Moonlight Beach
Moonlight Beach in Encinitas. Photo by Invertzoo via Wikimedia Commons

Authorities Monday publicly identified a surfer whose body was found floating offshore from Moonlight State Beach.

Gabriel Reed, 26, was found shortly before 4:30 p.m. Wednesday in the ocean off the coast of Encinitas, according to the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office. He was a resident of the Cardiff-by-the-Sea neighborhood.

Lifeguards spotted a surfboard floating in the ocean and responded to the area, but found Reed prone and unresponsive in the water, according to the Medical Examiner’s Office.

Lifeguards took him to shore, where he was pronounced dead.

A ruling on Reed’s cause of death was pending, the Medical Examiner’s Office reported.

— City News Service