{"id":27793,"date":"2026-08-04T22:12:40","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T17:12:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=27793"},"modified":"2026-08-04T22:12:40","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T17:12:40","slug":"10-year-old-rescued-from-rip-current-by-teen-lifeguard-says-he-thought-he-was-going-to-die","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=27793","title":{"rendered":"10-year-old rescued from rip current by teen lifeguard says he thought he was going to die"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p>A 10-year-old boy who was saved from a rip current off the coast of Santa Cruz, California, last month said he thought he was going to die before a 16-year-old lifeguard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/sanfrancisco\/news\/santa-cruz-seabright-beach-rescue-video\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">rescued him<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m super thankful for him saving my life,&#8221; Nathaniel Rai said about the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/sanfrancisco\/news\/santa-cruz-california-teen-lifeguard-recalls-daring-rescue-seabright-state-beach\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">teen lifeguard<\/a>, Ryder Williams.<\/p>\n<p>Nathaniel told &#8220;CBS Mornings&#8221; that &#8220;the waves were really big&#8221; that day at the beach so he stayed on the shore. But at one point he tripped and got pulled into the water.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It was really quick and it felt scary because I didn&#8217;t know if I was going to make it,&#8221; he recalled.<\/p>\n<p>Nathaniel&#8217;s father, Sumit Rai, said his son was &#8220;a second or two away from dying&#8221; and he&#8217;s &#8220;forever grateful&#8221; for Williams, who was the first person to respond.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Ryder knew that if he lets go, Nathaniel is going to drown,&#8221; Sumit Rai said. At that point, he said, Nathaniel was unconscious and not breathing.<\/p>\n<div class=\"embed__float-wrap\">\n<figure class=\"embed embed--type-image is-image embed--float-none embed--size-medium\" data-ads=\"{\" extrawordcount=\"\">\n<p>      <span class=\"img embed__content \"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2026\/08\/04\/1c6403dc-3556-42b0-aefb-edbb2e3f6261\/thumbnail\/620x349\/e6f7750cf0f81ce804b5cc43fda5095f\/nathaniel-rai-rescue.jpg#\" alt=\"nathaniel-rai-rescue.jpg \" height=\"349\" width=\"620\" class=\" lazyload\" srcset=\"https:\/\/assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2026\/08\/04\/1c6403dc-3556-42b0-aefb-edbb2e3f6261\/thumbnail\/620x349\/e6f7750cf0f81ce804b5cc43fda5095f\/nathaniel-rai-rescue.jpg 1x, https:\/\/assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2026\/08\/04\/1c6403dc-3556-42b0-aefb-edbb2e3f6261\/thumbnail\/1240x698\/350a6dd760a7c006d3cd4c1489d0ca09\/nathaniel-rai-rescue.jpg 2x\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/span><figcaption class=\"embed__caption-container\">\n<p>                  <span class=\"embed__caption\">Ryder Williams, 16, helps to rescue 10-year-old Nathaniel Rai from a rip current off the coast of Santa Cruz, California, last month.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>                  <span class=\"embed__credit\"><\/p>\n<p>                Scott Vander Dussen<\/p>\n<p>                          <\/span><br \/>\n              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&#8220;He just did everything he was supposed to do to save his (Nathaniel&#8217;s) life and put himself at risk to do so,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Sumit Rai also expressed gratitude for the other lifeguard who assisted and the good Samaritans who jumped in to help save his son.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I appreciate each and every one of them, incredibly so, because, you know, it took that effort to bring him out and keep him alive. I&#8217;m just so grateful to have my son with me. I can&#8217;t imagine what life would look like had Ryder not been there,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>In a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/sanfrancisco\/news\/santa-cruz-california-teen-lifeguard-recalls-daring-rescue-seabright-state-beach\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">statement last week<\/a>, Ryder Williams said he too was grateful. &#8220;I&#8217;m grateful to have had the opportunity to return the child to his family safely. This is my job and I love what I do. I&#8217;m thankful to my fellow lifeguards who perform rescues just like this every day,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<section class=\"content__body--footer\">\n<\/section>\n<p>  <!-- data-recirc-source=\"queryly\" --><\/p>\n<aside class=\"component list recirculation component--type-recirculation  \">\n<p><h3 class=\"component__title\">More from CBS News<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"component__item-recirc-block\">\n<p><h3 class=\"component__title\">Go deeper with The Free Press<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<section class=\"content__body--footer\">\n      <!-- tags --><\/p>\n<section class=\"content__tags\">\n<p class=\"content__tags__label\">In:<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/section><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A 10-year-old boy who was saved from a rip current off the coast of Santa Cruz, California, last month said he thought he was going to die before a 16-year-old lifeguard rescued him. &#8220;I&#8217;m super thankful for him saving my life,&#8221; Nathaniel Rai said about the teen lifeguard, Ryder Williams. Nathaniel told &#8220;CBS Mornings&#8221; that&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27794,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2026\/08\/04\/1c6403dc-3556-42b0-aefb-edbb2e3f6261\/thumbnail\/1200x630\/e7c7abc000f0604aeecf08aa2abcf8c6\/nathaniel-rai-rescue.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}