Death Blamed on River ‘Whirlpool’ : Accidents: Jim Wallace, who nearly drowned, tells of the violent vortex that killed his friend during a float trip.

Riding inner tubes, Jim Wallace and Bryan Miller went floating late Thursday afternoon when the Ventura River was high and swift.

Veteran rafters and strong swimmers, they were challenging a new stretch of river, expecting to encounter the same forces of nature they had handled easily during dozens of previous trips.

But something fearsome lay ahead: a violent, powerful vortex “like a whirlpool,” Wallace said. Within minutes, what began as a joy ride ended in tragedy. Miller, 22, was dead and Wallace, 21, had nearly drowned.

Speaking in a whisper, Wallace sat up in a bed at Ventura County Medical Center the day after the accident and recounted the circumstances leading to the death of his best friend.

The float trip began just south of the Robles Diversion Dam and was expected to last two hours, ending at California 150. But just a few hundred yards downstream, Wallace and Miller reached a submerged concrete road that crossed the river.

Twelve feet wide at this point and about three feet deep, the river swept over the road and dropped about six to eight feet into a deep pool.

Wearing life vests over their wet suits, Wallace and Miller, who lived in the Ojai area all their lives and became friends in grade school, stopped to investigate. Wallace walked on shore and looked down into the swirling water below the road. Having negotiated similar drops during trips north of the dam, Wallace wasn’t intimidated.

As Miller stood in knee-high water behind the road, Wallace got back on his tube, grabbed his six-foot tether and “went for it.” Immediately he knew he had made a mistake. The unusual combination of strong current, high water and the deep pool had created a maelstrom, pulling Wallace down, spitting him out and then pulling him back.

“It sucked me down and shot me out about four times,” Wallace said.

Wallace was finally thrown far enough away to crawl to shore, but his inner tube remained trapped in the turbulence. “Drained and exhausted,” Wallace was taking off his wet suit when he saw Miller diving into the pool, evidently, Wallace said he believes, to retrieve the inner tube.

Miller, a confident athlete who could do anything he wanted, “looked like he had the situation under control,” Wallace said.

But the whirlpool locked him in its grip and dragged him down. In the meantime, Wallace scrambled back to Miller’s inner tube for Miller’s 15-foot safety line and tried tossing it to his friend.

Miller, who weighed about 185 pounds, was able to grab ahold after more than a dozen tries, but when he went under again, Wallace was forced into the river. Losing his balance, Wallace tumbled downstream for about 500 feet and was pinned against a rock, nearly losing consciousness and thinking he was “going to die there.” Hands raw, Wallace managed to “put a bear hug on the rock” and hoist himself out of the water.

Wallace caught a glimpse of Miller, who had been thrown clear of the whirlpool but appeared lifeless by the shore. Just then two men in a blue pickup truck pulled up and began administering CPR to Miller. Wallace lurched toward them but was on the other side of the river.

One of the men began to wade across for him but Wallace yelled at him to take Miller to a hospital. When the truck left, Wallace removed his wet suit and laid down on the warm concrete to avoid hypothermia, but he still “was freezing and shivering,” he said.

Perhaps 30 minutes passed before a man and his wife came to his aid with blankets and dry clothes. A helicopter soon appeared and air-lifted him to the Medical Center.

Miller was pronounced dead at Ojai Valley Community Hospital. Wallace was listed in good condition Thursday afternoon but still was experiencing irregular heartbeats and remorse.

“Life was just starting for Bryan,” he said. “He had nothing but time.”

Miller, who worked at a gas station, and Wallace, a clerk in a hardware store, had enjoyed water sports since they were kids. Ironically, they had taken Wallace’s 2-year-old son Austin swimming in the river only two weeks before the accident. As youngsters, they took boogie-boards on the Ventura River and jumped into the water from tall towers near Matilija Dam, but they didn’t consider themselves thrill seekers.

‘We weren’t daredevils,” Wallace said. “That tower was as daring as I got.” The accident, he said, “was a freak thing and it shouldn’t have happened.”

Wallace said he and Miller gained access to the river through a friend’s back yard. Regardless, they shouldn’t have been there. According to Sgt. Bob McFarland of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department, that part of the river is on land belonging to the Casitas Water District.

Floating is a popular sport on the Ventura River. McFarland said deaths are rare but helicopter rescues occur with regularity.

“We strongly advise people to stay out of the water,” McFarland said. “The river is a dangerous place.”