Sixteen-year-old boy is being praised across the country after rescuing a boy from dangerous waves, with President Trump inviting the young lifeguard to the White House.
Event Context
Sixteen-year-old Ryder Williams is a first-year lifeguard at Seabright State Beach in Santa Cruz, California.
He is now being called a hero after dramatic footage showed him holding onto a drowning boy as waves reportedly reaching 10 feet crashed over them again and again.
The teenager’s actions caught attention across the US, including from Eric Trump, who shared the footage and asked for Williams to receive the country’s highest civilian honor. “Give this 16-year-old lifeguard the highest civilian honor,” Eric wrote on X. “This is truly the best of America! Well done!”
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A boy, believed to be around 10 years old, was quickly overwhelmed and pulled further into the surf. “Unfortunately, this young man was overwhelmed and swept out in just a moment’s time,” Vander Dussen said.
Video showed Williams holding onto the child as both were pulled underwater again and again. He took breaths between waves before ducking under the next one. Some beachgoers tried to form a human chain in the water, but the waves knocked several of them down.
A second lifeguard soon joined Williams, and together they got the exhausted boy back to shore, where paramedics checked on him before he was reunited with his parents.
Williams’ mother later thanked everyone who praised her son’s bravery after the video went viral. “I am blown away by the love, kindness, gratitude and respect you’re sending his way,” she said.
Team Analysis
President Donald Trump has now invited Williams to the White House to receive what he called a “high civilian honor.”
Match Outlook
“We’re going to bring this heroic young man, and his family, into the White House with, perhaps, the boy he saved, to give him a High Civilian Honor. Very brave, he deserves it!,” Trump wrote.
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The teenager stayed with the child during a tiring struggle that lasted about two minutes, waiting for short pauses between waves to move towards shore.
The rescue happened on Saturday after conditions along the coast changed suddenly. Santa Cruz resident Scott Vander Dussen, who recorded the incident, said the beach seemed normal before the surf suddenly grew stronger. “The waves, I wouldn’t say they were tranquil, but they were what you’d expect, a normal cadence and intensity,” Vander Dussen told NBC Bay Area cited by Marca. “And then that just changed in a heartbeat. It caught a lot of people off-guard.”
