Benita Karo might have saved a surfer’s life after she saw him knocked unconscious. Photos: YouTube//Screenshots
If you’ve been around the ocean and surfing long enough, you’ll have seen at least a few surf-related injuries. Fin cuts, rail contusions, collisions with other surfers, or reef cuts are all pretty common, and recently a woman very likely saved the life of a surfer who suddenly found himself unconscious in Oceanside.
Benita Karo was walking on the beach in North County, San Diego on Saturday morning. Hurricane Polo is currently having its way with the ocean in those parts, and as you’d expect when there are waves in North County, surfers are out in force. Karo was filming the waves in Oceanside when she spotted a surfer exiting the water.
“He was walking to exit out,” Karo told reporters. “I saw this wave; it was a big giant wave, and it was coming at him and he had no idea.”
The wave, a relatively innocuous one, hit the surfer from behind and threw him violently into the rocks. From the footage, he appeared to hit head first. Karo immediately knew something was wrong.
“Kind of like a head on collision against the rocks, it was so bad. And then I’m like … waiting to see if he resurfaces and I just didn’t see him,” Karo remembered.
Karo reacted quickly, shouting for help, then ran to where the surfer fell in hopes of finding him.
“And then I see him upside down, face down in the water,” Karo said. “And he is clearly not conscious.”
While the surfer’s condition is unknown as of this writing, he was taken to hospital by first responders in an air ambulance in critical condition.
Rescue teams in the area are on high alert as swells from Hurricanes Odalys and Polo make their way through the region. For Karo’s part, she plans on taking a break from the ocean, at least for a few days.
“After that I don’t think I wanna get into the water,” she said. “I’m a little traumatized actually. I keep replaying it in my mind.”
