From sfgate.com
San Leandro boy swept to sea was returning from Christian retreat
Missing teenager was aspiring artist
When Dada Daodu learned that his 16-year-old son, Kayode, had been lost while swimming Sunday, he raced toward Half Moon Bay clinging to the false notion that it was a swimming pool accident -- one his son might still survive.
"In the back of my mind, I was thinking that they would find and revive him and everything would be OK by the time I got there," the father said Monday.
Then Daodu and his wife arrived atop the bluffs overlooking rugged Pomponio State Beach and realized that this was where Kayode had been swept away about 1:30 p.m.
"When I looked at the vastness of the ocean, I was stunned and I began to weep," the father recounted. "I knew that -- unless there was a miracle -- he was lost."
Kayode was hit by a rogue wave and then carried away by a riptide while romping in ankle-deep water with his two brothers and a buddy. The boys and their adult chaperones had stopped at the beach, 12 miles south of Half Moon Bay, on the way home from a weekend Christian leadership retreat.
The family's hope for a miracle slipped away Monday as the Coast Guard suspended its search about 2:15 p.m., without finding a trace of the San Leandro High School 11th-grader who had been striving to become a painter and computer-graphic artist.
Based on a computer model analysis of the boy's size and clothing and the water temperature, Coast Guard Petty Officer Brian Greer said, the 5-foot, 140- pound teen, who was only clad in shorts and a T-shirt, would have perished after 6 1/2 hours in the 55-degree water.
"I don't think he can be found (alive)," the father said in a telephone interview from his San Leandro home as friends and loved ones arrived to console the family. "The survivability is zero now -- except with a miracle. I can always hope for a miracle."
In calm, measured words, the Nigerian American schoolteacher recounted how his third-youngest of four sons met tragedy on what had been a promising weekend seminar to mold young Christian leaders at the Redwood Glen Baptist Camp near Pescadero on the San Mateo County coast.
The couple had immigrated to America to give their boys a better life. First his wife, Remi, came here to work as a nurse in 1991. The father followed five years later. Last year, the parents became U.S. citizens.
Dada Daodu had high hopes for Kayode, who he described as "a very, very compassionate, level-headed guy." The boy was devoted to mastering his painting skills and dreamed of making a living as a computer-game artist. He had enrolled in a correspondence art school.
"He was keenly interested in drawing and painting," said the father, who frequently lapsed into the present tense while addressing the son whose loss hadn't sunk in. "He spends all his time doing that.
"I have here a picture of his now. It's of a hawk soaring."
Kayode attended the leadership seminar with about seven youngsters -- including his brothers, Yemi, 18, and Daniel, 15 -- and at least three adult chaperones, the father said.
The group, traveling in three cars, decided to stop at the beach on the way home Sunday.
"The surf was a light chop -- no more than 3 feet," Greer said, and there was 4-mile visibility.
But as the boys romped on the shore, the father said, "a big wave came in and hit them and just sucked Kayode under. Yemi was able to fight his way out and swim in."
A posted sign warned beachgoers that there was no lifeguard on duty. But when the boys called for help, a man with lifeguard training tried to help.
"So he had to quickly change and jump into the water, but I think by then it was too late," the father said. Kayode had vanished beneath the waves.
The search included helicopters and boats Sunday and Monday.
Monday, the devout Baptist family consoled themselves with prayers and memories.
"It's just an irreparable loss," the father said. "I'm just trying to console my wife now.
"I can assure you that it's a big hole that is going to be difficult to fill."
San Leandro boy swept to sea was returning from Christian retreat
Missing teenager was aspiring artist
When Dada Daodu learned that his 16-year-old son, Kayode, had been lost while swimming Sunday, he raced toward Half Moon Bay clinging to the false notion that it was a swimming pool accident -- one his son might still survive.
"In the back of my mind, I was thinking that they would find and revive him and everything would be OK by the time I got there," the father said Monday.
Then Daodu and his wife arrived atop the bluffs overlooking rugged Pomponio State Beach and realized that this was where Kayode had been swept away about 1:30 p.m.
"When I looked at the vastness of the ocean, I was stunned and I began to weep," the father recounted. "I knew that -- unless there was a miracle -- he was lost."
Kayode was hit by a rogue wave and then carried away by a riptide while romping in ankle-deep water with his two brothers and a buddy. The boys and their adult chaperones had stopped at the beach, 12 miles south of Half Moon Bay, on the way home from a weekend Christian leadership retreat.
The family's hope for a miracle slipped away Monday as the Coast Guard suspended its search about 2:15 p.m., without finding a trace of the San Leandro High School 11th-grader who had been striving to become a painter and computer-graphic artist.
Based on a computer model analysis of the boy's size and clothing and the water temperature, Coast Guard Petty Officer Brian Greer said, the 5-foot, 140- pound teen, who was only clad in shorts and a T-shirt, would have perished after 6 1/2 hours in the 55-degree water.
"I don't think he can be found (alive)," the father said in a telephone interview from his San Leandro home as friends and loved ones arrived to console the family. "The survivability is zero now -- except with a miracle. I can always hope for a miracle."
In calm, measured words, the Nigerian American schoolteacher recounted how his third-youngest of four sons met tragedy on what had been a promising weekend seminar to mold young Christian leaders at the Redwood Glen Baptist Camp near Pescadero on the San Mateo County coast.
The couple had immigrated to America to give their boys a better life. First his wife, Remi, came here to work as a nurse in 1991. The father followed five years later. Last year, the parents became U.S. citizens.
Dada Daodu had high hopes for Kayode, who he described as "a very, very compassionate, level-headed guy." The boy was devoted to mastering his painting skills and dreamed of making a living as a computer-game artist. He had enrolled in a correspondence art school.
"He was keenly interested in drawing and painting," said the father, who frequently lapsed into the present tense while addressing the son whose loss hadn't sunk in. "He spends all his time doing that.
"I have here a picture of his now. It's of a hawk soaring."
Kayode attended the leadership seminar with about seven youngsters -- including his brothers, Yemi, 18, and Daniel, 15 -- and at least three adult chaperones, the father said.
The group, traveling in three cars, decided to stop at the beach on the way home Sunday.
"The surf was a light chop -- no more than 3 feet," Greer said, and there was 4-mile visibility.
But as the boys romped on the shore, the father said, "a big wave came in and hit them and just sucked Kayode under. Yemi was able to fight his way out and swim in."
A posted sign warned beachgoers that there was no lifeguard on duty. But when the boys called for help, a man with lifeguard training tried to help.
"So he had to quickly change and jump into the water, but I think by then it was too late," the father said. Kayode had vanished beneath the waves.
The search included helicopters and boats Sunday and Monday.
Monday, the devout Baptist family consoled themselves with prayers and memories.
"It's just an irreparable loss," the father said. "I'm just trying to console my wife now.
"I can assure you that it's a big hole that is going to be difficult to fill."
