California Woman Rescues Unconscious Surfer After Massive Wave Slams Him Into Rocks

Celebrity publicist Benita Karo is pictured in Carlsbad on Saturday morning, after saving an unconscious surfer she spotted getting smashed onto the rocks. Benita Karo

A California woman plunged into dangerous surf to rescue an unconscious surfer after watching a powerful wave slam him into rocks along the San Diego County coastline.

Benita Karo, 39, was walking along the beach in Oceanside on the morning of Sept. 26 when she stopped to film unusually large waves battering the coast. The dangerous conditions were being fueled by Hurricane Polo, which was producing powerful surf and strong rip currents along the northern San Diego County shoreline.

Karo, who lives in nearby Carlsbad, told the California Post that she had picked up a coffee and was thinking about her daughter’s 14th birthday party later that day when she began recording the waves on her phone.

Karo, who works as a celebrity publicist for authors of books about Elvis Presley, soon noticed a surfer carrying his board and attempting to leave the water.

She saw a huge wave approaching behind him.

“He doesn’t see it. It’s massive, and it just hits him, and he didn’t even see it coming,” Karo said.

She ran toward the water when he failed to resurface

Celebrity publicist Benita Karo is pictured on a Saturday morning in Carlsbad. Instagram/@heartbreak__honey

The wave hurled the surfer into the rocks with tremendous force. Karo immediately moved toward the water, watching for him to emerge.

But the man did not come back to the surface.

“When I got closer, I saw him upside down, face down in the water, not awake at all. Like he was knocked out,” she said.

Without stopping to remove her clothes, Karo entered the rough water and reached the surfer. She grabbed him and held his head above the surface as waves continued crashing around them and against the rocks.

“I sat there with him, holding him, just trying to keep his head above water,” Karo said.

Another surfer eventually noticed what was happening, while people at a nearby beach house also rushed toward the scene. Working together, they managed to pull the injured man out of the water and onto the shore.

Emergency crews arrived soon afterward. They cut away part of the surfer’s wetsuit, placed him on a gurney and transported him for medical treatment.

Karo said the man appeared to be breathing and had water coming from his mouth.

“He was definitely breathing,” she said.

Local news reports also confirmed that Karo had intervened after seeing the surfer disappear beneath the waves. The incident was captured on video and showed just how dangerous the surf conditions had become along the coast.

The rescue left Karo injured, too

Celebrity publicist Benita Karo said that she was a lifeguard in her youth. Benita Karo

Karo did not emerge from the rescue unhurt. She told the California Post that she suffered scratches and injuries to her toe, face and back while making her way through the rocky water.

Her decision to enter the ocean also drew on an experience from much earlier in her life.

Karo said she had worked as a lifeguard when she was 15, including at a water park with a wave pool. In that environment, she explained, staff could simply shut off the waves when an emergency occurred.

The ocean offered no such option.

“At the ocean, you just can’t turn off the waves; they just keep coming,” she said.

Hurricane Polo brought dangerous surf to the coast

The rescue unfolded as Hurricane Polo moved toward Baja California, creating hazardous coastal conditions across the region.

The National Hurricane Center had warned of dangerous conditions associated with the major hurricane, while weather reports showed Polo producing exceptionally large seas as it approached the Baja California Peninsula. On Sept. 26, the National Weather Service reported peak seas near 43 feet around the storm.

By Sept. 27, Polo remained a powerful major hurricane as it approached Baja California Sur, with maximum sustained winds of 125 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center.

The storm’s influence extended beyond its immediate path, contributing to elevated surf and dangerous rip currents along portions of the Southern California coast.

For the surfer caught in the waves off Oceanside, the conditions turned a routine trip out of the water into a life-threatening emergency.

And for Karo, what began as a morning walk and a few minutes of filming the surf became an unexpected rescue — one that sent her into the same dangerous water she had been watching from shore.