Lifeguards rescue woman swept into ocean at Goat Rock State Beach

Two alert California State Parks lifeguards rescued a 39-year-old Novato woman who was swept into the ocean Sunday afternoon at Goat Rock near Jenner.

Lifeguards Gregory Knapp and David Birdwell were a few hundred yards away when they noticed the woman at a spot on the beach where incoming waves can easily knock someone down, authorities said.

“They knew they needed to contact her,” said Supervising Ranger Jeremy Stinson. But by the time they had driven over to reach the woman, she already had been knocked in the water and pulled away from the beach.

Knapp quickly donned a wetsuit and swam out to reach the woman at about 2:30 p.m. By then, the current had carried her about 50 yards offshore, Stinson said.

When Knapp brought the woman back to shore, she was conscious and told Stinson she had merely wanted “to get her feet wet” in the ocean. She wasn’t sure how she had ended up in the water, and no one else apparently saw what happened, he said.

The woman was taken by ambulance to Sutter Hospital in Santa Rosa. Her name was withheld under patient confidentiality rules, Stinson said.

Knapp and Birdwell were part of a three-person team patrolling 30 miles of state beaches in Sonoma County on Sunday.

“It was pretty fortunate for her that they were there,” Stinson said.