Eager Surfers Brave Treacherous Breakers

When a Pacific Northwest storm barreled into Orange County Wednesday, hundreds of eager surfers and body boarders took advantage of surf in the six- to eight-foot range, with some waves breaking at heights of up to 15 feet.

No injuries were reported, but lifeguards said they were kept busy rescuing the more inexperienced among the dozens of surfers and boaters who headed into the dangerous waves.

“It was crazy,” Seal Beach Lifeguard Lt. A.J. Summers said. “One guy in a private craft took his boat up the San Gabriel River--we believe for refuge. We saw him try and go back out, but [he] saw a huge 15-foot set approach, did a [180-degree turn] and went back up the river to wait for a lull. They eventually made it out successfully.”

San Clemente lifeguards reported breakers crashing beyond the city pier, more than 400 yards offshore. In Seal Beach, lifeguards said they saw large waves breaking beneath oil platform Esther nearly a mile from shore.

“One of our indicators for big waves is when they break beyond the pier,” San Clemente lifeguard Lt. Bill Humphreys said. “We’ve had that all morning.”

The big surf was generated by a Pacific Northwest storm that brought a west-northwesterly swell, damaging 420 feet of Ventura’s pier, the longest such wooden structure in the nation. Piers in Seal Beach and San Clemente also are made of wood, but made it through the storm undamaged.

Lifeguards tried to warn all but the most experienced surfers and swimmers to stay out of the water. Still, there were several close calls.

In Surfside, a body boarder who got into trouble had to be plucked from the surf with a motorized water ski and driven around a jetty into Anaheim Bay, where he was dropped off on a beach belonging to the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station, Summers said.

After a 6:58 a.m. high tide, Seal Beach lifeguards were kept busy all morning with about half a dozen rescues. More than 100 surfers and body boarders were in the water during the morning, Summers said.

As huge waves crashed against the Seal Beach pier, lifeguard Jeff Busche leaped into the water at one point to save a body boarder from being swept against the pilings.

Busche, a 10-year lifeguard veteran, noticed the youth in trouble and jumped into the waves from the pier’s guard tower, a height of about 35 feet, Summers said. No one was injured in the incident.

Operating with a skeleton winter crew of three lifeguards, Summers said the storm prompted him to to call in two seasonal guards for extra help.

Most beaches posted red flags Wednesday, warning of hazardous conditions for small craft and swimmers, and advising the public that only expert surfers and body boarders should consider going into the water.

“These waves are very big and dangerous,” Huntington Beach lifeguard Matt Mauser said. “If we see someone that looks a little sketchy walking out to the water with a surfboard, we usually warn them not to go out.”