SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — Two fishermen were rescued last week after the boat they were in capsized from a wave near Point Loma. Omar Jaber, a U.S. veteran, and his friend go out weekly to fish on a 22-foot motorboat. But on Friday, their routine trip took a turn for the worse. The conditions , Jaber recalled, had been good, when out of nowhere a wave slammed into their boat. The impact sent Jaber flying into the water with fish line tangled around his boats, binding his feet and legs together in a way that prevented him from swimming. “I have been in combat. I’ve seen a lot of situations and I think this was closest situation to death that I’ve had in my life,” said Jaber. “I was losing my breath, because every time I'd be going I was swallowing water, coming through my nose. It was just tossing me around.” 18 people rescued from disabled vessel off San Diego coast About 600 feet away three hydrofoil surfers with a personal watercraft saw the boat capsize and sprang into action. “I’m telling Randy, ’Let’s go, let’s go! There's these guys need help! A boat went down, let’s go,” said Dave Beal, one of the surfers who rescued Jaber and his friend. “I thought he was going down and wasn’t gonna come back up," Beal continued. "Randy swung the back of the jet ski around close enough for me to grab him and I grabbed him." The surfers pulled Jaber out first and took him to safety on Shelter Island and then went back to get his friend. Both men were not injured and call the surfers their heroes. "I’m sure at some point they’d be hypothermic and dead," said Randy Leavitt, another surfer who helped with the rescue. "These things at sea can happen fast. It’s hard to see people in water when waves are happening." Jaber said they rent the boat from a local company and there were life jackets on board, but he admitted he wasn’t wearing one. Moving forward, he says he’ll always wear one. ...read more read less