2 Men Badly Hurt After Surf Capsizes Boats : Storm: The Coast Guard says high, rough swells contributed to the accidents Sunday off Surfers Point and Hollywood Beach.

Two men whose small boats capsized in turbulent surf along the Ventura County coast were in critical condition and on life-support systems late Sunday, authorities said.

Both boats overturned within 150 yards of shore--one off Hollywood Beach and the other off Surfers Point in Ventura--because of unusually high, six-foot swells caused by a winter storm at sea, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

Jerome Burton, 44, of Canoga Park was being kept alive on a respirator late Sunday at St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard after his 23-foot, fiberglass boat Happy Daze capsized at 3:20 p.m. off Hollywood Beach. He was airlifted to the hospital.

About two hours later, Charles Mayle, 72, of Calabasas was pulled to shore by surfers and resuscitated by a lifeguard. He was in critical condition at Ventura County Medical Center Sunday night, being assisted by life-support equipment.

Burton, a truck tire repairman and avid fisherman, was not wearing a life jacket Sunday, witnesses said. Authorities said he was underwater for about 10 minutes before he was dragged to shore. Doctors say brain death usually occurs after about seven minutes without oxygen.

Burton’s fishing partner, Lynn Waraberg, 35, of Canoga Park, told Ventura County sheriff’s deputies that he was asleep in the front of the boat and only awoke when he was thrown into the water during the accident. Waraberg, who was washed ashore entangled in fishing hooks and line, was in stable condition at St. John’s hospital.

Terry Kennedy, whose wife spotted the capsized boat from the deck of their oceanfront home, said he was going to assist Waraberg when he spotted Burton in the water. Kennedy said he retrieved Burton from about 20 yards offshore and administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation, causing Burton to cough up seawater.

At the same time, “someone was trying to find a pulse, but it didn’t look too good,” Kennedy said.

After paramedics arrived, Kennedy ran to neighbor Ken Cruff’s house to tell him that he had found a buoy bearing Cruff’s name among the wreckage. Cruff identified the victim as Burton, a former business acquaintance to whom he had sold the boat six years ago.

The small boat settled within 20 feet of the shoreline, its sides torn off. The beach was littered for 100 yards with the boat’s contents, including a sink, refrigerator, floats, beer cans and a broken Styrofoam cooler.

Cruff said Burton runs a truck tire repair business out of his San Fernando Valley home. He said Burton is married and has two adopted children. Burton had planned to open a foster home for developmentally disabled children, Cruff said.

Burton kept his boat at Channel Islands Harbor and regularly fished around nearby oil platforms, Cruff said. He said Burton never learned to swim and regularly brushed aside Cruff’s suggestions to practice swimming in the ocean, citing a fear of sharks.

Witnesses could not understand why Burton would hazard the high swells along Hollywood Beach unless he had had engine problems and was swept there during a failed attempt to enter the mouth of the harbor. Cruff said he had once had to tow Burton’s boat to shore after its 225-horsepower inboard engine broke down.

“If you get caught in that kind of surf and have any kind of problem, you’re gone,” Kennedy said. “I have to think something mechanically wrong happened to that boat.”

The second accident occurred at 5 p.m., when a 24-foot Bayliner pleasure boat carrying two passengers capsized off Surfers Point at Seaside Park near the county fairgrounds.

Surfers who witnessed the accident and assisted in rescuing the two men said they appeared to be tempting fate by riding daredevil atop a wave cresting toward shore. Several surfers said they shouted warnings at the boaters, who apparently were running the engine full throttle and shouting as they went.

“As they came in, the wave picked the boat up and turned it on its side,” said body-boarder Rex Thomas, 30, of Ventura. “The guy steering the boat jumped off just before the boat capsized.”

Thomas and surfer Mike Black, 18, of Ventura saw the second man hanging onto the side of the capsized boat and swam out to help him.

“His eyes were rolled back,” said Black. “He’d go into the water and I’d grab his jacket and pull him back onto the board. I was taking on a lot of water. The guy was at least 250 pounds.”

They managed to get Mayle onto shore and had started giving him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation when a lifeguard arrived with an oxygen tank.

Monte Hazlehurst, 17, of Ventura helped the driver of the boat, John Ballard, 31, of Canoga Park from the water. Hazlehurst said Ballard suffered a broken left arm, with the bone jutting from his skin. Ballard was being treated Sunday night at Ventura County Medical Center.

Hazlehurst described the waves that the boat came in on as “the biggest set of the day,” six-foot swells with 12-foot faces.

Times staff writer Kenneth R. Weiss contributed to this story.