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LONG BEACH, California (KABC) — A Long Beach man who was knocked off a rented jet ski spent about 16 hours stranded at sea before the U.S. Coast Guard rescued him near Seal Beach earlier this week.
Paul Carbullido Jr. said he began to fear he would not survive as he waited overnight for rescuers to find him.
“I was telling myself, ‘What’s the best way to die? Should I just drown? Should I just bite myself? Bleed? Let something eat me?’ I was really nervous. I was really scared,” Carbullido said.
Carbullido and a co-worker headed onto the water around 7:20 p.m. Sunday using jet skis rented from a company they identified as Air-B-N-Ski. About 10 minutes later, a wave knocked Carbullido into the water.
His co-worker attempted to pull him onto her jet ski before jumping into the water to help him.
“She jumped off her jet ski. Her jet ski, I remember, it was just going. And then she came to where I was at, and she was like, ‘Come on!’ And I was trying to tell her, ‘I need to catch my breath. I need to catch my breath.’ Because I didn’t even know what hit me,” Carbullido said.
After realizing Carbullido was too dazed to move, his co-worker swam for about an hour to reach shore and seek help.
Rescue teams began searching for Carbullido around 10:30 p.m., about three hours after he fell into the water. He remained at sea through the night.
“There was so many thoughts that was going through my mind. I was out there, I was just looking around. I was hearing noises, everything else. I was calling for help, praying to God. Just doing everything, you know? I didn’t want to give up, because I would keep getting splashed. I was like, ‘Where are these waves coming from?'” he said.
Carbullido said he eventually felt like he didn’t have much time left.
“I probably had just a little bit of time left, you know? Because I knew my time was up. I was like, ‘I can’t do this no more.’ I gave all I could gave,” he said.
The U.S. Coast Guard located Carbullido around 11 a.m. Monday, about 16 hours after he first entered the water. He said he was found about three miles from where the wave knocked him off the jet ski.
“I remember seeing it. It was right above me, and I was just jumping up. ‘Help! Help! Help!’ You know? And they circled down, I saw them doing the eye contact. They threw everything down. They pulled me up, and it was just relief,” Carbullido said. ” And he was just looking at me, and he said, ‘People don’t survive this.'”
Luke Singer, an aviation survival technician with the USCG, said rescuers were surprised to locate Carbullido alive in the water.
“We’re not used to finding a person in the water too consistently, so that was a big surprise when we found him in the water,” Singer said.
Carbullido was diagnosed with pneumonia and a low white blood cell count because of the amount of saltwater he swallowed.
California requires riders to have a boater card to operate a jet ski. Carbullido said Air-B-N-Ski did not ask him for a boater card or provide basic training.
The company insisted during a phone conversation with Eyewitness News that it offered training. It declined to comment further.
The two rented jet skis were later recovered.
Carbullido said the rescue has given him a renewed sense of purpose.
“I got a purpose in life, you know? I’m going to find out. Tomorrow I plan on going to church. I’m going to see where it takes me from there. I got a purpose in this life,” he said.
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