A 16-year-old lifeguard hailed for saving a 10-year-old boy from towering waves over the weekend has described the terrifying moments that unfolded in the surf.
Ryder Williams rushed into the ocean at Seabright Beach in Santa Cruz on Saturday afternoon after seeing 10-year-old Nathaniel Rai fighting to keep his head above the rough, dangerous water.
Dramatic video from the beach showed Williams holding tightly onto the boy as powerful waves rolled in around them.
As the heavy surf crashed over the pair, the teenage lifeguard could be seen ducking beneath the water while keeping his grip on Rai and refusing to let him go.
As they neared the shoreline, another lifeguard, Aaron Bohnen, stepped in to help pull Williams and Rai out of the water and up the beach.
Rai appeared limp as rescuers brought him closer to shore, moments before a third lifeguard picked him up.
Once the boy was carried to safety, beachgoers broke into applause.
Recalling the rescue, Williams said he was “at the waterline 15 yards down-coast of Tower 2, when I looked up and saw a child about 20 [yards] up from the tower lose his footing in ankle-deep water.”
At that point, he said he ran into the ocean to try to reach the child.
Ryder Williams, 16, sprang into the water at Seabright Beach in Santa Cruz on Saturday to rescue 10-year-old Nathaniel Ray. The heroic lifeguard is pictured here with his father, Shane
Williams is seen holding on to ten-year-old Nathaniel Rai amid the strong waves
‘After the first wave, I was unable to pull him out because he was limp and the waves were pushing so hard,’ Williams said in a statement.
‘There were two to three more waves before lifeguard Aaron Bohnen entered the water to help me. There were bystanders who jumped in to try to help and I yelled at them all to get back to shore.’
Once the boy was safely back on the beach, Williams said he and Bohnen assessed the child, after which he resumed his regular lifeguard duties.
‘I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to return the child to his family safely,’ Williams said. ‘This is my job and I love what I do.’
He then added that he is ‘thankful for my fellow lifeguards who perform rescues just like this every day.’
It now seems Williams is becoming one of those lifeguards he admires, as he went on to rescue two others in situations his grandfather, George Williams, said were ‘more gnarly.’
In total, the teenage lifeguard undertook five different rescues during his Saturday shift, his proud grandfather told the California Post.
Throughout Santa Cruz, lifeguards performed 34 rescues over the weekend, California State Parks said.
Many online credit Williams with saving Rai’s life after watching footage of the event
Williams was seen pulling the limp boy out of the water amid rough waves at Seabright Beach
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Fellow lifeguard Aaron Bohnen helped with the rescue after the boys move closer to the shore
It said the lifeguards in the county ‘were busy with large surf, warm weather and heavy crowds’ on Saturday.
‘Rookie lifeguard Ryder Williams was working Tower 2 on Seabright State Beach making safety contacts all day due to the large crowds and heavy surf,’ the department said.
The waves at the beach that day had started out calm, but when a sneaker wave swelled much farther up the beach than expected, Rai started to get swept out to sea, witness Scott Vander Dussen told the Los Angeles Times.
The young boy then ‘knew he was drowning’ and ‘went unconscious’ before Ryder jumped in the water, his father, Sumit Rai, told ABC 7.
‘From what I gathered, he assumed he was going to die,’ he said.
But ‘because of Ryder and those people that helped, that he actually survived this.’
‘God bless them and you know, thank you, I cannot express sufficient gratitude,’ Sumit said.
‘There’s nothing more valuable to me than my children. And to save one of them and their lives, especially at such a young, tender age, you know, which is such a premature way to lose someone, I can’t thank them enough.’
‘I’m just so grateful that Ryder and others were there to help pull him out and save his life,’ the father continued. ‘Otherwise, I can’t imagine what life would look like today.’
Rai, from Dallas, Texas, had been on vacation in California when he nearly drowned
Rai’s father told ABC 7 how his son briefly lost consciousness in the ferocious waves
Many who saw the heart-stopping video have also credited Williams with saving Rai’s life, with Vander Dussen claiming he had been just ‘moments from not coming back.’
‘A few seconds, a few degrees, a few yards of distance and this is a very different story with a very different ending,’ Vander Dussen said as he shared the video.
It wound up catching the attention of President Donald Trump, who hailed Williams as a ‘heroic young man’ as he invited the teen to the White House to receive a High Civilian Honor.
Yet the teenager has apparently remained humble, telling his family only that ‘It was all in a day’s work’ and ‘This is what I do.’
‘He told me when he got home, he said, “Dad, I wasn’t going to let go of that kid because I knew if I let go of him, he was going to drown and I wasn’t going to let that happen,”‘ his father, Shane, recounted.
‘And it brought a tear to my eye when he said that. It was pretty amazing.’
The proud father said his son’s actions that day reflect the kind of caring person he has always been.
‘He just wants to give back to his community because he grew up there,’ Shane said.
California State Parks also said its ‘lifeguards courageously risk their own lives every day to keep our visitors safe.
‘Their dedication never goes unnoticed and they are truly heroes to their local communities, Californians and the nation.’
