Whew, I'm a news junky. I must have spent three hours watching the back end of a Bradley tank rolling through the sand last night... Anyway there is an interesting story in today's Seattle Times about a guy who decided to blow off a little steam Wednesday and headed out to the beach with his surfboard. I'll go ahead and quote the text of the story in case the link stops working. He also makes an interesting observation when he is eventually saved; at the end.

Surfer swept out to sea survives to tell the tale

By Sarah Anne Wright
Seattle Times staff reporter

Surfer Jens Eventyr says he was just finishing an afternoon riding 4- to 6-foot waves Wednesday at Westhaven State Park when he tried to paddle into shore.

The popular, year-round surfing spot near Westport off the Washington coast is known to have a significant ebb current and Wednesday evening it was running at least four knots, according to Coast Guard estimates.

The 32-year-old Olympia man says that, unable to reach shore against that riptide and high waves, he was swept past the surf line out to sea. He says he spent 20 harrowing hours clinging to his surfboard before reaching the beach again yesterday.

After making his way to help, the surfer recounted his ordeal last night.

"I wasn't quite sure I was going to make it and just kept going, doing the best I could," Eventyr said.

Eventyr hadn't been able to find a friend to surf with him after finishing work as a breakfast cook Wednesday at The Evergreen State College. He knew he shouldn't surf alone, but after some tension with his wife, figured a therapeutic afternoon at the coast was a brighter beacon than safety.

"The sea kind of contains you in a different kind of way; it just cleanses you on a deep level," said Eventyr, who has been surfing for five years. "I thought I could handle it."

When the shore proved too difficult for him to reach, Eventyr angled for a jetty but was hammered in quick succession by three "double, overhead" waves, up to 15 feet, that swept him out to sea.

The current pulled Eventyr farther and farther north.

Wearing a hooded wetsuit, Eventyr stayed atop his 7-1/2-foot surfboard and tried to reach shore. But he said the big swells made him seasick.

Nauseous, he tried only to keep lights onshore in view. At times, he huddled on top of his board, trying to warm himself and doze. Waves repeatedly struck his face and kept him awake. He debated whether he should just drift, but found "it was physically making me sick not to do anything."

So he paddled.

When Eventyr failed to return home, his wife, Kristin, his mother and a friend combed the beach near Westport on Wednesday night looking for him. They reported him missing yesterday.

Two Coast Guard helicopters and a lifeboat began searching for him at 8 a.m.

Coast Guard searchers first scoured a five square-mile area, determined by a computer program that calculates drift against current and wind conditions. They expanded the search area to nine miles to account for some movement, but it wasn't enough. Eventyr turned up 20 miles north of where he first put in.

"He paddled his way out of our search area," said Justin Erdman, with the U.S. Coast Guard Station in Astoria. "It's unusual that he paddled so far."

Eventyr said he finally came ashore at Point Grenville just after 2 p.m. yesterday. He met up with a group of people who gave him a ride into Taholah, Grays Harbor County, where he was treated at the Quinault Reservation emergency center.

His first call was to his wife.

"We just told each other that we loved each other," he said.

Eventyr said he was in good condition.

"I'm doing OK. I'm physically OK, but psychologically a little bent up," he said.

During his 20 hours at sea, he said he tried to ignore the cold.

"I was afraid that they wouldn't come find me, and I was afraid that I would die without resolving things with my wife. ... I thought, how could I be so petty about things? It's kind of a big lesson in forgiveness."