Beautiful.
Unlikely heroes are the best sorts of heroes and about this there can be no debate. Simple men and women not chasing fame and glory but when the bell sounds, when needed, jump into action without considering the consequences but we simply must meet Darby Voeks, 26, of Minnesota.
The local news channel describes him as a surfer, and he was in fact, in Duluth to surf on the day fate knocked but he, himself, does not consider himself such as “he’s still new to the sport.”
Have you ever heard such self-awareness in a VAL?
Such beautiful clarity?
A hero already but the story gets better.
Voeks was at Park Point in Duluth, enjoying a run of early spring swell when he decided to catch one last wave.
“I was supposed to head home to meet up with my girlfriend for dinner and I thought, ‘Just one more wave. Maybe just one more wave.’ I know that what good surfers do is they’ll walk down the pier … and they’ll jump off the pier and kind of get to the main break without having to paddle all the way out there,” he said.
As he made his way down the pier a woman rolled up to him in a wheelchair, frantic.
“I need help.” She pleaded. “Can you please help? Can you please help? My dog is drowning in the water and I think my aide went in after him.”
Voeks let his surfboard fall and sprinted to the end of the pier where he looked and looked, seeing nothing, until a bellowing voice filled the cool air, “HELP! HELP! I CAN’T SWIM!”
Voeks was able to get the man a life ring and hauled him to the stairs.
Next, he spotted the dog and without a pause jumped into the chop.
He swam over to the terrified pup and then swam her back back to the pier, breathing heavily.
All safe and accounted for.
“There were way too many coincidences to just say, ‘Oh, it was right place, right time. Lucky,'” He said. “I believe that it was totally a God thing to have us be surfing and staying out that day and not coming home when we did and wanting to stay out longer and have me decide to just go one more wave, one more wave.”
The first responders have nominated Voeks for the prestigious Duluth Citizen Partnership Award.
“You saved a life today. You saved a dog and you saved a person’s life. We’re extremely grateful.”
World’s greatest VAL.
Best feeling in the world, sometimes.
That’s all well and good, but my surf this morning was shared with two helicopters, two coastguard vessels, a rubber ducky and four jet skis searching for the body of a longboarder who entered the water, but didn’t exit yesterday. No one to save him…
Very generous of him. If Jabba the Hut had rolled up to me I’d have shit myself and run away.
That’s unworthy of you JP.
Oh fuck off. It was a joke.
And the more I think about this reply the more condescending and fucking ridiculous it is.
You don’t know me, so don’t tell me what’s “unworthy” of me.
You’re not the arbiter of taste or fucking morality. And this is an internet comment section, mostly populated by middle aged men who are hardly the pillars of society.
“Unworthy”? Get yourself to fuck. Seriously.
Oh, ‘now’, it’s ‘just’ a ‘comment’ section?
Course it’s a comment section. When has it ever been anything else?
He obviously hasn’t been watching Bondi Rescue or Bondi Vet.
If so he’d know that surfboards are a commonly used bouyancy aid for saving both person and pooch…
That dog was trying to escape.
I’m wondering what his girlfriend looks like!
Great job Voeks! But a surfer would have grabbed his board after all heroic acts were finished, and gone back out to get that last wave he promised himself. Get it right next time.
The ocean calls us in mysterious ways.
That’s a special dog, to be able to yell, “HELP! HELP! I can’t swim!” Hobbsy, is this a common type of Great Lakes breed?
Unfortunately I haven’t encountered that breed, but my intuition is it has something to do with industrial runoff – though I should note I’m probably still a VAL in terms of Great Lakes surfing.
Did score my first ice beard the other day though, which I’m told is the Great Lakes version of a barrel.
What’s the Great Lakes equivalent of a shaka?
Running into an iceberg.
VALidated