"You'll be home for dinner"

Your the man Doug!

I have a similar story to tell:

I had a similar situation myself 2 summers ago. Hungover on the beach with some friends, I saw a bunch of people getting swallowed up by a rip. Without much thought, I ran and jumped in thinking I could help these people, who were flailing their arms in desperation. When I got out to the water, there was an overweight man (the father), and 2 young kids. They were all really desperate at this time, trying to fight the current and going no where. The Dad, especially was in bad shape, but, what do you do? Help the kids, first, of course.

When I went over to the kids, the boy immediately threw his arms over my shoulders and started sinking me. So, now I was being pulled down and fighting the rip as well, and we weren't going anywhere. Both kids were saying how scared they were and were saying stuff, like "Am I going to die?". Definitely heavy and I was starting to freak out a bit. So, I had to get the kids off from hanging on me, and then eventually was able to get them to swim parallel to the beach and get out of the rip. I had one of them hold on to my ankle. I'm not sure how long the whole process was, maybe 5-10 minutes, and eventually they brought in by the surf and got to shore. They were beat, and I was beat.

So, back to the Dad. Turns out he was in really bad shape. He went unconscious and floated on his back, and my friend was able to pull him up to the beach. He was very very close to drowning. When he was pulled up on to the beach, his face was blue and he started throwing up sea water. A few minutes later, the ambulance arrived and picked up the entire family.

Was really heavy! I'm glad I was able to help, but I know I could have made it more safe for everyone. Biggest thing I learned, was first look for a flotation device. If I had looked for some boogie boards or something on the beach, before heading out in the water, it would have helped tremendously. Second, make sure, the victim doesn't hang on you.

Thankfully, everyone made it out okay, but I"ll be better prepared next time.

 

Good job Doug. I had a very similar situation (people not helping) at the VB Pier a couple of years ago. This was mid September and there were no lifeguards. I literally had just paddled out and there was a couple hanging out just out past where it was breaking, about chest high waves. The tide was dropping and the water really started sucking out. They got pushed past where their feet could touch and they started to panic. I immediately paddled over, took my leash off, and gave them my board to hang onto while I hung onto the leash. I didn't want that anchor tied to me if these people tried to grab onto me or something. The lady was telling me stuff like, "I don't want to die", I mean she was truly terrified. There were two other guys out surfing who I yelled to for help with the situation and they just sat motionless, laughing at the tourists. I could immediately tell they weren't going to provide any assistance. My first thought about them was how could you not try and help somebody who is in a life or death situation. I don't care if they're stupid tourist from WV or not, you got to do something. Anyways, I get them to situate perpendicular to the board and start kicking while I swam in dragging the leash. A wave comes and knocks the lady off the board, but the guy stays on for a couple seconds and luckily gets washed in. I am still holding on to the leash at this point and the board comes sailing back at me like a missile. It was dumb luck though, because I still had the board and only one person to deal with now. We managed to get back in and they were very thankful and all that. Then I see they had two tweener kids on the beach and I feel pretty good about helping them. Went back out and had the best session I'd had in a long time.

 

Good stories, and well done! It's amazing how quickly things can go wrong. I was surfing a weak waist high swell at a well known beach in NH and saw a kid almost drown. Crowded day, lots of people out, no one ever saw him go down, but a couple hundred feet down the beach from me all of the sudden a few guys noticed the kid floating face down next to his board.

Unlike the crew in the water for your experience, Doug, it was actually somewhat reassuring to see the response from the lineup. I wasn't one of the guys right next to him, and a bunch of people were heading his way, so I headed to the beach to call for help, but a bunch of other guys got in first and called the EMTs. A group of 3 guys brought him in. He was dead on the beach, no pulse, really blue, but they managed to bring him back. Surfers on the beach giving CPR until the EMTs showed up. As they were getting him strapped up and ready to go on the gurney, they were continuing to go through CPR and set up the D-Fib. First shock from the D-fib brought him back, vomiting blood and water everywhere. Heavy stuff.

I didn't recognize him, and haven't seen him since, but I still am really curious if he remembers what happened at all. Didn't see any obvious signs of trauma like a board knocking him out, but once he was awake they had him in the ambo within a couple minutes. The day in question was a 2-3 foot summer wind swell on a calm day, and it was almost the kid's last.

Obviously we all know there are inherent risks to surfing, but it was a really good reminder to me that it doesn't have to be OH and thick to mess you up.

 

good story doug.most people should know when or even if to help someone in stress.theres a lot of a$$holes and a few good people.some migrated into the surfing scene.theres always some surfer who wants to not get involved when someones drowning 10ft from them and they are on a huge longboard.i remember when the fire burned down the boardwalk in seaside park,surfers were taken selfies infront of the fire from the beach.thats not cool!!!

I see this way too often in all aspects of life.nypost for example,a few months ago they had on the front page some guy about to get killed by a train.there was more than enough time to pull him to safety,but theyd rather take pictures instead of help.theres a few cases like this,like a pic of a guy stating this man is about to kill!!well maybe u should stop him.thats why I don't like a lot of photogs,they all remind me of paparazzi.the surf paparazzi.I remember a few yrs ago,some old lady was tellin me her daughter surfs and she was gonna show me where to sit,the longshore current was strong that day,and as soon as she stepped in the bottom dropped off and I grabbed on to her and floated like a quarter mile down.lifegaurds sat there in their hoodies watchin on,same lifegaurds a few weeks later I decided to bodysurf where 1 other surfer was and they kicked me out the water,i barked at them at got kicked off the beach

 

Two more thumbs up for ya Doug. Glad you could help save a life.

I'll chime in with my story. Unfortunately it didn't turn out as good as the others.

A few years ago, 3rd day of my honeymoon, I tried to tow 3 living guys on a boogie board, and a dead old man they were trying to save, back to the beach. No go. Old guy was floating face down. They were like a sea anchor. The catch-22 was they weren't very sea worthy and had no business being out there but how could they be expected to watch the old man (a relative) drown. Well they didn't save him and almost drowned themselves.

If I helped the already dead guy I would've had a couple of more bodies in the water. Help the living and the old man floats away plus whomever was left probably had a 50-50 chance of not drowning. The rip was bad so all I could do was keep them calm and afloat the best I could until the rescue crew got there.

I saw it all unfold. I was checking the waves (waist high and choppy) waiting for the tide to drop and saw what looked like guy paddling out very fast on a longboard but realized there was no board under him and he was caught in a rip.

I grabbed my board and sprinted down the beach hoping I was wrong. By the time I got there the 3 dudes were already swimming toward him with 1 boogieboard. I jumped in and caught up with them at the sandbar then realized there was the old guy floating face down. All were starting to panic so giving up my board was pretty sketchy too so I let them hold onto my leash and paddled like I never have before across the rip towards a shallower part of the sandbar. I'll never forget the look of utter fear in their eyes the whole time.

About 10 min. later the rescue squad arrived and a couple of rescue swimmers made their way out to us and got everyone in. They tried CPR on the old guy to no avail.

Pretty sad day for all. All of them were in town for a wedding. Granddad, his son, son's future son-in-law and the best man were all out there. They still went through with the wedding on the beach 2 days later.

Turns out they think the guy had a heart attack in the shorebreak and that's why he got caught in the rip. But, things could've been much worse for the other 3.