Santa Cruz, California surfer Vince “The Godfather” Collier was about to go fishing the evening of January 3, 2014 when he heard the cry of what he thought was a baby sea otter. Turns out it was a woman who had fallen 30 feet down the cliff along West Cliff Dr., according to a story in the Santa Cruz Sentinel.
The woman, who wore denim from top to bottom, was hard to spot on the rocks, he said. . . “I put my pole down because it sounds like someone is screaming for help,” Collier, 53, said on Sunday as he described his role in helping the Los Gatos woman. “She was in and out of consciousness.” . . . Collier said he climbed back up to West Cliff Drive to direct folks gathered in a parking lot near Merced Street to call 911 while he returned to help stabilize the woman until rescuers from the Santa Cruz Fire Department arrived.
The tide was rising fast and Collier says she would have been swept out to sea if he hadn’t heard her. Thanks to Collier’s work the woman survived with numerous injuries including broken teeth and ribs. If you’re going to be rescued from something in Santa Cruz, there’s probably no one better to be rescued by the Vince Collier.
[Link: Santa Cruz Sentinel]
