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Malibu Deputies Plunge Into Ocean to Rescue Two Paragliders Off Carbon Beach

LASD says a fog bank likely disoriented the pair as they descended.

Overview

  • Deputies Sevak Grigoryan and Christopher Matkin responded around 12:30 p.m. Friday after screams were heard near Carbon Beach in Malibu.
  • Body-cam video shows the deputies stripping off gear and swimming roughly 75 feet through foggy surf to reach a man and a woman in distress.
  • Using knives, they cut cords tangled around the paragliders’ feet and freed them from heavy equipment.
  • The deputies described a tense effort as the exhausted victims initially pulled them underwater before being calmed.
  • Firefighters and paramedics assisted on shore, both paragliders are reported OK, and a preliminary LASD assessment points to an ocean fog bank as the likely cause.