Two surfers helped rescue a 20-year-old swimmer who was yelling for help off Ke Iki Beach on the North Shore.

The surfers helped the Idaho visitor on their boards before Ocean Safety responded at 6 p.m.

An Ocean Safety lieutenant swam out in large shore-break surf, an Emergency Services Department spokeswoman Shayne Enright said in an email. He managed to keep the man above water until a second lifeguard on a rescue watercraft arrived.

Lifeguards brought the man to shore at Waimea Bay.

Emergency Medical Services paramedics treated the man, who had swallowed water, but he did not go to an emergency room.

He thanked lifeguards and said, “I thought I was going to die,” Enright wrote.

Ocean Safety advises beachgoers to know their capabilities before entering the water and thanked bystanders in this case who called 911 immediately.