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It was Aug. 5, a cloudy Wednesday evening. Daniel Frisk was on the phone, walking away from Boronda Lake after a calm, hourlong hike at Foothills Park, when he heard a large splash.
He didn’t see anything. No one was immediately nearby. But the particular sound of the water triggered his instincts: He put his call on hold and ran to check out what — or rather who — might have gone into the lake.
“Something went off in my head thinking that someone might have fallen in,” Frisk said in an interview with this news organization. “It definitely wasn’t a goose.”
That’s when he heard a child’s cry coming from the water by the bridge: “I need help, I need help!”
In a moment he described as a flash, Frisk went into “autopilot” to pull the child out of the murky lake by holding on to the railing of the bridge with one hand and reaching out to the boy with the other.
The child, who was no older than 7, felt heavy because the water was soaking into his puffer jacket, Frisk said.
Frisk didn’t see the boy enter the water, but suggested that the child may have fallen in while riding his bicycle ahead of his parents, near the landing at one end of the bridge, where there’s no guard rail.
“It was kind of funny because the boy’s first reaction after I pulled him out was: ‘Oh, but my bike is still in there,'” Frisk said.
Frisk was just about ready to jump into the water to grab the bicycle before he realized he should probably first warn the boy’s parents, who were nearby with three of their other children, unaware that their child had fallen in the water.
After that, there were no hugs or handshakes due to the physically-distant era everyone is living in — just a moment of shared shock, gratitude and relief.
“I was still wired after,” said Frisk, who doesn’t have experience in conducting rescues outside of a lifeguarding class he once took in high school.
For Frisk, the moment was a particularly cathartic experience with tinges of déjà vu. Years ago, when he was 4 years old, Frisk said he too once fell into a lake and was saved by a stranger.
He doesn’t remember who helped him, he said — only the feeling of being saved and a few vivid snapshots of the incident: the light underneath the water and the arm that poked through and grabbed him.
“I was 4, and I don’t even remember who it was, but I’ve been carrying that with me ever since,” Frisk said.
After saving the boy from the lake, Frisk said the incident reminded him of that traumatic day and hoped that through this story, he could express how grateful he was to the man who saved him years ago.
“I’d love to say thanks to the man who saved me,” he said.
Nice. I like stories that make you want to write a story about something. Maybe the quest for the buried memory turns up something … else. Maybe the bicycle kid turns into a psychopath! And the resolution is TOO WEIRD NOT TO READ.
What were the parents doing?!
Frisk did exactly the right thing — he reached for the person who needed help. If you’ve ever taken a lifeguarding class, the order actions you should take is very clear — reach, throw, row and [lastly] go. You may have noticed that pools have poles nearby to extend the lifeguard’s reach.
Great Job, Mr. Frisk. Stuff like this can happen in the blink of an eye. I was saved by my alert cousin who saw me struggling in a pool that was full of rollicking kids. My mom and sister were right there. There was a life guard on duty. My mom carried her attention lapse around with her the rest of her life. That kid at Boronda was not expecting to bike off the dock. What a kid thing to do, just like I hadn’t meant to end up in the deep end while playing with some kids. That’s why it really takes a village. We need to look out for one another. Great Job, Mr. Frisk. This story gave me a boost on a smokey, pandemicky Friday morning! And thank you Lloyd and PAW for bringing us the good news as well as the bummers of the day!
Hooray for Daniel Frisk!
His mind quick, actions brisk.
A boy, a bike, a lake,
A splash, a leap, to make
The rescue worth the risk.
Hooray for Daniel Frisk!
“Oh, but my bike is still in there” comment by the boy reminded me of a Jewish comedian’s joke about a Jewish Mom commenting after the rescue of her child from the ocean alive and well, “he had a hat”.
I am glad that the rescuer left the bicycle retrieval to the parents and I am so grateful for his quick action. The article doesn’t say how far behind the parents were but with 4 children total they had their hands full. A momentary lapse in attention could have been so tragic! Thank you thank you Daniel Frisk! Glad you had a chance to “pay it forward”.