Coroner: Surfer coach drowned while surfing

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Authorities say a California surfing coach, who was pulled unconscious from the ocean off Sunset Cliffs, drowned while surfing.

The San Diego Union-Tribune reports the Medical Examiner's Office made the ruling Monday, saying cardiovascular diseases contributed to Stan Searfus' death.

Searfus, who was a surfing coach at Coronado middle and high schools, a lifeguard and founder of Blue Wave Coronado Surfing Camp, had been surfing with a friend near Point Loma Nazarene University shortly before sunrise Friday when his friend lost sight of him in the dark.

Searfus' friend paddled to shore and called 911 after Searfus' surfboard washed ashore.