Long Beach man recounts praying for rescue as he floated at sea overnight after thrown from personal watercraft
A 53-year-old Long Beach man is happy to be alive, recovering in a hospital bed after being thrown from a personal watercraft and floating in the ocean overnight until he was miraculously rescued the next day, south of the Seal Beach pier.
Paul Carbullido Jr. was found 16 hours after he was first reported missing. "I was telling myself, I don't want to die drowning," he said.
The husband and father of four said it was his first time ever on a personal watercraft. Carbullido said there were no instructions from the rental company, and it was getting dark as his group headed out into the Long Beach water on Sunday night, around 7:20 p.m.
Carbullido said he began testing out the watercraft to get the feel for it, then took off. He said that about one mile out, he hit a wave and flew off the vessel.
His co-worker, Donna DuBray, was part of the group and saw Carbullido fall off, briefly knocking him out. She said that when she couldn't get him onto her watercraft, she swam for more than an hour to the breakwater for help.
"My teeth were chattering and I was so cold. I lay down on the rocks, and I screamed bloody murder," DuBray said.
The Port of Los Angeles forklift driver was wearing a life vest and was floating away, out to sea -- cold, worried about sharks and drowning.
"You know, it seemed like it was forever. All I know is it was getting darker and darker, and I didn't think anybody's coming for me and all that," Carbullido said. In the darkness, he said he couldn't see anything, heard some splashes, and would see a light, then it would disappear.
"I was starting to get weak and all that. I was praying for sunlight to come out...When the sun came out, I could see boats, I could see things, but it just seemed like it was so far away, you know," Carbullido said, noting he saw the Coast Guard fly over.
"Then I saw it again about an hour later, because they were a little bit closer, but it still didn't come to where I was at, and I was like, 'Oh, that might be my last hope,' and I was really weak," Carbullido said.
A full-scale search was underway to find the missing man, and the helicopter returned late Monday morning, 16 hours after his nightmare began and 8 miles from where he launched. The Coast Guard hovered above him in the ocean off Orange County and hoisted him to safety.
"It was just, it was so much relief," Carbullido said. "I know I'm going to get medical help for all this, I'm going to be alive...."
Carbullido's body temperature had dropped dangerously low to 86 degrees. He's being treated for hypothermia.
"It was a miracle...everybody's told me that it was a miracle...even when they found me, they told me it's like trying to find a needle in a haystack. There's a God out there that's looking out for me," Carbullido said.
