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Surfers who challenged nature to a duel almost lost rescued by San Francisco Fire patrol

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A huge tsunami wave from a volcano explosion in Tonga’s Pacific island nation came down on California’s west coast early Saturday morning, prompting warnings from authorities along the California coast to keep off the beach and out of the sea.

Though most people obeyed the warnings, several surfers, fishermen, and beachgoers ignored them, prompting emergency rescues in troubled waters by teams of fire department swimmers.

On Saturday afternoon, rescue swimmers battled churning waves and strong currents at one prominent San Francisco beach to save two surfers who had challenged nature to a duel – and almost lost.

Around 3 p.m., members of a San Francisco Fire Department patrol noticed a surfer flailing his hands and crying for help about 300 yards off the coast, according to Lt. Jonathan Baxter, a spokesman for the department.

Rescue swimmers swam out to assist him, but the conditions were so dangerous that they felt it would be safer to transport him to a nearby private sailboat rather than returning him to dry land.

“Rather than having the rescue swimmers swim back to shore, which is what we usually do, the current was so aggressive in Ocean Beach that we had to take them to China Beach” about 1½ miles away, Baxter said as cited by Los Angeles Times

“We were asking everybody to not enter the water,” he said. “We did a very aggressive and proactive approach starting early this morning with multiple city platforms pushing out, ‘Don’t enter the water.’”

The tsunami caused little damage along the California coast, including flooding in a parking lot and streets in Santa Cruz Harbor. However, some Bay Area first responders had a busy day.

Another surfer was rescued in Ocean Beach after his board cracked in half around 200 yards from the shoreline. According to Baxter, the attempt involved the use of a US Coast Guard helicopter, a rescue boat, and San Francisco Fire Department rescue swimmers.

According to Baxter, the San Francisco Fire Department assisted about two dozen beachgoers who had waded into knee-deep or less water but were in potentially perilous positions.

“We go out and we escort them out of the water so that they don’t become a victim,” he said. “We’re not diving in the surf, we’re able to get them before they’re pulled out to sea.”

First rescuers from the Cal Fire CZU San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit rescued two people at San Gregorio Beach in San Mateo County on Saturday afternoon when they were carried into the water while fishing, according to Cecile Juliette, a unit spokesperson. Both fishers were transferred to the hospital in stable condition, one by helicopter and the other by ground transportation.

At Pillar Point Harbor in Half Moon Bay, two people wearing lifejackets were swept off a jetty and into the water early Saturday morning, Juliette said. They had ignored authorities’ calls for them to evacuate the area.

“They were able to get back on the rock and it was better for them to walk down the jetty to get back to the beach than for them to get back in the water to be rescued” by the harbor patrol, Juliette said.

Baxter said San Mateo, Marin and Alameda counties saw “some aggressive wave patterns” and that there were reports of damaged piers in those areas, but spokespeople for the counties’ fire departments said they were not called for emergency rescues.

Beaches around the state were mostly reopened by early Saturday evening, while authorities continued to ask people to remain out of the water. There were no documented deaths or serious injuries in California as a result of the storm surge, which Baxter attributed to efforts they made to warn people against swimming in the ocean as the tsunami surge thrashed the coast.

“We probably would have seen a lot more rescues in the waterways if it wasn’t for the messaging,” he said.

Image Credit: San Francisco Fire Department

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