Following Provo River rescue, woman and DNR rangers share story and urge water safety

WASATCH COUNTY, Utah (ABC4) — The woman who got stuck under a bridge on the Provo River while paddleboarding and the rangers who rescued her are talking about the experience, sharing gratitude and a call to stay safe while recreating this summer.

Utah Department of Natural Resources (DNR) released the

bodycam footage of the rescue last week.

Tiffinie Wolf, 45, became trapped under Trestle Bridge while paddleboarding, and bystanders alerted a nearby ranger to the situation and jumped into the water alongside the ranger to rescue her. Those bystanders held her head above the water while the ranger used a knife to cut her free.

ABC4.com spoke to Wolf and two officers with DNR who rescued her.

Wyatt Manis, who is a Ranger with DNR Division of Law Enforcement, was the ranger who jumped in the river to help her that day.

“We get put in a lot of different situations because of the locations in which we work, and so we try to be prepared and help out as much as we can,” he told ABC4.com.

Trapped under Trestle Bridge

Wolf was paddleboarding on the river with her daughter when she got stuck.

“Me and my daughter were coming around this corner,” Wolf said, gesturing to a bend in the river, “and her paddleboard flipped, so I tried to get to her, but the current took me to the other side, and then my paddleboard flipped, and I thought my tether that was around my leg got caught, but it was actually my sandal that got caught on something under the water.”

Wolf added that she couldn’t reach it or undo the sandal, and she didn’t know what to do. She said her daughter started yelling for help, and that’s when Manis came to help.

Before Wolf got stuck, Manis said that he was doing his normal patrol, checking to make sure people had life jackets, when a citizen came and told him that something was happening.

“I was just fortunate to be close in that moment and able to help out a lot quicker than we usually are,” Manis said.

Manis said that he knew time was of the essence, and so he took off his vest and got in the water. First, he tried cutting the tether to her paddleboard, but he quickly realized that it was something else that was caught.

Wolf explained what was going through her mind when she was stuck. “You don’t really know what you’re gonna do in that type of situation when you can’t get out of it yourself, and so when Wyatt got in and was holding me up above water, it was kind of nerve wracking a little bit to really realize that this is gonna take some time to get out.”

“From that point, I just figured I need to help buy her as much time as possible, and I got a lot of help in doing that from other people as well,” Manis said.

Wolf said she was lucky to have a life jacket on because it kept her up above the water so that she wasn’t drowning.

While Manis was keeping her upright, he said that he was able to instruct one of the people who was helping on how to use his radio to call dispatch and get extra help. He added that the river was moving fast, and the water was cold. “I remember in my head thinking, ‘I don’t have time to feel cold right now.'”

More help arrives

Another officer who was in the area heard Manis’ call that he was going into the water, and she immediately went to help.

“When I arrived, there was a big crowd of people kind of waving me over, so I went straight to the bridge, and I could see Wyatt in the water holding onto the bridge and holding this woman’s head up,” Aidan Hueton, who is a Conservation Officer with DNR Division of Law Enforcement, told ABC4.com. “It was pretty incredible to see.”

Her immediate concern, she said, was Wolf and Manis, who were both in the water. “The water can be very dangerous and unforgiving, and so my first priority was to get here as quickly as possible to try to help get them both out of the water quickly.”

Hueton said she stayed on the radio, letting dispatch know what was happening and communicating with search and rescue.

Manis said that it was a relief when search and rescue showed up. “Whether it be members of the public, other rangers, search and rescue, any help is good help. As rangers and conservation officers, a lot of the time we’re out here working by ourselves, and backup is far away, so to be able to have all that help that day was really, really amazing.”

Wolf said that with the help of search and rescue, they were able to loosen the sandal, and she was finally released.

“I wasn’t able to really walk by myself out of the river ’cause I was so cold, so they helped me out, and so that was a very big relief once I got onto the shore and onto the dry land,” she explained.

Wolf added that throughout it all, the rangers and the bystanders were talking to her to help keep her calm and make sure she knew that she wasn’t alone. She said that she is especially grateful to the bystanders who tried to help because it was something they did not have to do.

“It was really a nice feeling to know that there are these selfless people out there that will help, and they didn’t have to,” she said.

Hueton said that Wasatch County Search and Rescue told her after the fact that they had actually just practiced techniques for this Trestle Bridge specifically. “So it was cool to watch them put all those techniques together.”

“I am grateful that we had a successful outcome that day. There have been too many times in my career where it hasn’t been successful, and we’re dealing with the opposite of this, or a tragedy, and so to have something like this not only helps the public feel good, but it helps us as officers feel good as well,” Manis stated.

Wolf extended her gratitude to the DNR Law Enforcement Division, Wasatch County Search and Rescue, and all of the bystanders that helped. “I’m just super grateful for the good people out there,” she said.

Staying safe on the river

Wolf also had a message to share about river safety.

“I would always wear a life jacket, always, always,” Wolf said. “Even though, you know, this river is for the most part pretty shallow, it’s cold, there’s rocks that you could hit your head on or get stuck on or trapped on, and if you don’t have a life jacket, you don’t really have much of a chance if something happens, to get out of it.”

She added that the life jacket was a large part of what saved her.

This particular spot can be dangerous, and so Manis and [other ranger] both recommended that everyone get out at the pull-out area ahead of Trestle Bridge and go around. Manis also advised paddleboarders not to wear their tethers on a river, and everyone to wear tight clothes and tighten all straps. No one should be tying paddleboards or tubes together because they will get caught.

The DNR Division of Law Enforcement previously shared the following tips for summer river safety.

• Always wear an appropriate life jacket for river use.
• Research the river system to understand how to navigate it safely.
• If unsure of your abilities, consider going with a guide.

“We love to see people out here and we love to see people recreating, but we want everyone to be safe, and that’s the most important message that I can share,” Manis concluded.