Non-aggro vibe after getting snaked saves surfer’s life

"And from that moment, like our vibe in the water, everything changed."

I think that, sometimes, you might forget this very space, BeachGrit, is primarily anti-depressive. Certainly important and informative news is delivered as well as frank and honest social critique but anti-depression is, at the very least, a sub-sub text of every piece.

Well, in this morning’s offering, the reader does not need to squint in order to find. It is a story that will buoy you throughout day, maybe the week. The setting is Oceanside, California where we find Scott Muir out enjoying the brine. In a very dark turn, though, a nasty wipeout snaps his neck. “The wave threw me over, hit me on my head, on the sand, and I just felt a crunch,” he told the local CBS affiliate. “I can’t move anything. I’m face down [in] the water, completely unable to move. So three waves, underwater, face down, and, you know, I was pretty sure it was getting really close at the end. I was inhaling salt water. It got pretty dark. I was pretty sure it was over.”

Suddenly an angel appeared in the form of 19-year-old Judah Ely, who was out surfing with his pal Thomas Alspaugh. The young man scooped Muir up, saving his life. The reason he was there is because he was paying attention and the reason he was paying attention is because of a rare lineup encounter that had happened moments earlier.

Muir’s friend, Dan, you see, had been snaked by Ely, almost leading to a bonk. While most of us, here, would have reacted with expletives and rage, Dan just smiled.

“Dan could have probably reacted differently, and he reacted with a smile,” Muir said. “And from that moment, like our vibe in the water, everything changed.”

The four surfers began cheering each other on, which is why Ely was watching Muir in the first place, seeing him take off on a sick one though not seeing him paddle back out. “I’m like, trying to find him, you know, to hype him up, because it’s such a sweet wave. And I just see his board pop up, and I’m like, where is this dude?” Judah shared.

And so he rushed in, saving a life. Muir is recovering in the hospital with significant fractures to the C6 and 7 vertebrae, which compressed and impinged his spine. He can now move his arms and left leg.

Ely and Alspaugh visited him in the hospital for the first time since the accident. “To be able to look them both in the eye and say, ‘You are the reason I get to see my wife again, you are the reason I get to see my daughter and my son,’ I didn’t think I’d ever have that chance,” Muir declared.

See, I told you.

Anti-depressive.