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‘What the heck is this?’ Why a man in a ‘bubble’ washed up on a beach

In scenes resembling something from a sci-fi film a man has bizarrely washed up on a beach in a bubble-like floatation device.

The man was found alive after his contraption, which resembles a large hamster wheel with floatation buoys attached to it, after he washed up on a beach in Florida on Saturday, police said.

His appearance led to the US Coast Guard being called in but fortunately was completely fine.

A large floatation device called a hydro pod washed up on a beach in Florida.
A man planned on using this floatation wheel to travel by water from Florida to New York. Source: Flagler County Sheriff's Office

Police said he told them he had left St Augustine in Florida on Friday in the device to travel to New York which is about 1600km away.

On Facebook readers had only one question: why on Earth was he doing it?

“What the heck is this? And why?” one woman wrote.

One man wrote, “this guy is living the dream”.

“Looks like a giant floating hamster wheel. Someone get this man a job at Disney for imagination,” another man wrote.

Why the man was floating from Florida to New York

The man inside the device was named by The Sun Sentinel as Reza Baluchi, 49.

Mr Baluchi told the paper he intended travelling from Florida to New York in his “hydro pod” to raise money for charity.

But he had to turn back because some of his safety and navigation equipment was stolen.

It’s not the first time Mr Baluchi has run into the coast guard either. In 2014, he had to be rescued while trying to travel in the hydro pod from Florida to Bermuda.

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