“The winds are strong on Lake Simcoe. Take heed.”

It’s the warning Rick Cryderman often hears from his uncle before he heads onto the ice off Oro-Medonte township, near the village of Shanty Bay, to fish.

But in his 20 years of ice fishing, the 47-year-old Orillia auto body painter never knew just how strong those winds could be until he was stranded on a thin, shrinking ice floe, blowing further and further away from shore.

“I didn’t think I was coming home,” he said.

Cryderman was one of 26 people stranded on Lake Simcoe after a dramatic change in wind direction forced the ice where dozens were fishing to suddenly crack away from shore late Friday morning.

The approximately 90-minute ordeal prompted a dramatic rescue by helicopter, air boat and ambulance — and has caused some to question why so many ventured out on thinning ice as the weather warms.

For Cryderman, the morning started out just like it had almost every day for the last three weeks. When he arrived on the ice at about 10 a.m., the sun was shining, but he didn’t think it was too warm to set out.

Just before noon, as he was hoping for his third catch of the day, someone suddenly shouted that the ice had broken away from the shore.

“It happened in seconds,” he said. “The wind just came up real bad.”

A quick-thinking fisherman dialed from his cell phone, reporting that about 20 fishermen, an ATV and a snowmobile were on a piece of ice about 2 kilometres in length. Officers from Barrie, fire service from Oro-Medonte and a helicopter from general headquarters in Orillia were dispatched, said OPP Const. Peter Leon.

In the agonizing moments before help arrived, many panicked, Cryderman said. The floe was initially large enough that some thought there could still be connection to land.

“Everybody was running around, trying to see if there was a place to get off. But it broke right around us.”

The floe was headed towards the Big Bay Point area between Barrie and Innisfil, “into the big lake,” he said.

One man, who had been fishing next to Cryderman, decided in desperation to jump the gap in the ice using his ATV. But by the time he got the machine going, the gap was about six feet wide. His ATV crashed into the water, and his head struck the ice, severely cutting his face.

“His forehead was hanging down below his chin, and his jaw was split down below his chin, it was pretty bad,” said Cryderman. “He was drowning.”

Cryderman immediately tossed the man his gaff hook. As someone else held his feet so he wouldn’t fall in, Cryderman secured a rope around the man and pulled him out of the water.

He was the first on the helicopter and was rushed to Royal Victoria Hospital in Barrie. He is now in stable condition, but required about 300 stitches, Cryderman said.

Soon after, as three airboats appeared, those stranded felt relief, Cryderman said. But then they realized the boats were creating waves that were cracking and breaking the ice. The wind, gusting west and pushing the floe further and further off-shore, wasn’t helping, said the OPP’s Leon.

The breaking ice forced Cryderman to move onto thinner and thinner ice until he was resting on ice he estimates was little more than one inch thick.

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When asked what was running through his mind, the husband and father of two pauses.

“Just . . . hoping I get off.”

For rescuers, it was a race to get everyone to safety. About 15 people were taken to shore, two by two, by a helicopter that hovered about two or three feet above the ice — close enough so that Cryderman, one of the last to go, could latch onto an arm and be pulled up. The rest were removed by boat; about five or six people had to be plucked from the water.

According to Leon, the last rescue came just in time. Once every one was safely on shore, the ice floe had completely deteriorated.

“If it had been another ten minutes, another 5 or 10 more people would have been pulled from the water. There was just no ice left out there,” he said.

The dramatic rescue has prompted many to question why people were out fishing on thinning ice in the first place. According to OPP estimates, the ice was between six and eight inches thick, and this time of year, it’s not unusual for large pieces to break off.

While he said he “can’t speak for the actions” of those who became stranded, he did issue a warning, saying people should be cautious of the melting conditions, especially with mild weather on the way this week.

“The season to be on the ice is definitely over. (Friday) was an example of that,” he said.

Steve, another fisherman who asked that his last name not be used, said there was “nothing that would suggest (the ice) would break off” when he ventured out in the morning.

But Cryderman said he plans to be more discriminating from now on.

“I won’t go out no more unless there’s a good 8 inches of ice,” he said.

With files from Michael Gregory and Sarah Ratchford