Fortunately, there were waves. That meant a few surfers were out
Sunday afternoon at Marina State Beach, on hand to rescue two
teenage boys from Hollister who got caught in a fierce rip current
about 2 p.m.
Larry Parsons
Fortunately, there were waves.
That meant a few surfers were out Sunday afternoon at Marina State Beach, on hand to rescue two teenage boys who got caught in a fierce rip current about 2 p.m.
“I was paddling in and got stuck in the rip,” said Brian Simpson, a 40-year-old Prunedale surfer who was just about to wrap up his day’s surf session. “Then I saw those two guys, and they were kind of swimming backward.”
Simpson went to the troubled swimmers and got them to lie across his board as he kept it stable in the choppy water. He signaled to another surfer, who already was out in the parking lot, to come back out with his board.
The other surfer, Wayne Kelly, came out with a bigger board. He took one of the tired swimmers and tried to paddle in with him.
“They just wiped out. Luckily the board didn’t get away,” Simpson said.
Then the two surfers and the beleaguered teens went with the flow. The rip current eventually took them about a mile offshore.
Simpson said he kept talking to the teen on his board, telling him to keep cool, that help would soon be on its way. He didn’t tell him about another rescue Simpson helped make three years ago at the same beach — a story about a surfer and a shark.
“I didn’t tell him about the shark story,” Simpson said Monday. “I wanted him to keep calm and not panic.”
Coast Guard Lt. j.g. John Suckow said the two surfers were “a huge help.”
“The surfers were heroes,” he said. They kept the swimmers afloat for “quite a long time” until the rescue was made, he said.
The swimmers were two teenage boys from Hollister. Simpson said they were big kids “who kind of looked like linebackers.”
Marina Fire Chief Harald Kelley said the rip current, not the surf, got the two boys in trouble.
“It was not big surf, but just a big, wide riptide. It had to be 100 yards wide,” Kelley said.
Kelley said it probably took up to 15 minutes for the Coast Guard boat to arrive and pluck the two surfers and two boys out of the water.
“That was a welcome sight,” Simpson said. “The kid was starting to get cold.” Both of the boys were just in shorts and tank tops, he said.
The Coast Guard boat dropped the surfers in the water a little farther south, beyond the rip current, so they could paddle ashore. The two boys were taken to the Coast Guard pier in Monterey, where emergency personnel evaluated them. “They were fine,” Kelley said.
Simpson said he spoke briefly with their parents.
“They were just really thankful,” he said. “I told them it was my pleasure. I love helping out when I can.”
And he told the boy he rescued to pass that attitude on. “I told him to do something nice for someone else when he gets the chance,” he said.
By his count, Sunday’s drama was the third water rescue in which Simpson has gotten involved while surfing.
He was one of three surfers credited with saving Todd Endris, 24, in August 2008 after Endris was attacked by a great white shark while surfing off Marina State Beach. The local chapter of the American Red Cross, Rep. Sam Farr and others recognized the trio for their heroism.
About 15 years ago, Simpson was with another group of surfers who went into raging surf in Mexico to rescue a child.
“The guys I was with just beelined in,” he said. “It was awesome. They didn’t hesitate.”
Kelley said it isn’t uncommon for surfers to come to the aid of people struggling in offshore waters.
“That seems to happen at Marina State Beach, where our surfing community is kind of ‘Johnny-on-the-spot,'” he said.
Simpson said Sunday’s events absolved him, in a way, for going to the beach in the first place.
His wife, Ivy, who is pregnant, wasn’t wild about him going surfing Sunday. And as he drifted farther and farther offshore while waiting for rescuers, he couldn’t help but think he was getting into deeper trouble on the home front.
But the rescue was a fine alibi.
“It was a good enough excuse,” said Simpson, who works in Salinas as an X-ray technician. “At least I wasn’t hanging out and surfing all day.”
Look back for more on this story.
