Just one more wave.
Well-known surfboard shaper Timmy Patterson and his son, Keone, were surfing a secluded surf spot off Dana Point this week as a mega swell hit the region. Waves were pumping and perfect, massive and monstrous, and the Pattersons couldn’t get enough of the best swell to arrive in years, maybe decades.
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But the surf session would soon take a near-tragic turn, as Timmy Patterson had to be pulled to shore by his son, not breathing and his heart stopped. They were met just in time by a seasoned lifeguard chief who just happened to be watching the skilled wave riders taking on the massive surf.
The father-son duo had already that morning, Tuesday, June 9, surfed pumping Strands in Dana Point, when a friend called to say he was taking his boat to Killer Dana, a surf break that rarely shows up near the Ocean Institute.
Killer Dana decades ago was the region’s iconic big-wave surf spot that would reel all the way to what’s known today as Doheny State Beach. It destroyed when the Dana Point Harbor was built, the rock jetty blocking the waves.
But once in a while, when the swell angle and size is just right, the surf spot shows up far offshore — such a rarity they knew they had to jump on board to get one or two waves at the mystery spot.
They hopped off the boat and paddled out, waves in the 10- to 15-foot range, sets on the outside reaching 20 feet.
They each caught a wave.
“Cool, let’s go back,” Keone Patterson, 31, said he told his dad.
“No, one more,” his dad, 63, replied.
Then, a second wave, and a third wave, all perfection. After each one, his father would reply with the same answer: Just one more wave.
After the fourth wave, they were both exhausted and knew it was time to paddle back to the boat, anchored farther offshore so it didn’t get steamrolled by the waves.
That’s when a five-minute set of building-size waves started rolling in, one after another, after another, 20 waves in a row.
“Are you OK?” Keone Patterson asked his dad between sets, worrying as his dad stopped paddling past the waves toward the boat.
“He didn’t have any more energy.”
Timmy Patterson was on a big, 9-foot board, the weight of it tossing him around. The surfers took off their leashes, so they could swim under the waves as they crashed on top of them.
“Just breathe,” Keone Patterson said he would tell his dad each time they emerged to the surface.
Then, Keone Patterson said he saw his dad stop fighting, his body going limp. So he grabbed onto him, arms around his chest, both being tossed around by the massive waves, the son’s legs kicking frantically to get them both to shore.
At one point, Timmy Patterson was ripped from his son’s arms, his body disappearing for several seconds as Keone Patterson frantically searched for him. Diving down, Keone Patterson found his dad, bringing up to the surface.
“I lost him for a second,” Keone Patterson said. “I just can’t stop thinking about it, how close it was.”
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Meanwhile, by chance, OC Lifeguard Chief Jason Young happened to be nearby, warning people to stay off the Dana Point jetty, where waves were overtopping the rock structure.
He had taken note of a group of surfers riding waves, knowing they were skilled surfers, but still kept watching, because the stretch of beach doesn’t have a dedicated lifeguard service. Just last Saturday, another person had died at the exact spot.
When the set steamrolled through, Young watched as wave after wave rolled in for five minutes, the surfers disappearing between the big waves.
“It just kept going and going, so it was hard to see the surfers,” Young said. “I was preparing to leave, but on a whim I just wanted to take one more look.”
When the waves finally subsided, Young saw two heads, but without surfboards, slowly making their way toward the beach. He immediately radioed for help and ran down to the beach with his buoy, reaching the duo just as they got close to shore.
Timmy Patterson was blue, no pulse and wasn’t breathing. His son thought the worst, the unthinkable, had happened.
Young and other responders gave CPR and oxygen, regaining a pulse before Patterson was rushed away to the emergency room.
“He came around,” Young said. “It was a miracle.”
Young, also an avid surfer, only later learned the man brought to the sand by his son was world-renowned shaper Timmy Patterson, who makes boards for some of the world’s best surfers and countless others, especially in south Orange County. Young himself rides Patterson’s surfboards, as do his children, he said.
“He’s kind of a staple around here for anyone who surfs,” Young said.
“I’ve been surfing Strands and Dana Point my whole life, I’ve seen Timmy, surfed with him, know him casually,” Young said. “It was a very personal call for me.”
Patterson was expected to be in a medically-induced coma days, even weeks, but by the next day was awake and alert, joking and eager to get out of the hospital to get back to making boards, his family said.
Tubes are out and he’s slowly walking around, and was expected to be moved out of the ICU on Thursday, June 11.
“The man has the strongest will out of anybody I know,” said Keone Patterson, who, like his father, is a surfboard builder.
Young credits Keone Patterson for saving his father’s life, later speaking with Keone about how he held onto his father, battling massive waves and dangerous currents, to get him to shore.
“It’s just incredible. He went through so much out there to save his dad, it’s unbelievable how close he got to not making it,” Young said. “He deserves the ultimate recognition of how he was able to save him in those conditions. I’m super impressed with how he was able to hang on to him. He truly saved his life.”
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