Locals recognized by safety org for heroic rescues at sea
Costa Mesa friends Shayla Bauer and Jeffrey Weber were out at Huntington Dog Beach on a cold day in January trying to catch some waves before work, but not much was happening on the water.
The waves were too small, and most people were packing up to leave by the time they’d arrived. But they’d come there with a third friend, Chris Wessels, who was trying to get more surfing hours under his belt, and so decided to stay.
The trio were sitting on their boards waiting for something to happen when Wessels began to feel woozy.
“He looked at me and said, ‘I’m feeling dizzy and light-headed,’ and then he just kind of leaned forward on his board,” Weber, 24, recalled of the incident nine months later. “Quickly, we realized he wasn’t responding.”
Immediately, Weber and Bauer wedged themselves on either side of Wessels’ board and paddled him to shore. The beach was nearly empty, but Bauer managed to find someone with a phone and communicated their location to lifeguards as Weber performed CPR.
He’d taken a class in high school but had never performed the life-saving procedure. He remembered an episode of the TV show “The Office,” in which the characters sang “Stayin’ Alive” by the Bee Gees in a CPR class to maintain the correct tempo. So that’s what he did.
“I didn’t know what I was doing but started chest compressions and tried to stay to that beat,” Weber said.
The trio remained on the beach until paramedics came and relieved the ad-hoc rescuers, transporting Wessels to Hoag Hospital, where he would remain for the next 45 days. CPR had sustained his life for a full 45 minutes until his natural heartbeat resumed.
Doctors later determined he suffered from arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC), a heart disease that causes a potentially fatal irregular heartbeat and requires the implantation of a defibrillator.
“It’s a very random heart disease,” Wessels said of the condition that changed the course of his life, as he moved from Costa Mesa to Maryland to receive treatment from Johns Hopkins Hospital. “It was undiagnosed for a while. Now I’m doing cardiac rehabilitation and brain therapy.”
The 27-year-old credits his friends, who he’d only met months earlier through Costa Mesa’s Canopy Church, with saving his life. Today, the three friends are bonded by what they experienced together.
“We’d never even met his family,” Bauer, 24, said. “Now we’ve been adopted into the Wessels family, for sure.”
For their bravery and quick thinking on that fateful day, Bauer and Weber were each officially recognized by members of the California Surf Lifesaving Assn. Thursday with a Heroic Act Award in a ceremony during a board meeting hosted by the San Clemente local chapter.
Founded in 1964 under the U.S. Lifesaving Assn., the statewide organization of lifeguards and marine safety professionals strives to promote beach safety and professional open-water lifesaving standards. Each year, the group hosts regional ceremonies to honor members and citizens who’ve gone above and beyond to save the lives of others.
“We anticipate bravery and quick thinking from our professional ocean lifeguards, but when civilians step up and perform life-saving actions, it is a particular honor to recognize their heroism and selfless commitment to their community,” Gus Avila, president of the CSLSA, said of the annual award.
“These award recipients embody courage despite great personal risk, and their actions are both inspirational and worthy of recognition.”
Bauer and Weber weren’t the only local residents recognized Thursday at the San Clemente Community Center — two Laguna Beach teens received a Meritorious Act Award for rescuing a family of three caught in a rip current at the city’s St. Ann’s Beach a year ago this week.
Jude Young was hanging out with friend Merrick Vellmore and a group of friends after school at nearby Thalia Street Beach on Oct. 15, 2023 and was just drying off when he saw imperiled swimmers in the distance.
“A little boy was getting swept out, and then his mom got swept out while trying to rescue him,” recalled Young, now 18.
He alerted friend and classmate Merrick Vellmure, and the pair immediately ran to the adjacent beach. Then members of Laguna Beach High School Surf Team, they’d both taken lessons, provided through the city’s Marine Safety Department, on performing underwater rescues.
The course, which covers everything from hasty searches to pulling victims with broken necks to shore, is designed to train local surfers and beachgoers to spot danger and act quickly until first responders arrive on scene.
On that harrowing day last October, Young helped pull the young boy to waist-deep water, as Vellmure swam out to the boy’s mother. The two of them were guiding the woman to safety, when they noticed more activity about 150 yards off shore.
“That’s when I noticed there was also a dad in the mix,” Young said. “It looked like he was struggling the most, and he was the furthest out.”
Vellmure tried to pull the semi-conscious man to safety by having him hold onto his foot, but the rescuee’s much larger frame was too heavy to pull. Using boogie boards provided by someone on land, the teens eventually transported him to shore as well.
Despite their valiant actions, the teens aren’t quite comfortable wearing the mantle of hero. Young said, despite sounding like a cliche, it was just “the right thing to do.” Vellmure agrees.
“I feel good about myself,” the 18-year-old said. “It’s not the first time I’ve saved somebody, but it’s definitely the gnarliest. This time, it was like, OK, this is a big one.”
Other awardees recognized Thursday included:
California State Parks seasonal lifeguard Ben Sweet, given a Medal of Valor Award for swimming half a mile in perilous conditions during a Dec. 28 storm in Ventura to rescue a struggling swimmer.
Michael Bartlett, a Marine Safety captain for the Huntington Beach Fire Department, and retired Capt. Bill Richardson, who received Life Member Awards in recognition of their commitment to saving lives while advancing water safety and the lifeguarding profession.
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