Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Surfer, 13, saves capsized boater
I’m not a hero, says teen after Jupiter Inlet drama
The treacherous currents off the Jupiter Inlet struck again, this time overturning a boat and forcing the man on board to start swimming for his life.
That’s when a 13-year-old surfer headed toward him to make a daring rescue.
The teen, Sam Ruskin, on Monday recalled seeing the man struggling in the water and thinking he was dangerously close to the jetty’s rocks. Sam paddled to the man and pushed his surfboard at him.
“Come on, get on!” Sam recalled telling the man. “We have to paddle out of the current.”
Together they made their way about 150 feet to the beach, “paddling as hard as I could not
to get in the jetty,” Sam said. On shore, the man thanked Sam. Fire-rescue crews received reports of the 22-foot vessel capsizing about 5:30 p.m. Friday, according to Capt. Albert Borroto of Palm Beach County Fire Rescue. The boater, whose name wasn’t released, had no injuries, Borroto said in a news release.
South Florida’s inlets have been the scene of tragedies through the years, as strong currents develop in part from water rushing in and out of the passageways.
Earlier this month, a 21-year-old man who was swimming near one of the inlets — off Ocean Inlet Park near Boynton Beach — was swept out to sea and died, authorities said. Amantay Brown was swimming Oct. 19 with his girlfriend when the two became separated, the Coast Guard said. His body washed ashore the next day.
In the Hillsboro Inlet in 2012, a diver died when the commercial boat she was in capsized, causing her and 22 other people to go overboard. A large wave caused the boat to overturn, witnesses said.
At the Jupiter Inlet, a 15-year-old boy drowned in 2015 after a current pulled him into the inlet.
"It's just a very dangerous place at times,” Jupiter Police Chief Frank Kitzerow said at a news conference after the 2015 drowning. “You have to be careful about what you're doing and where you're swimming."
At Jupiter Inlet, strong currents could smash swimmers into the rocks or push them farther into the inlet, where they risk being run over by boats.
“It’s like swimming in quicksand,” said Sam’s father, Ryan Ruskin.
His son — a strong swimmer — did the right thing in stepping in to help the boater Friday, he said.
Friday’s emergency was captured on video by a drone. The footage shows the boat slamming on its side into the water as it was entering the Jupiter Inlet. The footage shows the jetty’s rocks a few feet from where the boat overturned. In the video, the man appeared to be alone on the boat.
Sam’s helping the man was captured on video as well.
Sam, an eighth-grader from Jupiter, was surfing with his cousin that day when he veered away from the crowds, simply enjoying the afternoon after school.
It was shipping containers from the overturned boat that caught his eye. After helping the boater, Sam went back to surfing, he said.
Sam is an aspiring pro surfer who first learned how to handle himself in the water nine years ago, he said. He’s pretty matter-offact about it all, but said he’s glad he helped a stranger in need.
“I don’t consider myself a hero,” Sam said. “But I think he was lucky that he didn’t get sucked into the jetty.”