A 16-year-old surfer girl who rescued three men caught in a rip current on the Jersey Shore last week was honored by Gov. Phil Murphy on Tuesday.
“A huge shout out to Point Pleasant’s Kayla Smith, whose heroic efforts saved the lives of three men caught in a rip current offshore in Bay Head last week,” the Democrat tweeted Monday.
“With her board, Kayla dove into the ocean and brought all three men back safely to shore.”
Smith was wrapping up her wave session on Sept. 26 when she saw the men struggling, according to News 12 Brooklyn.
“Two women ran up to me,” Smith told the outlet last Tuesday. “They asked if I could go get their husbands. I grabbed my board. I ran right in there.”
The teen jumped in the ocean and caught up to the men before dragging them to safety, despite conditions she called “extremely dangerous.”
“I couldn’t even think, it was just like keep paddling try as hard as you can,” Smith reportedly said.
“I was worried about them more than myself because I could tell they were sipping on water from the ocean and everything; they couldn’t catch their breath and I was like, I’ll balance the board for you guys just kick to help me get in because there was no way I could have pulled them in.
“No one could touch up there. It was probably a 10–foot drop maybe.”
Smith, who has been surfing for five years, said she was only able to come to the rescue because her mom was late picking her up from the beach.
The heroic rescue was such a whirlwind that Smith did not even get the names of the men she saved.