YORBA LINDA : Drowning Victim Was Attempting Feat

A 14-year-old boy who was pulled from his back-yard pool and later died was trying to see how far he could swim under water, his father said Sunday.

Jared Rex, just three weeks shy of his 15th birthday, was pulled from the bottom of the pool Friday evening, Jeff Rex said. Jared’s parents and many of his six brothers and sisters were in or around the pool at the time. He died early Saturday morning at Placentia-Linda Community Hospital.

Rex said doctors told him that Jared could have hyperventilated and blacked out under water or may have suffered a heart attack. A spokesman for the coroner’s office listed Jared’s cause of death as a probable drowning, pending further investigation, and said it may take up to 12 weeks to determine the cause.

“My first reaction was, ‘Bring the dump truck and fill the pool up,’ ” Rex said. “But you and I do things much more dangerous than (swimming) every day. . . . When you get on a surfboard, it’s more dangerous. When he’s mountain climbing or riding his bike down the hill at 30 m.p.h., he’s 100 times more at risk. I’m not going to tear the pool out. It could have happened in the bathtub.”

Jared was an avid surfer, mountain climber and wrestler, his father said. He played the banjo in a family country-Western band and was four badges away from becoming an Eagle Scout. He would have been a freshman at Esperanza High School in Anaheim this fall.

Jared will be buried Tuesday in Utah, next to his grandfather, Rex said.

The Rexes are expecting their eighth child on Friday, a boy. Jared had wanted them to name the baby Austin, and Rex said Sunday that the name will be Austin Jared Rex.