Couple who tried to save surfer in Kure Beach speaks about ordeal

PLEASURE ISLAND, NC (WWAY) — Last week, a man in Kure Beach died during a surfing accident. Before first responders arrived, one couple on the beach sprang into action to help him.

Carolina Beach residents Glenn Carr and Wendy Harris said last Friday at around 5:00 p.m., they were walking on the beach like they always do. Not long after crossing onto Kure beach, they saw a woman and a child asking a seemingly tired surfer if he was okay.  

“So she went away and the closer we got to him as we were walking, we realized he was not okay,” Harris recalled. “We could see that he was bleeding a lot, and so we figured out that it was on his leg—not exactly where—but we tried to make sure that we went high enough, and we knew enough to do a torniquet. We tried to do it with my shirt, that didn’t work ca use it wasn’t long enough, and so then we used the rope from the surfboard.”

Although the bleeding stopped, the surfer—39-year-old Bryan Richard Yurecka—died shortly after EMS arrived.  

“We were praying that was not going to be the case, but we thought he might not make it by the time emergency responders were able to get there,” Harris said. 

A life now gone, and a couple left rattled by the experience. 

“We see probably 20, 30 surfers everyday off the balcony and you never think something like this is going to happen,” Carr said. 

Carr and Harris said those moments served as a somber reminder. 

“We called all our kids, and probably hugged them a little tighter over the weekend than normal cause it’s a good reminder,” Harris noted. “Life is fragile and you have no idea how long you’re here.”  

Authorities have not shared the cause of the cut on Yurecka’s leg. Though Carr and Harris think his leg was cut by the surfboard.