DROWNING LEAVES BOY WITHOUT PARENTS; RESCUED WOMAN DETAILS HARBOR OFFICER'S HEROIC EFFORT.

Byline: Don Holland and Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writers

When Paul Korber lost his wife to cancer three years ago, the veteran Ventura Harbor Patrol officer was left to raise his young son alone.

He balanced his personal and professional lives, working hard to become a role model for less-experienced officers, as well as for his only child, Barrett.

And perhaps it was the same balance between duty and family that motivated Korber on Sunday, when the 46-year-old former paramedic drowned while rescuing a Canyon Country mother and two of her sons as they struggled against the riptide off the South Jetty of the Ventura Harbor.

``His son was his life,'' Harbor Officer Pat Hummer said Monday. ``Being an only parent, Paul had a huge responsibility, and he was doing an excellent job with that. It's super difficult - not only being a single parent, but working the different shifts. Paul struggled quite hard with that. He was a proud, proud father.''

Karen Van Deventer, whose family Korber rescued, recounted the frightening episode, pausing periodically to regain her composure.

``I'm grateful that there are people who are willing to extend their hand, regardless of peril to themselves,'' said Van Deventer, 44.

``My boys are sick about it. It was the first words out of Phillip's mouth this morning,'' she said, referring to her 7-year-old son. ``He said, `I can't believe it, Mom - a man died.' ''

Later, she and her boys learned that the lifeguard who tried to save them had a 10-year-old son - news that particularly affected her 11-year-old son, Daniel, Van Deventer said.

``He said, `Now the boy doesn't have any parents at all.' ''

Van Deventer - mother to eight sons and a daughter ages 5 to 26 - said her younger children had been pestering her for two months to go to Channel Islands State Beach.

Jake, 14, cut his dip short because the water was chilly and he had forgotten his wet suit, Van Deventer said. She was on the sand with him and 5-year-old Marcus when another beachgoer told Van Deventer that two other sons seemed to be in trouble.

``The little one's crying and the older one's yelling for help,'' the bystander told her.

``Phillip and Daniel were swimming fairly close to shore,'' Van Deventer said. ``I told Jake . . . to get out there and help them.''

Van Deventer, who came to the beach in jeans and a sweat shirt, said she would have jumped in herself, but her waterlogged clothes would have hindered her ability to swim in the surf.

But when she saw that Jake and other onlookers weren't able to reach her 7- and 11-year-old sons, she grabbed one of the boys' bodyboards and paddled out to them.

``The water was so cold that I was gasping for air,'' Van Deventer said. ``Honestly, I don't know how I was able to get out there, because it was really cold and I was sucking a lot of water.''

She reached her boys, and the three of them tried to hang on to the board as waves crashed on them. ``Phillip was crying (that) we were going to die and that he couldn't feel his hands, but I just kept holding on to him,'' Van Deventer said.

A few times, the board slipped from their grasp.

Meanwhile, Korber and Scott Miller, the Harbor Patrol's operations manager, were aboard a rescue boat about 40 feet from the three.

``It was a mutual agreement'' that Korber would go into the water and attempt a rescue, Miller said. ``He and I looked at each other and felt it would be safe for him to go in.''

Korber, who was trained in water rescues, took along a float as he swam out. And in accordance with procedures, he did not have a life vest, which would have prevented him from diving below waves.

``We followed our standard procedures,'' Miller said. ``We'll probably look at it and debrief it. And maybe we can learn something from it, but there isn't any like glaring changes. . . . It was very surprising that he drowned.''

Miller said Korber was in a moderate riptide that prevented him from taking the three back to the boat. While trying to hoist the exhausted swimmers onto the rock jetty, he apparently hit his head. Miller said Korber sank under the waves and re-emerged, unconscious, about 30 seconds later.

Autopsy results released Monday showed that Korber died of asphyxia during an accidental drowning, said Deputy Coroner Investigator Mitch Breese.

Coroner's officials discovered a small scrape on Korber's right forehead, but officials don't believe it was significant in Korber's death.

``This was not a unique situation,'' Miller said. ``Although the waves were big, they were not huge. When Paul jumped off the back of that boat, there was no reason to believe that he wasn't going to be back on board in three minutes.''

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Photo

PHOTO (Ran in Valley Edition only) Harbor Officer Paul Korber, with his son, Barrett, died during a rescue.