On January 13th, 2025 at approximately 5:30pm, Cannon Beach Fire District Rescue Team were dispatched to a 911 call reporting a missing person in the ocean north of Haystack Rock. Upon arriving on scene rescue personnel received reports from family members of the missing person, stating that a group of them entered the ocean with boogie boards just before sunset, all exited the water except for one. Fire Rescue crews initiated an ocean search and rescue operation attempting to locate the missing person. Coast guard was notified and dispatched a helicopter to the scene.
A Cannon Beach Fire District Rescue Swimmer entered the ocean and paddled a rescue surfboard into the 8-12ft waves, in the pitch black of night to locate the victim. After 5 to 10 mins of paddling through the large surf, the Fire Rescue Swimmer heard a faint yell for help, with no visibility the Fire Rescue Swimmer turned and proceeded in the direction that he estimated the yelling was coming from. As the rescue swimmer paddled in the dark, while getting hit from the side by large waves, the rescue swimmer was able to get a visual of a silhouette of the boogie boarder through the flashing of fire and police vehicles on shore. The fire rescue swimmer made contact with the 19 year old male about 50-75 yards off-shore clinging to his boogie board partially submerged, just minutes before the coast guard arrived. The boogie boarder was loaded onto the rescue surfboard by the rescue swimmer and safely brought back to shore at 6:03pm, where he was evaluated by ambulance paramedics. The patient was evaluated and released by the Medix Ambulance crew.
“I cannot express how lucky this guy was to be found, with the large surf and king tides it was a miracle!” Said Cannon Beach Fire Ocean Safety Division Head, Koa Lyu. “The water was really cold, he wouldn’t have lasted much longer before hypothermia would have set in…”
The Cannon Beach Fire District would like to thank the Cannon Beach Police Department, Medix Ambulance Service, and U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Astoria for their assistance.
