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A California woman jumped into rough waters and held an unconscious surfer’s head above the surface after watching a huge wave slam him into rocks along the San Diego County coast.
Benita Karo, 39, was walking along the beach in Oceanside on the morning of Sept. 26 when she stopped to look at the unusually large waves pounding the coastline.
Karo, who lives in nearby Carlsbad, told the California Post she had grabbed a coffee and was mentally preparing for her daughter’s 14th birthday party later that day when she pulled out her phone to record the powerful surf.
Karo told the Post that she is a celebrity publicist for authors of Elvis Presley books.
As she recorded, she spotted a surfer carrying his board and trying to make his way out of the water. Karo could see an enormous wave approaching behind him, but the surfer apparently could not.
“I see the wave. He doesn’t see it. It’s massive, and it just hits him, and he didn’t even see it coming,” Karo told the Post.
The force of the wave sent the man crashing into the rocks. Karo immediately began running toward the water, watching to see whether he would resurface.
But he didn’t.
“When I got closer, I saw him upside down, face down in the water, not awake at all. Like he was knocked out,” Karo said.
Still fully clothed, Karo jumped into the water and grabbed the surfer, lifting his head above the surface as waves continued crashing into them and the rock wall.
“I sat there with him, holding him, just trying to keep his head above water,” she said.
Another surfer eventually spotted the pair, while people staying at a nearby beach house also rushed over to help. Together, the group was able to lift the injured surfer out of the water and onto shore.
Emergency crews arrived shortly afterward, cut away part of his wetsuit and placed him on a gurney before taking him away.
Karo said the man appeared to be trying to breathe and had water coming out of his mouth.
“He was definitely breathing,” Karo said.
Karo did not escape the rescue without some injuries herself. She told the California Post she suffered scratches and injuries to her toe, face and back while entering the rocky water.
The experience also brought back instincts from her first job as a lifeguard when she was 15 years old.
Karo said she once worked at a water park with a wave pool where the waves could simply be shut off during an emergency. The ocean was entirely different.
“At the ocean, you just can’t turn off the waves; they just keep coming,” she said.
The dramatic rescue as millions across the Pacific Coast of Mexico are bracing as a monster storm closes in.
A powerful Category 3 hurricane is zeroing in on Baja California, warning of life-threatening flash floods, flattening winds and massive surf as it barrels toward landfall in the coming hours.
Hurricane Polo, packing sustained winds near 115 mph, is forecast to slam into the west coast of Baja California Sur late this afternoon or evening, per the National Hurricane Center.
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