At 5:10 PST this morning, the body of an unidentified surfer was found washed ashore at Swami’s State Beach in Encinitas, California.
A local surfer discovered the man face down, wrapped in kelp, wearing a wetsuit, and still leashed to a broken board. The cause of death still remains unclear.
According to NBC San Diego, “several regulars at the beach said the surfer who found the body tried to see if he personally knew the victim, but the man’s face was swollen beyond recognition. Many of those surfers feared the man found dead near the waves is one of their surfing buddies.”
Swami’s, an often-crowded righthand pointbreak, draws surfers from all over San Diego. “[The news is] devastating — absolutely devastating,” local surfer Mike Tedesco told NBC 7. “My heart goes out to them and their family and their whole community. It’s unthinkable.”
The San Diego County Medical Examiner’s (ME) office has yet to release either the cause of death or the identify of the surfer.
Update: The San Diego Medical Examiner’s Office identified the decedent early Friday afternoon as 61-year-old Kenneth Mann from Encinitas, California. The cause of death has not yet been released/identified.