![\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/IMG_8874.jpg\")
<\/p>\nAn experienced surfer survived a powerful rip current near Ocean Beach Pier on Saturday morning. Luke Jackson went out during high tide and was separated from his board. <\/p>\n
He told NBC 7 that about 7:30 a.m., the powerful force of a wave ripped the leash from his ankle, leaving him treading water.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe surfboard\u2019s gone, and I know it\u2019s going into the wall of water, and I just started swimming,” Jackson said. <\/p>\n
A San Diego native who has been surfing since he was 9, Jackson also has years of water polo experience. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re going under the pier, the rip current is ripping super hard. I was getting scared of hitting the pilings and I was getting sucked out really, really far,” he said.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tM.G. PerezM.G. Perez<\/p>\n
High tide surf on Saturday morning reached almost 7 feet around the Ocean Beach Pier, November 7, 2026.<\/p>\n
A friend on the sand recovered the broken board and called 911 prompting lifeguards from the nearby Ocean Beach station to respond. <\/p>\n
They kept him in sight as he was able to make it back to the beach with no injuries. The surfboard did not survive.<\/p>\n
He said, \u201cI just pushed as hard as I could. I just said ‘alright it\u2019s time to go’. I was kicking as hard as I could and rode the waves in until I was safe. Praise the Lord!” <\/p>\n
A high surf advisory remains in effect through Tuesday also including another threat of coastal flooding.<\/p>\n
Many other people stayed out of the water and just watched the breaking waves behind the sea wall at the end of Newport Avenue.<\/p>\n
Braden Morgan, who was visiting from Arizona, expressed admiration for those taking on the rough conditions.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know these people out here have probably been surfing this for quite awhile. Props to them to be able to surf that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Higher than normal temperatures this weekend are expected to attract many more people to the beaches than usual.<\/p>\n
Jackson’s story serves as a reminder of how quickly ocean conditions can turn dangerous, even for experienced surfers.<\/p>\n
He said he was doing fine after the ordeal and planned to return to the water Sunday morning with another surfboard.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"Luke](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/IMG_8868-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tM.G. PerezM.G. Perez<\/p>\n
Luke Jackson’s surfboard was ripped up on both ends and destroyed, November 7, 2026.<\/p>\n
This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC San Diego. AI tools helped convert the story to a digital article, and an NBC San Diego journalist edited the article for publication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An experienced surfer survived a powerful rip current near Ocean Beach Pier on Saturday morning. Luke Jackson went…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":522491,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[3101,74,76,75,13006],"class_list":["post-522490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-ocean-beach","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-surfing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522490","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=522490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522490\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}