San Diego
A 10-year-old boy who couldn’t swim drowned in Mission Bay on Sunday afternoon when the small boat he was in overturned about 10 yards offshore.
San Diego lifeguard Lt. Chris Brewster identified the victim as Jorge Novoa of San Diego. Brewster said Novoa was paddling with a friend in Leisure Lagoon, north of the Hilton Hotel, when the rubber boat flipped over. Novoa slipped underwater, prompting his 13-year-old friend, Salvador Avila, to swim ashore and summon help.
It took 15 lifeguards almost 40 minutes to locate the boy’s body because of the poor visibility in the murky bay waters.
“There were tons of kids in the area and they all kick up the muck on the bottom so it’s impossible to see,” Brewster said. “We just had to blanket the area with lifeguards.”
Novoa was taken by Life Flight to UC San Diego Medical Center, but resuscitation efforts failed. Brewster said the boy’s death was the first drowning at the bay this year.
The 3 p.m. episode was just one of many that kept city lifeguards busy Sunday. Brewster said there were 92 rescues from Point Loma north to Black’s Beach, a figure he called “well above average for a typical weekend day.” The estimated attendance at city beaches was 124,000.
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