(Editor's Note: This is a reprint of an article that first appeared in the Times/News on May 10. Ethan Janson and Adam Vance have been nominated for a nature hero award for the rescue.)

Things can get pretty exciting at Three Tree Point on a windy weekend.

One minute you can be kiteboarding upside down with Mount Rainier looming large in the background.

Fifteen minutes later, you can be rowing out in Puget Sound with a commandeered dingy to save a couple whose canoe capsized and disappeared.

At least that's the way a recent Sunday evening panned out for North Seattle resident Adam Vance.

The winds were whirling on April 23 so Vance and his buddy, Ethan Janson of West Seattle, headed to the point in Burien to take kiteboarding photographs.

Janson, when he's not drilling teeth as a Seattle dentist, runs a kiteboarding photography business called Railgrab.com.

While setting up for the shots, Vance and Janson noticed a man and woman paddling out past the point in their canoe.

As they wrapped up the shoot, Vance and Janson suddenly heard screams for help and looked out at the water for the couple. They couldn't see them.

"I instantly knew the severity of the situation, having known someone who died in a canoe accident off of West Seattle a few years ago," Janson said.

Janson sprinted to his car, retrieved his cell phone, and called 9-1-1.

Still in his wetsuit, Vance ran along the shore searching for a boat to borrow.

As he ran into a yard, the homeowner came out and Vance asked him if he could borrow his boat.

The owner agreed and helped launch Vance.

About a quarter mile off shore, he encountered the man and woman in the water.

They were wearing life jackets but had been in the cold, wind-whipped water for about 10 to 15 minutes, according to Vance. The canoe had disappeared.

At first, the two told Vance they just wanted to hold onto his boat while he rowed back to shore.

Worried about hypothermia, Vance insisted they get into the boat as he hoisted them aboard.

Meanwhile, Janson stayed on the line with the emergency operator as the Burien/Normandy Park Fire Department rescue team was dispatched.

According to Fire Chief Mike Marrs, the call came in at 7:05 p.m. and the team reached the scene at 7:19 p.m.

Firefighters were on another call and had to return to the station to hook up the department's 12-foot Zodiac boat.

The rescuers reached Vance's boat about 50 yards off shore and transferred the couple into the Zodiac.

Back on shore, the couple was warmed up and appeared fine, Vance and Janson reported.

Vance added, "I was glad to be able to help out.

"I've been involved in a number of rescues. As a seasoned kiteboarder, I've seen all sorts of things."

With kiteboarders and boaters out on the water at the same time, "We keep an eye out for each other," Vance concluded.