Man Presumed Dead After Pier Jump Identified as Ex-Stanford Soccer Star

The 29-year-old man who is believed to have drowned over the weekend after a common but dangerous beach escapade--a jump off the Manhattan Beach Pier--has been identified as a former Stanford soccer star who was attending business school at UCLA.

Rescue workers searched for three days but were unable to find the body of James Otis Cole Jr., 29. Officials say they believe the Manhattan Beach man died shortly after he jumped into the water with his roommate early Sunday. The roommate, Matthew Briger, 28, survived.

Cole’s father, Clorox Co. executive James Cole Sr. of Oakland, said his son’s friends indicated that he had jumped off the pier before.

“They jumped, they surfaced, they high-fived, and they started swimming in,” is how Briger remembers the jump, Cole Sr. said.

But Cole began lagging behind, and when his roommate moved to help him, the pair were sucked under the pier by the current and pulled apart, police say. Someone heard their cries and called 911.

A lifeguard pulled the unconscious Cole onto a paddleboard about 100 yards south of the pier and tried to administer CPR. But a five-foot wave hit and separated the two, Los Angeles County Lifeguard Capt. Gary Crum said.

Twelve divers searched each day for Cole, Crum said. In addition, friends and family formed a human chain and shuffled through shallow water. But Crum said Tuesday that the search had been suspended.

Crum said he hoped Cole’s death would dissuade others from making the leap, which is a misdemeanor.

Everything from suicide to thrills may motivate jumpers, said county Lifeguard Chief Don Rohrer. But drug or alcohol use, and a sense of machismo, often spark night jumps. Cole and Briger had been drinking beer but were not drunk, Cole Sr. said.

Cole graduated from Stanford with a degree in economics and lettered in soccer, playing briefly for the San Jose Earthquakes. He later managed a restaurant in Palo Alto and worked as an analyst with a number of financial companies, his father said.