As Jimmy tells it, he drifted away from his wife and stepkids because he was taking pictures with his new smartphone “and not really paying attention.”

As he tried to make his way back, the water got choppier and he paddled harder before he tipped over and lost his paddle.

He was in about 30 feet of water, his ill-fitting life jacket coming up over his head and he was holding onto the kayak with one hand and his new $1,400 smartphone with the other.

He says people—other kayers and canoeists—were passing by in the distance, but the former amateur boxer’s pride wouldn’t let him scream for help.