Posted on 04/10/2014 2:38:37 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Coast Guard crews suspended their search Thursday afternoon for a 14-year-old boy swept to sea off San Francisco's Ocean Beach, after nearly 24 hours of looking for him in the Pacific Ocean.
Crews had targeted efforts in an area that was 64 square miles between the Golden Gate Bridge and Lake Merced, with authorities scouring both shoreline and water for the teen. But they suspended their search about 1 p.m.
"It's heartbreaking," San Francisco Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White said from the beach Thursday morning during the height of the search, noting that she had talked with the teen's mother. "I'm a mom, too. I can only imagine what she's going through. Her husband is fighting for his life, and she has a son that's missing. That's really, really tough."
The search first began Wednesday when a rip current pulled the 14-year-old identified as Marco Cornejo and his cousin into the water just before 4 p.m. The father of one of the boys rushed in to try and save them, even though he cannot swim.
Tony Barbero, a 17-year-old surfer and the son of a San Francisco fire captain, saw the three in the water, and paddled out to rescue them. He was able to save the father and one of the cousins, but not Marco, who lives in the East Bay.
Teen Mission After Rogue Wave Hits San Franciso Beach The father was transported to the hospital after being resuscitated by first responders, but according to Hayes-White is "fighting for his life." His nephew is said to be in good condition.
Ocean Beach is known for being one of the most dangerous shorelines in the country. Battalion Chief Marty Ross said “this happens too much.”
“People, they come out here, they take this for granted,” Ross said. “This is very dangerous out here. It’s no joke.”
Well, they're not moms but imagine what the father and son have gone through. That's even tougher.
Treacherous out there. Never went into the water at Ocean Beach. The strong current coming in and out of the Golden Gate pushes surfers sitting on their surfboards miles north or south depending on the tide. Plus it’s freezing.
This is tragic!
I know how it happens. I was standing on a beach in Hawaii looking at a small waves lap up on the sand. All of a sudden the water sucked back into a huge wave. I turned and ran but it caught me at about hip deep before I could get away. The suction of the water was unbelievable. I was lucky these people were not.
in 1970`s a lady and the horse she was riding got hit by a RIPTIDE and was never seen again [at SF Ocean Beach.]
Freezing cold, rough, and a rocky shoreline with rocks even off Ocean Beach. People don’t understand this and every year people drown out there.
Fishermen are also frequently swept off the rocks. “Pacific” is a serious misnomer.
I love visiting Marin County, especially along the oceanfront, but it never entered my mind to get in the water or really even go near enough for a wave to touch me. It’s beautiful but the water’s too cold, too many critters with teeth in there, some staring back, too much seaweed. The public beach in Stinson Beach has been closed to swimming more often than not when I’ve been there due to sharks. Love it but this southern baby ain’t getting’ in there, lol.
I’m trying got figure out how that could happen unless the lady was riding her horse pretty deep in the water to begin with and some kind of rogue wave hit her. Apparently there are waves that suddenly come up unexpectedly out there. You can see all the action while eating at the Cliff House. Many years ago, the Cliff House was one of San Francisco’s finest places for dinner. Now it’s so-so.
I’ve really only been in the water at Galveston, where the current just seems to pull you parallel to the beach, but that current is unbelievably strong.
I tip toe there. I will head up to Stinson or Drakes beach if I want to go in the ocean. Or hell Santa Cruz.
My favorite beach is goat rock. Beautiful but usually cold.
yuck I hate the Pacific, wrongly named
If you get caught in a rip, swim to the side and out of it, then back. IMO, a strong sidestroke is one that affords visibility and works well enough. Rip currents have been used by surfers to get out and around the good waves easier. ;-) If you get caught in an undertow, swim to the bottom and use it for a platform to jump upward and out of the undertow.
A rip current, BTW, involves two currents moving toward each other from opposite directions along the shore, meeting and jetting more or less straight out from the beach.
nope the horse was just in the water a little bit over his hooves and the undertow just knocked him over and dragged them both out to sea- it only takes a few inches of riptide to knock over a horse coz he`s topheavy with a rider. My sister was there with her horse and saw it happen -She never rode there again.
What kind of idiot wrote this sentence? This is what passes for "journalism." They're taught cognitive dissonance techniques specifically to leave the reader disoriented. It's pathetic, and it's insidious.
For the record, the sentence should have ended contextually, such as "who was carried out to sea." Because he sure as hell no longer lives in the East Bay. But haha, this way the "writer," Christie Smith, could make a pun on words and places about a dead kid living in a "Bay" while talking about the moment of his death.
Really, if you just contemplate this sentence a little, you realize how utterly perverted and disgusting the mind of Ms. Smith really is. And oh, lemme take a wild guess, she's a black pantsuited, wide collared liberal with horsey plastic neckalce jewlery, pointy-toed shoes and a huge mans watch. Oh yeah - and a white iPhone. What a surprise.
Wow - imagine that. I suppose you could imagine how a strong undertow can actually pull all the sand away from around your feet, so it makes sense that a top heavy horse could topple over if the pull was strong enough.
The whole northern coast from Santa Cruz to Central WA has these rogue waves that come out of nowhere and sometimes just snatch people from beaches and breakwaters
Maybe the most beautiful coast in the world, but danged cold and treacherous.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.