“When I was underwater and when the current swept me under and I started hitting against the rocks. That’s when I thought I was gonna die,” Kate Loshkareva says.
A model standing on a rock on the California coast was swept away by an ocean wave.
The photoshoot was for Kate Loshkareva’s 26th birthday. To get a better photo, she went closer to the water while clinging to the rocks. Video taken during the incident shows a wave pull her into the Pacific Ocean.
The location in Palos Verdes is notorious for its churning waters. It is nicknamed the toilet bowl because of the swirling motion of the waves, which can suck people in.
The crew called out to her but the model was nowhere to be found. Police were called and they rushed to find her.
Minutes went by and Loshkareva was finally found still wearing a soaked dress, bruised but alive.
“At that time I thought nothing was gonna ever happen to me. That’s why I was so confident and so close to the water,” the model tells Inside Edition. “When I first fell in the water my body went into shock because the water is so cold, it’s freezing.”
She says there was another surprising danger.
“The weight of the dress started to pull me down to the bottom of the ocean and I’m doing everything I can just to stay afloat. A giant wave comes and hits me at the top of the head and I couldn’t even take a breath and I start drowning,” Loshkareva says. “When I was underwater and when the current swept me under and I started hitting against the rocks. That’s when I thought I was gonna die.”
Loshkareva’s friend Shayla Welch was recording with her cellphone.
“I thought she was gone,” Welch says. “You couldn’t see anything for at least four minutes.”
After the incident, the model changed into Daisy Dukes, wearing one flip-flop, and carrying her soaking wet dress.
“I kept praying, God, I can’t die here,” Loshkareva says.
