Rescuers save drowning boy, 15, in surf on Sonoma Coast

A 15-year-old boy was taken to a hospital in Santa Rosa after nearly drowning at Goat Rock on the Sonoma Coast Tuesday afternoon, officials said.

The boy, whose name isn’t being released, was at Goat Rock with his 18-year-old sister and two other teens when, after wading into the surf, he was knocked down by a wave and pulled into the ocean, said Jeremy Stinson, supervising ranger for State Parks.

The waves at the coast were big Tuesday, Stinson said, and the boy was stuck in the water for about 10 minutes before he washed ashore.

The backwash from the waves can do one of three things, Stinson said.

“They can drag you further out to sea, they can pummel you against a sandbar, or they can sometimes push you back up on to the beach,” he said. “The third option there is what happened to this lucky young man.

“Thankfully, none of the other people he was with attempted to rescue him, because they could have easily ended up in a multiple victim situation.”

The boy eventually was pushed close enough to the beach by the waves that friends were able to grab and pull him ashore without having to go into the water.

Crews were dispatched for a report of a hypothermic person who’d been in the ocean just after 2:30 p.m.

A helicopter was called, but canceled, and the boy was transported to Kaiser Permanente’s Santa Rosa hospital by ambulance. His condition was unavailable Tuesday night.