The 24-year-old YouTube filmmaker posted eerily about his death weeks before drowning during a trip to Hawaii.
Carson Philbin, of Charlotte, North Carolina, was swimming with three friends in the Kau neighborhood on the morning of January 13, the day after his birthday, when he was swept out to sea. Hawaii Island Police Department.
Three weeks ago, the videographer invited his 6,000 subscribers to watch a video documenting his latest trip around the world.
“Although he had to climb 34 miles up a mountain with a 40-pound gear bag on his back, the cameraman never died,” Philbin wrote in the paper on Dec. 23. Instagram post.
In a follow-up post the following week, Philbin recalled the travel he took throughout the year and wrote, “2024 is going to be even better.”
The trip to Hawaii's southernmost Kau district appears to be another excursion centered around Philbin's 24th birthday, friends he told the Charlotte Observer.
He and three friends jumped off the South Point cliff into the water below, but were quickly overwhelmed by “rough sea conditions,” police said.
Local bystanders rescued his three friends, but Philbin was swept 75 yards out to sea and disappeared beneath the surface.
His body was later recovered by local fishermen and the Hawaii Fire Department.
Authorities have issued a warning against diving in the South Point area, commonly known as “The Hoist,” after it claimed the lives of at least five people in the past six years.
Friends said Philbin, who routinely scales bridges and skydives in his YouTube videos, knows his way around the area because his grandparents had a house nearby. That's what he felt.
An autopsy will determine the official cause of death, but police believe Philbin died from drowning.
