A courageous groom stopped in the middle of his own wedding photos to help a total stranger drowning in the nearby ocean.
Thirty-seven-year-old Zac Edwards was posing with his bride, 32-year-old Cindy Edwards in Orange Beach, Alabama when the two heard screams from a woman who spotted a drowning teenager.
It was August 3 around 6 p.m. when the teen was pulled out into the water by strong currents on his boogie board.
Without a second thought, Zac, a marine science technician, began to strip down and dove in the water to come to the rescue.
“Cindy and I were taking our photos together by the water and we were just wrapping them up when a woman told us there was a teenager in the water struggling,” Zac recalled. “You could just tell by the look on his face he was in difficulty. When we first saw him he was about 50 yards out. I took off my shirt, but my wife said I didn’t have time to take off my pants.”
“I ran into the water,” he continued. “I told some kids to go back to the beach and I took a boogie board. I’m so glad I did that. I eventually reached him but we were about half a football field away from the shore. He just kept saying ‘I can’t breathe’.”
Zac swam out 150 feet to the boy, doing his best to keep him above water, and he was eventually able to prop him up onto the boogie board.
Cindy became worried as she saw her husband growing weary, but Zac continued to assist first responders who were previously tending to a different beach emergency.
With the help of the brave groom, first responders got the teen onto a jet ski along with Zac to return the two to shore.