Bodysurfer gets caught in the Wedge

Jessica Garrison

NEWPORT BEACH --It had been nine years since Peter Finch studied CPR

as a junior lifeguard.

But Wednesday afternoon, when a Riverside man was pounded by a wave,

lost feeling in his leg, and couldn’t get out of the surf, Finch knew

just what to do.

“I ran over and stabilized his neck, and asked someone to put a board

under his feet,” Finch said, noting that he remembered from his junior

lifeguard training that head injuries can be made worse by moving

victims.

The man, Jarod Brown, 25, was bodysurfing at the Wedge when a wave got

the best of him and his head was pounded into the ocean floor, witnesses

said.

Lifeguards were not on duty, and Brown was pulled out of the ocean by

fellow bodysurfers and beachcombers.

One called 911, and paramedics and firefighters rushed to the scene.

“He couldn’t move. He couldn’t lift up his head,” said Fire Capt.

Michael Murphy. “He was acting like he was paralyzed.”

Brown was taken to Hoag Memorial Hospital, and hospital officials were

unavailable for comment on his condition.

Brown’s paralysis could be temporary, a result of swelling near his

neck. Or it could be permanent, said Ron Gamble, a Newport Beach

paramedic who took Brown to the hospital.

“The Wedge claimed another victim,” said Murphy of the infamous

bodysurfing spot. “That’s why there’s warning signs all over.”

Finch, a 1997 graduate of Corona del Mar High School who now attends

Orange Coast College, said it was not the first time he had come to

someone’s aid while bodysurfing at the Wedge.

Last year, he and two friends rescued a man who seemed to be drowning,

pulling him onto Finch’s bodyboard and towing him to shore.

And two months ago, Finch saved a small child who had been pulled

under rocks by currents.

“Ever since the Wedge was publicized, there have been a lot of people

there who don’t know what they’re doing and wind up in tough situations,”

said the avid bodyboarder, who surfs at the Wedge at least twice a week.

“I like to help people, and I hope people would do the same for me,”

he added.

So why didn’t Finch become a lifeguard himself: “I can’t swim fast

enough.”