Rescue at Sunset Beach

Paul Smith is a manger at Cholo’s Mexican Restaurant and teaches Yoga. His classes range from 30 – 60 people. Paul is originally from California, where he surfed in places like Mavericks. He has lived on the North Shore of Oahu for 20 years now. Here’s his story.

That Tuesday after my class I drove to Sunset Beach. It was good surf. There were about four or five guys paddling out when I got there so rather than follow the crowd I ran down shore to paddle out form Mothers Beach through the inside surf was about four to six feet ( 10 – 15’ faces) about 2/3 of the way out. I see this guy floating on his board (to the left).

 

At first, I didn’t think anything of it. You know, maybe he just got a long ride in and was kinda just resting. Then I saw a wave hit him and he got knocked off his board. At this point I was still about 50-60 yards away and I was thinking this guy doesn’t know what’s up. His board was floating in front of him and if he wasn’t careful it was going to hit him. I hollered “Hey man watch out for your board!” and then a third wave broke right on him and took him down. The wave tumbled him to the inside. That’s when I realized something was definitely wrong and this guy needed help. I paddled after him trying to get to his board which was tumbling with him attached to the leash.

When I got there he was still under so I reached down and pulled him out. He was all purple in the face. There was foam coming out of his mouth and it was obvious that he had taken in a lot of water. Looking up, I decided to paddle him across the inside towards the lifeguard tower. I needed to get some help and that was the quickest way. So I tried to put him on his back on his board, but he kept falling off. So I laid him face down and started moving him towards help. I was doing everything I could to get attention: yelling, waving my arms, but we were still a long ways from the tower. Then I could see Kyle the lifeguard in the tower, sitting up. But he hadn’t seen us yet. A couple of surfers paddled to us and asked what they could do to help. So I asked them to yell for help with me to get the tower’s attention.

Then another guy helped me by putting two boards together and getting the victim (Peter) on his back. We checked for a pulse, but couldn’t find it. At this point I could see the lifeguards were on the way, so I started yelling at Peter to hang on help was coming. By now it had been several minutes before anyone else saw us and helped so he was like my kid, you know? I couldn’t let him die. By this time Kyle was on his way with the paddle board. I thought I could paddle Peter in on it, but he fell off the board again. Kyle took over at this point and laid Peter face up on the paddleboard. Then Kyle lay on top of Peter and with the help of the other guys in the water got him to shore. When they got him to shore several surfers on the beach helped Kyle Pao carry Peter to the tower, where the lifeguards immediately began CPR. The lifeguards on duty were Kerry Atwood, Tom Jenny, Victor Marcal, Matt Sack and Dave Yester.

Peter was barely showing any signs of life, it looked as if he had been under water too long and might not make it; the guards did not give up. Everyone kept assisting with CPR and getting the water out of his lungs and breathing life back into him. Finally the EMT’s arrived with the ambulance and took over. The medics hooked Peter up to the machines and found a slight pulse. Peter was taken to Wahiawa General Hospital where the doctors did all they could – the waiting game started. Over the next day or so Peter’s vital signs improved and the doctors removed the air tubes as he started breathing in rhythm. By the second day Peter could recognize his family and by the third day he was speaking clearly. Peter was lucky, thanks to Paul Smith’s determination in getting him on his board and to the lifeguards – he survived.