blacks

[Jack Beresford]

From the San Diego Union-Tribune:

Battered surfer rescued by well-trained trio

Originally published March 3, 2010 at 2:10 p.m., updated March 3, 2010 at 2:56 p.m.

A 49-year-old man who was knocked unconscious when a big wave crashed over him as he surfed off Black’s Beach on Wednesday morning was rescued and revived by three surfers — a doctor, an off-duty lifeguard and a medical student.

The stricken surfer, who was identified as Chris Ryan of Pacific Beach, was pulled from the water about 7:30 a.m. by three surfers who came to his assistance, said San Diego Fire-Rescue Department spokesman Maurice Luque.

Luque said a surfer who was paddling out saw Ryan catch a large wave that closed out on him and knocked him off his board. The paddling surfer — medical student Phillippe Duhaime — waited for the man to surface but then saw him floating face-down in the water.

Duhaime was holding Ryan’s head above water as more waves rolled through when a second surfer, Dylan Jones, an off-duty lifeguard-paramedic from Los Angeles County, noticed the rescue taking place.

Jones caught a wave over to the two men in the water and worked with the first surfer to carry the unconscious man into the beach, where they began administering aid, Luque said.

A doctor who was surfing in the area, Mark Bracker, came in to assist. Bracker performed CPR while Jones gave Ryan mouth-to-mouth, Luque said. They worked on him for about three minutes before he “came back,” Luque said.

“The people that were attending to him knew exactly what to do and how to do it because of their medical backgrounds. They didn’t lose a minute,” Luque said. “Everything was aligned perfectly. … The consensus is had he not gotten that kind of immediate care, he would have died.”

Because it was high tide and a lifeguard vehicle could not reach him, surfers carried the man about 75 yards to a waiting ambulance. Officials said he was reported in serious condition at a hospital Wednesday afternoon.

[maxb]

My hats off to those guys, they were obviously aware of and paying attention to those surfing around them. When you are in the water always look out for others.
Great job guys.
Max

[Eric Carson]

Those involved in saving his life are heroes!! I pray the surfer didn't suffer any spinal trama and he comes out of it okay.
Getting an unconcious victim to shore (Through surf, drop off and shorebreak) is an exceedingly difficult task!! Boards and leashes in these rescues can actually make this even more difficult.
Surfers are a lifeguards best friend.

[southpeakbrad]

Thanks for posting this Jack! I had heard of the accident but not many details. So stoked for Chris that he's going to be OK (per CK). Chris is kind and always happy and generous. It'll be good when he's back in the water..when ever that will be.

Special thanks to Phillippe, Mark, and Dylan for all that you guys did!

[southpeakbrad]

OK more details..

I acutally met Phillipe at Blacks for the first time the day before the accident. A mutual friend introduced us. He is not a medical student but wants to apply for med school. I was blown away that it was him who was first on the scene!

I ran into Phillipe today at work (at a conference I attend every Fri AM) and he filled me in on what happened. If you've ever surfed Blacks when it's big then you will quickly see how fortunate Chris is to be alive.

Normally everyone paddles out south of the road (much easier) and some people do "laps" when they straighten out on a big closeout. Phillipe said that it looked like he could make it out by starting north of the road since there was a drift heading south-he thought he would drift a bit south and then be outside. Well he was the only one who chose to do that and was punching through quite a few waves when he saw Chris take off on a big right,. It was a standup barrel that Chris was in that eventually closed out. Phillipe looked for Chris and when he saw him floating he got to him as quick as he could. He said there was no one else around within a hundred yards! That's because everyone was sitting outside so far. If Phillipe had not paddled out where he did it would've been much worse for sure.

[Bob Gove]

Tim Tenny rode to Mexico with us today and gave us his version of the incident on our way south. He helped get Chris onshore, which took awhile as you can imagine, dragging a body through the whitewater on a double overhead day. When they got him onshore, he was literally blue, and his body was bloated. No pulse, no breathing, the guy was a goner. They had to pry his locked jaw open to establish an airway, not once, but twice. Tim was rubbing his extremities (while the others were starting cpr) and shouting at him "COME ON CHRIS! YOU CAN MAKE IT!" After 3 minutes of cpr (no breaths offered, just pumping the chest) he finally spat out a bunch of seawater, after 2 more expulsions he started breathing. Chris has recovered fully and remembers nothing other than paddling out and wakeing up in the hospital (and apparently he was thrashing about so much there that they had to sedate him!) Congratulations to all that helped in the rescue, you saved a life and are all heroes in my book. I hope that if I am ever in the same situation that I have such competent and heads up friends come to my aid. Probably not, they'll just shrug and say "one less wavehog orange kneeboarder in the lineup!"

[rooster]

Robert

Now why would say such a mean thing Of course no one would give a rip and just let you flop around looking silly. But WHY would you SAY it

[rooster]

All kidding aside, Chris is darn lucky.
Growing up in San Diego and surfing Blacks, I have seen and been a part of several rescues.
Kudos to the guys that saved his life

[randiego]

Surfline has it today:

http://www.surfline.com/surf-news/san-d ... cks_41570/

Amazing story.

[mike schmaeling]

Checkout the article on Blacks in the new issue of Surfer's Journal. It mentions our current National Champion and can anyone identify the two chargers on page 31? They got to be kneeriders cause they're kicking straight into the pit

[randiego]

It's nice that Bill Lerner got a mention, and Bob Gove is referred to as "Kneeboard Bob".

[Cuttlefish]

Brings back some memories. Surfed there in Autumn of 1990 and got quite a few clean punchy sessions.
Still remember how cold the water felt to me after coming from Qld.
Fun climbing down the "Ho Chi Minh" trail and seeing lots of dolphins in the line up.
Luckily didn't encounter any negativity like on the comments below the pics on the Seaweed site.
Everybody out in the water was super friendly.

[Mike Fernandez]

Going to Black's Friday, staying overnight at the Hotel Toyota, maybe even till Sunday. Going to be big, this will sort the crowd for sure. Going to test a board and new surf hat for Hawaii. Bringing a few spare leashes this time.

[badknees1]

I am not too familiar with Blacks, but is there a secure place, like a road or paved area that I could video from. From so photos and fils ive seen there are some vantage points that wont collapse with me on it.

[ezak]