A beach goer used a cellphone to capture video of the life-saving drama. People ran toward the ocean to help Josh McQuoid, who was hit by a wave at the water's edge and dragged out to sea. The current then pulled him 500 feet down the shore; he was fighting for air for eight minutes.
"When I was in there I thought I was going to die," Josh said. "The waves smashed me so much, there were five really big ones, they flipped me around quite a few times, I was underwater, I think the longest for about 20 seconds."
A police officer initially ran to Josh's rescue, but he was getting pulled under as well. That's when another officer started yelling for help, urging people on the beach to form a human chain. It worked. They all pulled Josh to safety.
