Photo: Screenshot//Vince Tuzzi // Santa Cruz Sentinel
A boat speeding through the lineup of the popular surf break at Steamer Lane capsized in high surf this weekend. A frantic rescue ensued, with both surfers and first responders working to save the occupants.
The incident occurred Saturday morning, when a boat with six people onboard was spotted racing through the Steamer Lane lineup. As seen in a video captured by Vince Tuzzi and posted to YouTube by the Santa Cruz Sentinel, the craft was speeding seemingly straight for the shore when it was engulfed by overhead whitewash, pitching all the occupants overboard.
A first-hand account of the rescue came from Darryl “Flea” Virostko on Instagram. “I saw the boat coming as I was outside dodging a big middle peak set,” he wrote. “He zoomed by me and I saw he had his family on the boat. As I watched him drive straight into a big whitewash, I knew they went down and it was time to paddle in as quickly as possible to help save the family. Unbelievable [that] these small children made it out of this boat wreck. When I arrived at the scene of the yard sale, [Mike Dilloughery] was trying to help both the parents from drowning. They were not wearing life vests. I put the dad on my board and [Dilloughery] took the mom. We had sets on the head and the [boat] was about 20 feet outside of us with waves coming. Very sketchy. The dad was freaking out, asking about all the kids and there was a language barrier so it was hard to understand. There were four kids, so we starting yelling around the lineup. All kids got saved. We drifted down towards the Santa Cruz wharf channel. Harbor patrol showed up and we got everyone on board safe.”
“Although several victims were without life jackets, all six were rescued onto the awaiting Harbor Patrol and Auxiliary boats,” city spokesperson Katie Lee told SFGate. They were transported to a nearby hospital for treatment.
Kelly Slater was among the commenters on the post, saying, “Nice work! That’s crazy. Poor kids must be traumatized. Could be cool if everyone who helped took them for a surf to give them a different experience.”
