A man died after falling off a paddle board in Huntington Harbor Tuesday, prompting a search by firefighters and lifeguards, who pulled him from the water in critical condition and rushed him to a hospital.
Jose Luis Mendoza, a 26-year-old resident of Lakewood, was pronounced dead around 5 p.m., according to the Orange County Sheriff's Department.
He fell off the stand-up paddle board about 3:30 p.m. near the 16500 block of Channel Lane, according to Huntington Beach Fire Department Capt. Steve Teasdale.
The victim was paddleboarding with his brother on a rented board when he fell in the water.
Mendoza was not wearing a life vest and did not know how to swim.
Rescuers contending with murky water conditions found him 25 minutes after arriving on the scene and pulled him from the harbor, Teasdale said.
"They were really going to work on him, really doing their best to try and save him," Steve Hinojosa, who witnessed the incident, said.
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NBC4's Hetty Chang contributed to this report.
