Hero makes story a day at the beach

REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK

Some stories don’t need writers. They write themselves.

When 26-year-old construction worker Ben Bonin of Capistrano Beach

pulled 4-year-old Serena Eyerly from 4- to 5-foot surf off Crescent

Bay Beach April 2, resuscitated her using CPR (which he’d never

used), then went back to work and ate a sandwich, the story was

already written.

After hearing about it, first from Laguna Beach Police Sgt. Guy

Miller, then from Serena’s mother, Patricia Guadalupe, and finally

from Bonin, writing the story became nearly an afterthought,

especially following my final interview with the hero.

Bonin couldn’t have appeared less impressed with himself. He

talked with the tone of a star outfielder who’d singled in the

winning run in a meaningless early May ballgame.

“I’m just trying to help the ballclub,” that outfielder always

says.

Bonin was doing the same thing, but helping a much larger ballclub

amid an audience that couldn’t watch replays on TV.

He did what he felt he had to do, regardless of who was watching.

“I looked down there and saw three people in the ocean who looked

like they were struggling,” Bonin said. “I asked my buddy if he

thought they looked like they were in trouble, and he said ‘Yeah.’ I

looked back [at the ocean], only saw two people, and I knew I had to

kick into high gear.”

He talked as if common sense drove him, as if mathematics dictated

the whole thing. First he saw three, then he saw two. Two is less

than three.

There were other people in the area, including Bonin’s buddy and

their other fellow construction workers. People all over emerged on

the beach after Bonin had hit the sand, the water and then rescued

Serena. Did he really make more of an impression on nearby people by

sprinting down a steep cliff than a screaming mother waving her arms

for help? Whatever the case was, Bonin saved the girl, and I heard

nothing about any bystanders being next in line.

The private staircase Bonin wound down to get to Serena is about a

foot wide, maybe less, and the grade is sheer enough to say that one

traveling down the cliff would be well-served to make the trip a

mellow one. Bonin, a mellow guy, chose to travel at a frantic pace.

Patricia Guadalupe said Bonin had to have flown down to save her

daughter, considering the length of time it took for him to arrive

after she had spotted him. While she said it was if he were some kind

of angel, implying flight, the fact is that Bonin just ran real fast,

with the momentarily numb reasoning one often needs to dismiss one’s

own well-being for the sake of another.

So he crashes through the waves after kicking off his work boots,

pulls Serena out of the ocean, a body with a hue that underscored the

need for immediate care, preferably from someone with experience

using CPR. Bonin figures he’s seen it done on TV a million times, and

has friends who know CPR. How hard could it be?

Not that hard, evidently. He said it took about two or three

minutes of alternating between pumping her stomach and giving

mouth-to-mouth resuscitation before Serena started coughing and

crying, giving the saltwater and sand she’d unintentionally taken

back to the beach.

All the while, as he recalled his story, Bonin’s mood remained the

same: pleasant and un-extreme. It’s one thing to hear a story like

this and say, “Wow,” or other less printable exclamations, but to

report on the story, to talk to the guy who deserves celebrity status

and bring it to the public, was thus far the most redeeming series of

moments in my young journalism career.

After getting off work April 3, I was on the phone for hours,

telling friends and family the story before it had been printed.

Having it appear in the paper the next day made me happy to include

everyone whose phone numbers I don’t know by heart.

With all due respect to Mayor Toni Iseman and the rest of the City

Council crew, I’ve never left a Tuesday night meeting and picked up

the phone to tell everyone I know what’s going on with the ACT V

parking lot. You’d have to live in Laguna Beach to get excited.

Bonin’s story is universally resounding, uplifting without being

fluffy, and from a reporter’s perspective, one of the primary reasons

why you take the job despite the pay.

While Fox brought the public an Orange County construction worker

wearing an asphyxiating, plastic, lying smile, common sense brought

Ben Bonin to Serena Eyerly.

* MIKE SWANSON is a reporter for the Laguna Beach Coastline Pilot.

He covers education, public safety and City Hall. He can be reached

at 494-4321 or mike.swanson@latimes.com.