A surfer has turned his near-death experience into a life-saving video – with the help of Sea Girt lifeguards.

Sea Girt lifeguards have turned Paul Bouchard’s GoPro video from July 4, 2021, the day he nearly caught his last wave, into a training video.

“I was drowning face down in the ocean for three minutes,” said surfer Paul Bouchard. “The last thing I remember was trying to catch her, in the wave, and at one point I looked at my board right in front of me.”

Bouchard began his vacation at Sea Girt Beach, where he was riding some waves with a GoPro strapped to his body, when everything went wrong.

“He was underwater for three minutes, but he was out for over 11 minutes while CPR and lifesaving were being performed on the beach until he got into the ambulance,” said Tim Harmon, Sea Girt’s lifeguard chief. “You can see him hitting the bottom several times in the water, fighting for his life.”

It was Bouchard’s first time wearing or using a GoPro, and when rescuers saw what was captured on film, they immediately realized how valuable this footage would be.

“All of a sudden we found the biggest file, looked at it and thought, ‘Oh my God,’ we literally watched someone die and drown in front of our eyes,” Harmon added.

“He had an idea that he could use this for lifeguards now and in the future because he does a lot of training and runs a lifeguard academy,” Bouchard said.

Thanks to neurosurgeon Dr. Aasim Kazmi of Jersey Shore University Medical Center, Bouchard made a full recovery.

The video is now a valuable requirement for new lifeguards and shows how to rescue, stabilize and transport a patient with a severe neck injury.

“Anything can happen at any time. Pure fun can turn into trauma and that’s what happened to me,” he said.