While surfing in the Jupiter Inlet in Florida, 13-year-old Sam Ruskin saw a man struggling to swim in the rough current after his fishing boat capsized. So the surfer paddled out and told the guy to get on his surfboard and paddled him safely to shore.
The teenager “didn’t think it was that much of a big deal.” To hear Ruskin tell it, he helped a stranger, the man said thanks, then he went back to surfing. But the whole incident was captured on video by a drone and it shows how dramatic the rescue actually was.
“It’s really a dangerous area. Someone dies in that inlet every year,” explains Sam’s dad, Ryan Ruskin. And when he saw the footage of his son fearlessly helping a stranger to safety, he was so proud. “I was shocked, just ecstatic with pride.”