Ryder Williams was sitting in his lifeguard tower at Seabright State Beach in Santa Cruz, California. It was his first season on the job. He was 16 years old.
Then he saw a 10-year-old boy named Nathaniel lose his footing in ankle-deep water and get swept out by the surf.
Ryder radioed it in, threw his radio and sunglasses at the base of his tower, grabbed his fins and buoy, and ran into the water after him. What followed was one of the most intense ocean rescues captured on camera in recent memory.
The waves were enormous. Bystanders who tried to help were immediately overwhelmed and pushed back to shore. A photographer named Scott Vander Dussen, who had been taking pictures on the beach and first spotted Nathaniel disappearing into the sea, watched as Ryder fought through wave after wave, never letting go of the boy. Witnesses said the struggle lasted far longer than the two-minute viral video shows.
By the time Ryder got Nathaniel to shore, the boy had lost consciousness. He was limp in Ryder’s arms.
Nathaniel’s father, Sumit Rai, watched the rescue for the first time on video. He hadn’t been at the beach. “Another two or three seconds,” he said, “I don’t think my son would have made it.” He added that Nathaniel had known he was drowning. He had blacked out assuming he was going to die.
Nathaniel was reunited with his family and evaluated by paramedics. He survived.
The video went viral almost immediately, racking up millions of views. Ryder’s response to the attention was simple. “This is my job and I love what I do,” he said. “I’m thankful to my fellow lifeguards who perform rescues just like this every day.”
What the video didn’t show is that Ryder made five saves that same day. His grandfather told reporters the other rescues were, in his words, “more gnarly.”
It was his first season
A 16-Year-Old Lifeguard Saved a Drowning Boy in His Very First Season
