FRIDAY, JULY 23, 2010 YOUR NO. 1 SOURCE FOR NEWS, SPORTS, WEATHER AND ENTERTAINMENT – THENOWNEWSPAPER.COM
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‘I was thinking I better do this right — I don’t want my wife raising our kids on her own.’
Pete Pretorius at the beach in White Rock where he swam to save the life of a drowning man last Sunday afternoon. ❚PHOTO/Sharon Doucette
Black belt holder turns hero at beach
Not your typical day Tom ZYTARUK Staff Reporter at the beach, even for a hero. Pete Pretorius, 44, and his family were enjoying the rays at White Rock beach, west of the pier, on Sunday afternoon when the Fleetwood resident heard a cry for help. A woman was standing knee-deep in the water, screaming and waving her arms frantically. In the distance, a few hundred feet or so off shore, a man was in deep trouble. Pretorius could see one arm raised, and sometimes the man’s head. He threw off his shirt, hat, glasses and socks and
charged down the beach and into the water. “It happened so fast,” Pretorius recalled. “I was thinking I better do this right — I don’t want my wife raising our kids on her own.” Despite fearing that the desperate drowner might drag him down too, he quickly made it to where he was. When the man reached out, Pretorius grabbed his wrist and turned him so the man’s back was facing him and he couldn’t drown him. He then pulled the man, who was in his late-50s or so, back to safety. “The way back was a lot farther than the way in.”
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“He was limp,” Pretorius told the Now. “He gave up. He was not responding at all. He was biting his tongue in the water.” It looked dire, but suddenly the man came to and his family whisked him off the beach. There was “a lot of divine intervention,” Pretorius said. Though he’s not formally trained as a lifesaver, Pretorius said the rescue came as second nature thanks to his training as a first-degree black belt in taekwondo. He praised his instructor, Karen Bennett. “She really knows her stuff,” he said. Bennett said she was “extremely proud” of her long-time student. She noted that
had it not been for the boycott due to South Africa’s Apartheid policy, the South African native would have competed in the Olympics. At the time, she said, Pretorius was the fourth fastest in the world for the 400-metre hurdles. According to the Community Against Preventable Injuries, more than 40 drowning deaths happen in B.C. each year, most during the summer. Canadian Red Cross statistics reveal that males aged 15 to 54 are at the greatest risk, and that five out of six drowning victims are male. Twenty-nine per cent of drowning deaths result from boating accidents. tzytaruk@thenownewspaper.com