Swept away: Surfers rescue teen washed out to sea

Published 10:21 am Thursday, August 27, 2009

PACIFIC CITY – Tim Rist says he was sitting on some rocks about 25 feet above the Pacific surf at Cape Kiwanda when a huge wave swept him out to sea. There he struggled in the water for about 15 minutes before two surfers rescued him.

Surfer Zach Canady wasn’t even sure what he was seeing ahead of him as he paddled out to catch his second wave Tuesday evening. Some guy in a wetsuit without a surfboard, perhaps. But then he realized the person was wearing only denim shorts. And he wasn’t swimming, he was struggling.

Canady put the 17-year-old Rist on his board, secured the board’s leash to the teen’s wrist and started paddling toward shore.

He wasn’t feeling exactly heroic.

“To be honest, I was slightly irritated that someone was in the water and I had to help,” Canady told The Oregonian on Wednesday, a day after he and another surfer rescued Rist.

“Like, ‘What is this guy doing?’ Then it started to hit me: Man, this kid, he was going to die,” he said.

Rist was treated at Tillamook County General Hospital for a mild case of hypothermia and released.

Mickey Hays of the Nestucca Fire District said the swells were running eight to 10 feet high. Hays called Rist “one lucky boy.”

In April, an 18-year-old man fell from about 60 feet onto the rocks below at Cape Kiwanda and was swept out to sea. His body later washed ashore at Pacific City.

“Dude, I am blessed by God,” Rist said. “I’ve learned a lot about the value of my life.”

The young man, from near Shedd, a small town southeast of Corvallis, had traveled to Pacific City with some friends to enjoy the good weather at the coast.

“We were watching all the waves and one huge wave came over me and took me,” Rist said.

Canady, 24, of Cloverdale, said he got off work Tuesday, grabbed a quick dinner and headed for the beach. His first ride “was one of the bigger waves I’ve ever surfed.” Then he saw Rist.

Once he had the teen on his board, Canady pushed it from behind and was soon joined by another surfer, who was identified by Hays as Mark Elling.

“The truth is, I was pushing him in fine,” Canady said. “But Mark helped tremendously. His calm spirit made a big difference.”

Canady said Rist told him he might have been in the water for about 15 minutes before he was rescued. The trip to the shore took no more than 10 minutes.

Realizing as the evening wore on just how serious Rist’s predicament had been, Canady said he later changed clothes and went to visit Rist at the hospital Tuesday night.

“He was like, ‘Man, I love you,”‘ Canady recalled.