{"id":418081,"date":"2026-07-30T14:57:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T14:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/418081\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T14:57:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T14:57:08","slug":"father-of-boy-rescued-from-california-surf-forever-grateful-to-teen-lifeguard-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/418081\/","title":{"rendered":"Father of boy rescued from California surf \u2018forever grateful\u2019 to teen lifeguard | California"},"content":{"rendered":"

The father of a 10-year-old rescued from pounding surf off the California coast<\/a> in a dramatic scene captured on video says he is beyond grateful to the teenage lifeguard who saved his son.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe ran into that water despite those conditions that are deadly,\u201d Sumit Rai told the Associated Press on Wednesday. \u201cYou have 10ft waves; you have riptides and currents coming in.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not safe for him to go into that water. So he\u2019s risking his own safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rai\u2019s son Nathaniel was standing in shallow water when he lost his footing and was pulled into the ocean Saturday by powerful swells that suddenly came ashore at Seabright beach in Santa Cruz, about 60 miles (100 km) down the coast from San Francisco. Rai, who was in his home city of Dallas, said he heard about what happened when he spoke to his kids on the phone that evening.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy son told me that he drowned and my son told me that he went unconscious,\u201d he said. \u201cHe was very subdued, still in a state of shock.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TeenTeen lifeguard struggles to save boy from massive waves in California – video<\/p>\n

By the next morning, Rai had watched the video of the rescue that has since caught the attention of Donald Trump. The president posted<\/a> on social media about awarding the lifeguard who saved Nathaniel, Ryder Williams, a \u201chigh civilian honor\u201d \u2013 and inviting him and his family to the White House.<\/p>\n

Williams, 16, said he saw the boy lose his footing in ankle-deep water. He radioed in and then raced toward Nathaniel.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the first wave, I was unable to pull him out because he was limp and the waves were pushing so hard,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n

California State Parks, which employs the lifeguards at that beach, said the boy was swept about 15 yards (13.7 meters) into the ocean before the lifeguard made contact with him.<\/p>\n

In the video, Williams can be seen diving into a coming wave while holding tight to the boy.<\/p>\n

Another lifeguard jumped in to help, along with some bystanders, who Williams said he warned to go back to the shore.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m grateful to have had the opportunity to return the child to his family safely,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is my job and I love what I do. I\u2019m thankful to my fellow lifeguards who perform rescues just like this every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, asked by the California Post<\/a> if their family planned to accept the White House\u2019s invitation, Williams\u2019 father, Shane, has said they had not immediately heard from the Trump administration officially.<\/p>\n

Nathaniel had no serious injuries. And after a medical evaluation, he was released to his family, the California State Parks said in an emailed statement.<\/p>\n

Rai said his son told him that he got sand in his lungs and was coughing it out after getting to the shore. Now his son, who is expected back from California in a few days, is dealing with the psychological effects of what happened.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s still been thinking about it a lot. It\u2019s on his mind,\u201d he said. \u201cIt bothers him when he\u2019s sleeping. So it\u2019s obviously traumatizing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rai has reached out to Williams and said he hopes to be able to thank him directly.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat he did, I can never ever repay,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m forever grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guardian staff contributed reporting<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The father of a 10-year-old rescued from pounding surf off the California coast in a dramatic scene captured…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":["post-418081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}