.jpg)
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Coast Guard rescues surfer off Oregon coast
06:15 PM PST on Saturday, January 27, 2007
By NICK BRADSHAW, kgw.com Staff
A Coast Guard helicopter was called in to rescue a surfer stranded in the water off the coast of Cannon Beach Saturday.
Coast Guard Search and Rescue controller Bob Coster said Saturday around 9:49 a.m. the Coast Guard received an assistance request from the Seaside 911 dispatch center. Apparently Seaside dispatch received a call for help regarding two surfers reportedly having trouble in the water at "The Cove" at the North end of Indian Beach just North of Cannon Beach.
Coster said Cannon Beach Fire and Rescue responded to the scene and called for helicopter support.
A Coast Guard helicopter from Astoria was dispatched to the area.
On the way to the scene, Coster said, the Coast Guard got word that one surfer was able to get out of the water on his own but another was still stranded and needed help.
Coster said a rescue crew arrived on scene, lowered a rescue swimmer down and pulled the stranded surfer up in to safety in the helicopter.
The surfer, identified as 47-year-old Kevin Devoll of Aloha, apparently started feeling better in the helicopter and refused treatment once the chopper landed at a local hospital.
Lessons re-learned today, courtesy of a swell with a little snap to it:
1. That lazy, half-@ssed mid-face push thru you try to get away with? NOT really an effective duckdiving technique.
2. You get plenty of time to ruminate on point #1, above, as you're being sucked over the falls backward.
3. They say time expands when you're in the tube. I say time REALLY expands from the moment you feel that first gentle backward tug, through to when you realize that you've really, really goofed this up. And you're going to pay.
4. Even though time expands, it apparently doesn't expand long enough for you to get a decent breath.
5. And of all the ways to get sucked over the falls backward, try to avoid this: When the nose of your board goes straight back over your head, so you ride down with the lip, clutching your board, upside down, backward, nose first. Yeah. Don't be that guy.
All in all, pretty fun day at the Abusement Park. Went on ALL the rides.
~stinkbug
And a nice end to the day...from the lack of comments on today's surf I can only conclude that it was stellar...
1 comments:
I've been working real hard trying to get GOOD waves the past few weeks and have had generaly positive yet mixed results. Some sessions epic others unmemorable. While conditions have been perfect, finding a spot for the winds, swells, and tides has been tricky business along the stretch of coastline I normally surf. Seems old man winter and his storms have shifted things around. Pretty typical Oregon surfing really, but I always find that persistence pays off eventually and sometimes regularly. Now there's a wave out there, she's one of the most beautiful on the coast, yet one of the most bitchey and moody knowing her own beauty all to well. She's one I have danced with before, but one dance is never enough and your always left wanting more. My luck came around once again and I was let in for a taste of her sweetness and I began to have some fun, but before I had to much her prude self shut down leaving me warm and fuzzy, but wondering when I might get the chance to dance with her again.
Post a Comment