• John Braden •
• Originally published January 15, 2009 at 11:07 a.m., updated January 15, 2009 at 11:07 a.m.

“He was smart and kept his head. He stayed calm, smart and decisive. He definitely saved my life.” That’s what Les Handley, 45, had to say about his 11-year-old nephew, Dakota Goodman, after an evening fishing trip on Matagorda Beach led to both being involved in a life or death struggle with a swiftly moving rip current. The two arrived at Matagorda Beach around 6 p.m. on Monday, July 21, with the intention of fishing for a couple hours in several different spots along the beach. Hurricane Dolly was one day away from hitting the south Texas coastline, but the effect she was having on the waves and tides was at times hard to notice. At the first spot Handley and his nephew chose to fish, Handley decided to go for a swim. He waded out into chest deep water and soon found himself swept off his feet and unable to regain his balance, as a rip current roared underneath him. “I couldn’t get up,” Handley said. “Every time I tried to reach ground, the current lifted my feet off and turned me around.” Dakota, who is in the sixth grade, said he saw that his uncle was in trouble and bravely swam to his side. Dakota helped Handley remain calm and keep his head above water as the two slowly made their way back to shore. “His shirt went up over his head and he kept trying to raise his head, but he couldn’t,” Goodman said. “I just ran out there and knew I wanted to help anyway I could.” By the time Dakota was able to reach his uncle, Handley was extremely exhausted. “Dakota was warning me about high waves, and really helping me a lot,” Handley said. “When we got close enough to the shore, I tried to crawl in on my hands and knees, but I couldn’t do anything because I had no energy left. I thought I was going to pass out.” Dakota, once his uncle had reached the sand, ran and got a chair for Handley to lean on while he caught his breath. “You always hear tips about getting out of situations like that, such as don’t fight the current,” Handley said. “But at the time, I couldn’t help but fight it.” “I knew that I could have died,” he added. “It was so close … the stuff Dakota did to help me was the difference.” Looking back on the situation, Dakota said his uncle, “looked like a tick getting flushed down the toilet.” And while the family can share a laugh about it now, they know they narrowly escaped a tragedy that day.

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