Twelve children were rescued from the waters of Santa Cruz, California, after the sailboats they were on turned in strong waves on Sunday, officials said.
The children were participating in a sailing class near the mouth of the Santa Cruz port late Sunday afternoon, according to the Santa Cruz Fire Department and other officials. About 20 people were sent to the water.
There were no serious injuries and all the children were wearing life jackets, but when a fire department life jacket arrived, five of the children were not found, the fire department said. They were found and rescued in 15 minutes, and one of the five had already been rescued by the port patrol.
Video recorded by a spectator showed the boats being knocked over by a strong wave, reported the NBC Bay Area. The surfers helped with the rescues, the fire department said.
“We came straight to the rescue and grabbed the children who were most in need,” said Shane Skelton, one of the rescuers, at the station. He and others came on the next wave and drove other children off the rocks.
The Santa Cruz Yacht Club, which runs the sailing school, said in a statement that it is investigating what happened and will take steps to prevent another incident like this.
The fire department said that life jackets “certainly played an important role in their survival and had a positive result”.
Santa Cruz is a seaside town on Monterey Bay, about 25 miles south of San Jose.
The office of the National Weather Service in the San Francisco Bay area warned of high surfing conditions on Sunday, and more high waves are expected in the bay area and on the central coast from Tuesday to Wednesday afternoon.
