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closeEDITOR'S NOTE: This version is corrected to note King was a Morro Bay lifeguard and reserve harbor patrolman.
The County Sheriff’s Department has identified the man who was found dead Wednesday after his kayak was spotted flipped over in the waters off Cambria.
The department said Jesse Jacob King, 28, was free diving alone off the shore of a beach near Sherwood Drive in the community’s Marine Terrace neighborhood before he was found dead.
King was employed as a Morro Bay lifeguard and was a reserve harbor patrolman.
Department spokesman Rob Bryn said a woman called 911 at 1:52 p.m. Wednesday and said a man was in the water near a kayak offshore.
A nearby resident, Pat Butler, said she saw a kayak flipped over in a kelp bed about 300 to 400 yards out, after seeing the man paddle out earlier, before calling 911.
Dan Martin, 72, a longtime member of North Coast Ocean Rescue team, said Wednesday the victim “was on the surface, right under some kelp. … I’m almost positive he got trapped under a big, heavy blanket of kelp and wasn’t able to get free to get a breath.
“He was in his free-dive wet suit and was wearing a facemask and fins. He had his weight belt on. He probably had no idea he was in trouble.”
An autopsy is set for Wednesday, Bryn said.
--Nick Wilson
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