good laugh in?” he added.
DeBettencourt said he went to a family friend’s house to borrow the kayak, and although they didn’t know he would be doing it in the middle of the street, he got the OK.
“I got splashed by one of my buddies, which made the whole thing even better, and I had a few honks, and a lot of people laughing,” he said, noting that a friend saw him paddling through the flooding and gave him some extra wake: “The freakin’ kayak almost tipped over from the freakin’ wake I got from that dude!”
DeBettencourt said after the ordeal, he headed home. “I had to go straight home and shower, because that water was disgusting,” said deBettencourt.
And they wonder what we do in the winter!!
I’m sure drivers who were there were thrilled about having to worry about this potential problem on top of navigating through the high water.
And there was an opportunity just a few years ago to raise the road surface and add drainage ( that was already purchased and on the construction site ) – but it did not happen due to poor management of the project.
Good for him. What a great idea to draw more attention to what everyone already knows is a major problem – that never seems to get fixed. Going shirtless and a bathing suit in a kayak on St. Patrick’s day requires a special kind of courage. I guess you have to be 25.
What a great idea.. Of course , some flooding deniers will think this is some sort of a hazard for people in cars . But the reality is, let’s put this photo op prank up there so we can have a discussion about this ever more frequent problem. The reality is that you can Kayak on Beach road pretty frequently. I know some people don’t like sharing the road with bicycles, and I’m sure they don’t like having to share with Kayakers– But “the times, they are a changin”. Kudos’ to you ,Ben, for raising awareness.
Just curious. How many more times a year does five corners flood than it did 20 or 30 years ago. Facts matter.
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