A 16-year-old California lifeguard clung to a drowning child through a wall of violent surf after the boy was sucked under by a 10-foot wave, then went back to work after helping save his life.
Williams was a high school student and still in his first year on patrol. The emergency began Saturday at Seabright State Beach in Santa Cruz, where 10-year-old Nathaniel Rai lost his footing in ankle-deep water before a sneaker wave dragged him out.
The video did not stay local for long. President Trump later wrote on Truth Social that he planned to bring Williams and his family to the White House, possibly with Nathaniel, for a “High Civilian Honor.”
“Very brave, he deserves it,” the president’s post read.
Nathaniel’s father, Sumit Rai, later told ABC 7 that his son understood he was in deadly trouble before Williams got to him.
Nathaniel “knew he was drowning” and “went unconscious,” Sumit said.
“From what I gathered, he assumed he was going to die,” the father added.
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The difference, Sumit said, was the teenage lifeguard and the people who helped him fight the boy back to land.
“God bless them and you know, thank you, I cannot express sufficient gratitude,” Sumit said.
He said, “There’s nothing more valuable to me than my children,” and thanked Williams and the others for saving Nathaniel’s life.
The surf gave Williams almost no room to work. Video showed Williams clinging to Nathaniel as wave after wave crashed over them.
At one point, Williams braced into a massive wave while keeping hold of the boy. Both disappeared under the water for several seconds before they surfaced again.
Scott Vander Dussen, who was on the beach, had his phone recording as the rescue unfolded and the water suddenly turned dangerous.
A sneaker wave “caught a lot of people off-guard,” Vander Dussen said.
“He was just sucked out,” the photographer recalled.
The boy was already far from the sand when Vander Dussen spotted his head “bobbing up and down” in the water about 200 meters away.
Williams charged into the water. Other swimmers also tried to help, but the surf knocked them back before more help reached the pair.
“It is unbelievable,” Vander Dussen told the outlet. “It’s his first year on lifeguard patrol.”
Williams later described the rescue as a struggle against waves that were too strong for him to immediately pull Nathaniel out.
“After the first wave, I was unable to pull him out because he was limp and the waves were pushing so hard,” Williams recalled.
The teenage lifeguard said lifeguard Aaron Bohnen entered the water after two or three more waves hit.
“There were bystanders who jumped in to try to help and I yelled at them all to get back to shore,” he continued.
Williams placed himself near Tower 2 when the boy slipped. He said he was “at the waterline 15 yards down-coast of Tower 2” and saw Nathaniel lose his footing about 20 yards up from the tower.
More help arrived as Williams and Nathaniel got closer to shore. Bohnen helped haul Williams and Nathaniel up the beach, and a third lifeguard later lifted the boy after he appeared limp near shore.
Back on the sand, Williams and Bohnen checked Nathaniel. Vander Dussen said paramedics cleared the boy at the scene, and Nathaniel was soon able to stand before going back to his parents.
Williams took a breath and resumed his regular lifeguard duties.
“I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to return the child to his family safely,” Williams said. “This is my job and I love what I do.”
He also said he was “thankful for my fellow lifeguards who perform rescues just like this every day.”
Shane Williams told The Guardian that his son’s determination nearly brought him to tears.
“I almost started crying because how determined he was to save that boy’s life makes me so proud,” Shane told The Guardian.
The teen later explained to his father what was going through his mind in the water.
Shane said his son told him he “wasn’t going to let go of that kid” because he believed Nathaniel would drown if he did.
Shane said his son “just wants to give back to his community because he grew up there.”
The California Post reported that Williams made four other rescues during the same Saturday shift.
The danger along California’s coast did not stop in Santa Cruz.
A Tuesday night call sent San Diego lifeguards to Pappy’s Point at Sunset Cliffs, where the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department said a man fell from the cliff face and struck the rocks below shortly after 7:50 p.m.
Before the rescue boat and lifeguard crews reached him, an off-duty U.S. Coast Guard member jumped in and kept the unidentified man above water.
The man was pulled from the water with a cable-haul system, then treated by medics before being transported to a hospital for unspecified traumatic injuries.
NBC San Diego reported another rescue nearby after a man hurt his leg at the cliffs.
That man was found by emergency crews and taken by air to a hospital with unspecified injuries.
The Tuesday rescues came days after a 17-year-old was filmed jumping from Sunset Cliffs, slamming into the rocks and falling into the ocean.
“I slammed against the rock and I felt paralyzed and I couldn’t move,” the unidentified teen told Fox 5 San Diego.
“My lungs were burning, my ribs were burning, my spine – it was the weirdest feeling; it was just burning.”
Doctors found six compression fractures in the teen’s vertebrae, and his foot required nine stitches.
