A New York woman drowned Friday while helping another member of a standup paddleboard yoga class, police said.
Lisa Margaritis was paddleboarding with a group in the Hashamomuck Pond when one of the members started to have problems with a strong current around 9:52 a.m. near the Long Island Rail Road bridge, Newsday reported.
Margaritis, 48, an experienced paddleboarder, tried to help the woman but fell into the water when her paddleboard hit a bridge piling, the Suffolk Times reported.
"(She was) tethered to her board and unable to free herself," Southold police Detective Sgt. John Sinning told Newsday.
A jogger jumped in to rescue Margaritis, WPIX reported. He was able to free her from the paddleboard and bring her to shore, where first responders met them and attempted life-saving techniques.
She was then taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Police said Margaritis was wearing a flotation device around her waist, the Times reported. The names of the other women she was paddleboarding with have not been released.
"She was a hero in my eyes," her mother, Jean Weber, told Newsday. "A very good kid. She wanted to save somebody else. She was always kind."
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