OCEANSIDE, Calif. (KGTV) - Loved ones are mourning the death of a Vista grandfather, killed during a surfing accident near Oceanside Pier.
“He would talk about how he just loved being in the water, and that feeling, and the salt and the air and the smell. It was just his favorite thing,” said D’Arcy Ferreira’s wife, Tammy.
An avid surfer since moving to San Diego at 12 years old, Ferreira, says Tammy, was sharing his passion with his 19-year-son on Saturday, at one of his favorite surf spots south of Oceanside Pier.
Tammy believes he was about 100 yards out and likely had finished a wave, before he dove into the water to clear the wave, intending to paddle back out.
“He dove headfirst. He was just in a lot shallower place than he thought he was. He misjudged it,” said Tammy.
Moments later, his son spotted him.
“Looked over his shoulder, looked back, and saw dad floating face up in the water," said Tammy.
He raced to him, bringing him to shore, and performing CPR.
At the hospital, there was a grim diagnosis: fractures in the neck and a severed artery along the spine.
“Devastating. Just devastating,” said Tammy.
Ferreira, a father of 4 and grandfather of 4, was declared brain dead, passing away two days later at 61.
“That reality hits you that he's not here, and he’s not coming back,” said Tammy.
Tammy calls her husband, kind, gentle, and funny.
Ferreira was a divorce attorney. Tammy is a paralegal who handled the firm's business side.
“He always told me, ‘I want to be part of the solution, and not part of the problem,’” said Tammy.
When Ferreira wasn't practicing law, he was usually in the ocean.
“It is comforting to know he died doing the thing he loved the very most,” said Tammy.
Loved ones are planning a paddle-out, where they will spread Ferreira's cremated remains.
“The ocean was where he wanted to be all the time. So we’re going to put him back there,” said Tammy.
A Gofundme campaign has been set up to help the family with expenses.
