2 Dive From Pier to Rescue Surfer in Peril : Weather: His cries for help are answered after surfboard is torn away in high waves at Huntington.

HUNTINGTON BEACH —  A surfer who was clinging to the city’s pier after losing his surfboard in eight- to 10-foot storm surf had to be rescued Wednesday night, authorities said.

Lee Henry of Huntington Beach was surfing with another surfer about 7:40 p.m., using the pier’s lighting for illumination, when a large wave ripped off the leash tethered to his surfboard, he said.

Henry began yelling for help to people on the pier.

Elizabeth Turner of Lakewood, who was on the pier with her husband and children, called firefighters after she heard Henry’s cries for help.

“We were watching him catch waves and then we looked at some people fishing off the pier,” Turner said. “Later, we noticed that a guy’s yelling at us. I asked him, ‘Dude. Are you in trouble?’ And, he said, ‘Yeah. Major trouble!’ ”

Greg Scott, a Huntington State Beach lifeguard, heard the broadcast and drove to the pier where he met Huntington Beach Fire Capt. Jim McKay, a former lifeguard.

They dove off the pier into the cold, 56-degree water after McKay cut off his trouser legs, lifeguard Kai Weisser said.

“The storm surf was pretty shifty,” Weisser said. “And, since the surfer was in the dark, he panicked. He was next to the pier and drifting away from the pier fast because of the strong current.”

As soon as Scott and McKay reached the victim, all three began drifting south away from the pier and the lighting. Other rescue vehicles approached and aimed their lights toward the dark, murky water with little success.

A helicopter was called in to help in the search but all three men later swam out of the surf near Lake Street, about 300 yards from the pier.

Weisser said the victim was taken to Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian suffering from disorientation, hypothermia, and cuts and bruises.