MELBOURNE BEACH, Fla. – The serenity of surfing is the ultimate contrast to where Dan Narlock was on September 11, 2001, on the 61st floor of the twin towers, his first week as a Morgan Stanley financial adviser.
Narlock was 32.
‘’I thought Tower 1 was coming down around us and I’m thinking, ‘Oh, man. How am I going to get out of this,’” he remembered.
Narlock said he started making his way down the steps of the second tower when the first tower got hit.
That saved his life because he said the tower he was in collapsed just two minutes after he got out.
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“The sound of pure, horrifying screams,’’ Narlock said of ground zero. “All I can remember is getting out far enough to look up.”
And the trauma would keep him from looking back for several years.
On Wednesday, Narlock shared journal entries he wrote a week after the attacks.
He said he hadn’t looked at them in about a decade.
Narlock also showed News 6 his records with the 9/11 victim’s compensation fund.
He said he was diagnosed with COPD and asthma from inhaling chemicals and jet fuel.
Along with the ocean, Narlock also finds comfort in his pets like his bird Crispy. And professionally, Narlock owns an insurance business now.
He said he does not suffer from survivor’s guilt like some other people he knew who survived and committed suicide.
“I’m happy for everyday and I surf all the time for the people that I know that didn’t make it,” Narlock said.
He referred to the first responders on that fateful day as angels.
“Even when things were really, really, really bad, I always looked for that light at the end of the tunnel,” Narlock said.
Next, he will share his story with Valencia College Thursday.
On Saturday, marking 20 years since 9/11, Narlock said he’ll be surfing, like usual.