OB Lifeguards Refuse to Give Up and Make Harrowing Rescue of Black Lab 3/4s of Mile Offshore

From CBS8 / Nov. 25, 2025

Brandon Valdez and Alexis Barcellos held their 5-year-old black lab mix a little tighter after a harrowing rescue Sunday at Dog Beach in Ocean Beach. “You don’t want to overwhelm her, but you just want to hug her, squeeze her,” Valdez said.

Sadie is still recovering after she bolted from the couple’s Point Loma Airbnb near the Barnes Tennis Center on Sunday afternoon. An AirTag on her collar led the family straight to Dog Beach.

“Her sister ran out the door too. Remy came right back. Sadie just kept going. She was on a mission,” Barcellos said. By the time they arrived, Sadie had been swept into the channel where the current was strong.

“I just had a surfer run up to the truck. He’s saying there’s a dog on the jetty,” a lifeguard said over the radio. San Diego lifeguards and the Coast Guard swarmed the area. Lifeguards Garrett Smerdon and Jack Alldredge searched by jet ski in difficult conditions.

“There was a little bit of swell, and the sun was at our backs, so we faced east to have the best chance of spotting something,” Smerdon said.

A half hour passed — the typical time frame when animal searches are called off. For the family, the wait was agonizing. “We were frantic. I wanted to get in the water. They didn’t let me,” Barcellos said. As the hour mark approached, the official search was called off, but on their way back to Mission Beach, Smerdon and Alldredge made one more pass — three-quarters of a mile offshore.

“Jack spotted something in the water. We went into a trough and lost it, then came back up and realized it was Sadie,” Smerdon said.

“They said ‘she’s alive’ and we just fell to the ground, broke down. We were ecstatic,” Barcellos said.

Two days later, on Tuesday, Sadie is still recovering. Her lungs are good, but her paws are damaged from climbing the rocks on the jetty. Both lifeguards have dogs at home, with Smerdon having a black lab mix of his own. “We gave our dogs a big kiss,” he said.

Smerdon also said that rescues similar to Sunday’s make the job worthwhile. “When we get to reunite Sadie with her owners, it makes the job a thousand percent worth it,” said Alldredge.

Barcellos said she’s forever grateful to the lifeguards who refused to give up. “I just wanted them to know how grateful we are,” she said.