Dawn Patrol

36

Dave the Love God looks out at the burgeoning ocean and thinks about George Freeth.

George freaking Freeth.

Freeth was a legend. A god. “The Hawaiian Wonder” was the father of San Diego surfing and the first-ever San Diego lifeguard.

If you don't know about Freeth, Dave thinks, you don't know your own heritage, where you came from. You don't know about Freeth, you can't sit in this lifeguard tower and pretend to know who you even are.

It goes back to Jack London.

At the turn of the last century, London was in Honolulu, trying to surf, and he saw this “brown-skinned god” go flying past him. Turned out it was Freeth, son of an English father and a Hawaiian mother. He taught London to surf. London talked Freeth into coming to California.

Around the same time, Henry Huntington built a pier at his eponymous beach and was trying to promote it, so he hired Freeth to come give surfing demonstrations. He billed Freeth as “The Man Who Can Walk On Water.” Thousands of people went down to the pier to see him do just that. It was a smash, and pretty soon Freeth was going up and down the coast, teaching young guys how to ride a wave.

He was a prophet, a missionary, making the reverse journey from Hawaii.

The Man Who Could Walk On Water.

Hell, Freeth could do anything in or on the water. One day in 1908, a Japanese fishing skiff capsized in heavy surf off Santa Monica Bay. Freeth swam out there, righted the skiff, and, standing up in it, surfed it back to shore, saving the seven Japanese on board. Congress gave him a Medal of Honor.

It was the only gold medal he'd receive, though. He tried to get into the Olympics but couldn't because he had taken Huntington's money to walk on water. Buster Crabbe went, became a movie star, and got rich. Not George Freeth. He was quiet, shy, unassuming. He just did his thing and kept his mouth shut about it.

People in California were really starting to get into the ocean. But there was a problem with that: They were also starting to drown in the ocean. Freeth had some of the answers. He created the crawl stroke, which lifeguards still use; he invented the torpedo-shaped life float that they still use.

Eventually, he migrated down to San Diego and became the swim coach of the San Diego Rowing Club. Then, one day in May of 1918, thirteen swimmers drowned in a single riptide off Ocean Beach. Freeth started the San Diego lifeguard corps.

He lived less than a year after that. In April of 1919, after rescuing another group off Ocean Beach, Freeth got a respiratory infection and died in a flophouse in the Gaslamp District.

Broke.

He had saved seventy-eight people from drowning.

So now Dave's thinking about George Freeth. In his thirties now, Dave is wondering if he's headed for the same fate.

Alone and broke.

It's all good when you're in your twenties-hanging out, picking up tourist chicks, slamming beers at The Sundowner, jerking people out of the soup. The summer days are long and you think you're going to live forever.

Then suddenly you're in your thirties and you realize that you aren't immortal, and you also realize that you have nothing. No money in the bank, no house, no wife, no real girlfriend, no family.

And every day, you're out there rescuing people who have all that.

So that time back at Red Eddie's hilarious housewarming party, Eddie made the offer. A little night work. “Use your skills,” Eddie said, “to make yourself some money, some real money, brah.”

Easy money, easy work. Just drive a Zodiac out there, pick up the product, bring it in. Or go down to Rosarito, bring a boat back up. Where's the harm? What's the bad? Not like it's heroin, or meth, or coke.

“I dunno, Eddie,” Dave said.

“Nothin' to know or not to know,” Eddie replied. “When you're ready, just say the word.”

Just say the word.

Later that same week, he went out into a riptide to pull in a turista who'd let herself get sucked out. The woman, not small, was so hysterical that she damned near pulled Dave under with her. She grabbed on to his neck and wouldn't let go, and he damned near had to knock her out to get her under control and onto the sled.

When he got her back to the beach, all she could say was, “He hit me.”

He watched her and her indignant hubby get into their Mercedes and drive away. No thank you, just “He hit me.”

Dave thought about George Freeth.

Brought surfing to California.

Saved seventy-eight lives.

Died broke at thirty-five.

Dave called Eddie and said the word.