The surf and weather were pretty epic last Saturday, September 20th, 2003, as my buddies and I pulled up to park at Noriega and La Playa around 5pm. My good buddy was still at work in the Emergency Room of a local San Francisco hostpital, so we promissed to meet him out in the surf near where we parked our cars.
Later, in the fun waves, we mimiced the sounds of an approching emergency vehicle as it made its way down the crowded Great Highway: Bwoop ! Bwoop ! Still no sign of my overworked friend. 'I wonder if he ever made it out of work ?' I asked myself. A little later, I noticed an ambulance and two beach patrol vehicles on the beach right where we paddled out. 'Some tourist must've gotten too much sun' I told myself, not wanting to ignore the fun and consistent 4-5 footers we were gorging ourselves on. But my other bro was still nowhere to be seen.
We saw him back at the car after sunset. "Hey! Didn't you guys see the ambulance on the beach ?!" he asked. "That was me. I was about to paddle out when I noticed a young guy, about 24, lying face down in the shorebreak and white as a ghost. His father was standing next to him, in shock. Nobody else was helping him. He apparently had eaten a big meal and decided Ocean Beach was a good place for a swim. He was semi-concious when I found him, so I told some kids to go call 911 and started CPR on him. He proceeded to puke his brains out (food, not seawater). I kept working on him, and he pulled through O.K. once the ambulance arrived.
"All the normally anonymous OB surfers congratulated me, and the beach patrol guys were super cool. But all I wanted to do was go surf before it got dark, especially after having worked in the ER all day long."
'That was one lucky kid', we beamed at our friend.
Ocean Beach True Story
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surfseeker7
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