Friends are remembering 24-year-old Carson Philbin after he drowned in the ocean over the weekend.
They spoke to Channel 9′s Hunter Sáenz on Thursday, saying Philbin, from Charlotte, was charming and dependable.
Sáenz actually interviewed Philbin years ago and remembers his as a charismatic and passionate man. It spoke volumes for nearly a dozen of his closest friends to stop what they were doing Thursday and talk to Sáenz about who Philbin was, their fondest memories, and the impact he made.
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“Just talented at pretty much everything he did,” Elliott Schultz said.
“His love was just so big,” Shannon Stone said.
“Carson especially is the type of person that you just can’t fathom not being here,” Jackson Dumas said.
Philbin was an action-packed person. He was a young man full of humility, his friends say, and a charming soul who was as vulnerable as he was dependable to everyone who crossed his path.
“I really feel like he really changed my life,” Ethan Kim said.
“He was such a multidimensional and multifaceted person,” Ryan Kendall said.
Eleven of Philbin’s friends spoke to Sáenz together on Thursday in an almost therapeutic conversation.
“I think the biggest thing for me was just how much excitement and life, kind of, came to everything,” Jake Aschenbrenner said.
They said the Ballantyne native was an avid runner and was successful behind the camera, producing memorable and viral moments.
But Philbin’s life was cut short Saturday when police in Hawaii said he jumped into the ocean, experienced rough waters, and was swept out to sea. His body was later recovered.
“It’s been really hard,” Stone said.
“Was just very, very scary and overwhelming,” Kendall Platt said.
Platt and a few others were with Philbin on that trip to celebrate his birthday Friday, the day before his death.
“We were going to go on a hike later that day and swim like at a waterfall. Carson was just showing us like all the different spots that he loved,” he said.
They all are grieving, but choosing to push through their pain. Some got matching tattoos — one of which Philbin himself had of a motto he lived by.
“He had this this tattoo actually on his hand, ‘why not?’” Schultz said.
“I’m glad that he really did know how many people loved him,” Michael Gallo said.
(WATCH BELOW: 13-year-old boy from Locust drowns in NC lake, sheriff’s office says)
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