“Dad, I Drowned”: Father Speaks Out After Teen Lifeguard Saves His Son From Deadly Surf

The Seabright State Beach rescue that spread across the country this week began with a phone call no parent ever wants to answer. On the other end was a 10-year-old boy trying to explain to his father that he had nearly died.

Sumit Rai described the moment on Fox News Live. His son called and told him he had drowned and lost consciousness. Rai said he listened as the boy conveyed that he believed he was going to die.

How It Happened

Nathaniel Rai was standing on wet sand close to the water’s edge, the kind of position that looks safe until it suddenly is not.

A wave knocked him off his feet and dragged him roughly 15 yards out, into water well beyond his depth.

Conditions that day were hazardous enough to warrant a formal warning. Seabright State Beach was operating under a high surf advisory, with California State Parks reporting swells producing waves in the 4- to 6-foot range and occasional sets climbing to 10 feet.

At that size, water does not simply push a child. It cycles them, holds them under and disorients them within seconds.

The Lifeguard on Tower 2

Ryder Williams, 16, was watching from Tower 2 when he saw Nathaniel lose his footing. In a statement provided to California State Parks, Williams said the boy was roughly 20 yards away from his position.

What followed was fast and methodical. Williams radioed the situation, dropped his devices and sunglasses at the base of the tower, secured fins to his wrists, grabbed a buoy and ran for the water. He then swam out to reach the child.

The economy of that sequence is worth noting. Every step served a purpose, and none of it wasted time.

The Part the Video Shows

Footage that circulated widely captured Williams holding Nathaniel amid heavy surf, and it conveys how little control anyone has in that environment.

Williams described the difficulty plainly. After the first wave, he could not pull the boy out because Nathaniel had gone limp and the water was pushing too forcefully.

Roughly three additional waves broke over the pair before fellow lifeguard Aaron Bohnen entered the water to help.

Rai emphasized what that meant physically, noting that Williams was maneuvering an unconscious child weighing around 100 pounds through breaking surf.

He called the effort remarkable and said there is no way he could ever repay it.

Getting to Shore

Williams and Bohnen brought Nathaniel out of the water and assessed him for injuries on the beach.

Rai was not with his children on the trip and had not yet seen his son when he spoke publicly. Asked what he would do first, his answer was immediate: give him a big hug.

He described feeling relief and gratitude toward Williams for entering conditions that dangerous, and said that without him his son would not be alive.

National Attention

Once the video reached a wide audience, President Donald Trump said Williams deserved a White House visit and a national honor.

Asked about that by Fox News Live host Aishah Hasnie, Rai endorsed the idea without hesitation, saying he supports any award or recognition. He described himself as the lifeguard’s biggest fan and said his children mean more to him than anything.

The Lifeguard’s Own Framing

Williams has been notably reluctant to accept the hero framing on his own behalf.

He said he feels grateful for the chance to return a child safely to his family, described the work as his job and something he loves doing, and directed credit toward colleagues who carry out rescues like this routinely.

That last point deserves attention, because the numbers support it.

The Scale of the Work

California State Parks lifeguards in the Santa Cruz District performed 34 rescues over that single weekend. They also made more than 5,000 preventative contacts along the coastline.

Preventative contacts are the invisible half of the job, conversations that move a swimmer away from a rip current or warn a family off an unsafe stretch before anything happens. Each one is a rescue that never became necessary.

What This Case Illustrates About Beach Safety

A few lessons emerge from the specifics.

Standing at the waterline is not the same as staying out of the water. Nathaniel was on wet sand, not swimming, when the wave took him. On a high surf day, the shoreline itself is part of the hazard zone.

Advisories are issued for a reason. A high surf advisory signals conditions where ordinary beach behavior carries elevated risk, and that risk falls hardest on children and inexperienced swimmers.

Staffed towers save lives. Williams had visual contact, equipment within reach and a radio to summon backup. Remove any of those and the outcome likely changes.

A Family’s Perspective

For Rai, the story is not about viral footage or presidential recognition, though he welcomes both. It is about a phone call that could have gone very differently and a teenager who chose to run toward 10-foot surf.

His summary of it was simple. His children are precious to him, and nothing means more.