Friday, October 18, 2013

Saving a life at Nazare

Woke up dark time as always (cause my son wake up time is 6am), and did not know what to do.
Stay home and surf the Cave or go to Nazare.
Big young crew will be charging Cave, and i was more in this way, but my friend Joao de Macedo call Nazare saying the Cave is to Dangerous(and came in my head what Shane Dorian told me when he came here,"the barrel in that wave is not worth the danger it is" and by the way, he surf when he was 18 during a free surf session when he came to compete).
We got to Nazare and was not that good.
Macedo got the barrel of the day in the morning.A solid 8 feet double up.
I saw , cause i was eating shit under that wave and amping for him.
He left to comment at the world tour contest in Peniche and i went to eat at Celeste restaurant.
Place that legend surf Garret Mcnamara goes eat.
Eat very well as always and a bit to much to go surf again.Dino Casimiro, local rep from local council was calling saying waves was on fire and i start to go back.
Jump in the car and saw this peoples calling for help on the shore, almost in front of the restaurant.
I knew was something bad already ,as people were in panic.
I got there and was 3 peoples out drowning .
i Went to the first one, one old man almost loosing conscious.
Beach there is like a skate half pipe, and to be like that waves break with all it power on the beach, and what happens is , people who is walking and not pay attention loose their feet and get wash out .
As must of them are not use to the ocean, the et scary and wit the panic they draw.
That old man and another young lady were almost on the beach and i look back and saw people already coming to help them.
So, i try to get my attention to the one outside.
And i could believe when i saw the body face down.
I jumped in the water and swim as fast as i could , only think could be to late(people can not stay more them 5 min not breathing, cause even if survive could be bad for the brain).
Got there and turn the body facing up and start to swim backward with her face already foaming a lot(after that legend Garret told me , that is a good sign).
Almost on the beach , another set came and i loose her, but she got smash to the beach and they got her.
Must of the people did not know what to do.
I knew we should turn her at the side and start to do the SPR help.
Garret arrive and start to be more strong on that and must be the one who put all those peolpes on the good way.
 she is breathing by herself and that was the happiness of my morning today!!
Nazare surf after the rescue was solid but i did some good take of but not a crazy barrel.
Photo : Pedro Mestre

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

FAT LIKE BRO - HOPE TO SEE YOU SOON IN THE WATER! GREETS FROM AUSTRIA - CHRISTOPH

Anonymous said...

You were Brave out there! You really made a difference! Thank you

Jorge said...

God Bless you!! You have made a diference in these people lives...
Cheers from Portugal!!

Paulo Gonçalves said...

Really good! Thank you

rui centeno said...

welcome eric, wherever you belong ....

Unknown said...

é preciso coragem. grande atitude.
obrigado ;)

Unknown said...

foi uma atitude louvável e de grande coragem.
obrigado.