Water takes up nearly 80 percent of the world’s surface, yet
it’s still one of the earth’s most unpredictable elements. And a
little longer than a week ago, San Benito High School students
Cristian Galvan and Esteban Ruiz discovered that first hand. The
two 16-year-old boys jumped in the water March 28 at Marina State
Beach and left the ocean at a beach in Monterey, Galvan said. But
they didn’t intend to.
Water takes up nearly 80 percent of the world’s surface, yet it’s still one of the earth’s most unpredictable elements. And a little longer than a week ago, San Benito High School students Cristian Galvan and Esteban Ruiz discovered that first hand.
The two 16-year-old boys jumped in the water March 28 at Marina State Beach and left the ocean at a beach in Monterey, Galvan said. But they didn’t intend to.
Last Sunday, while visiting his extended family in Prunedale, Galvan and his friend Ruiz got caught in a strong current sweeping the two boys out to sea.
On the clear day, the beach looked calm, Galvan said. That, however, wasn’t the case.
The two boys were in the water for only 20 minutes before they decided it was time to leave, but by then, they were nearly a full football field from the beach.
“It was cold, so we were going to get out, but the waves were keeping us (in),” Galvan said.
Trying to swim back to the beach where Galvan’s mom, Christina Rivera, had been standing, the boys struggled to make any forward movement, he said. Instead, the harder the two worked, the farther they were pushed out.
Galvan’s mom watched her son slowly disappear into the horizon, he said.
“It was a regular day swimming there but after eight minutes passed, we weren’t there anymore,” Galvan said. “After a little bit all (my mom) could see was a little dot.”
As Galvan’s mother watched in the distance, the two friends struggled to stay above the water, Ruiz said.
“After a while I asked him to hold my hand because I wasn’t going anywhere,” Ruiz said.
The smaller Ruiz was battered by the strong waves, he said.
The 16-year-old was flipped inside the waves, struggling to find the surface, Ruiz said.
“I went underwater and did a little flip and I struggled to get back up,” Ruiz said. “I kept on getting hit by the waves … I was underwater for a while.”
Luckily, 40-year-old Prunedale surfer Brian Simpson was watching closely.
“The place where they were swimming usually has a pretty bad rip tide,” Simpson said. “When I saw them swimming there they looked pretty tired. Cristian was looking like he was having a tough time keeping his head up.”
For the full story, see the Free Lance on Tuesday.
