The Fight Against Crime: Notes From The Front : Deputies Add New Ripple to Lake Patrols

Skimming waves on personal watercraft has become one of the most popular but dangerous ways to play on Pyramid Lake near Santa Clarita.

WaveRunners and Jet Skis, capable of reaching speeds in the 50 mph range, commonly break the lake’s 35 mph speed limit, sometimes causing injury and even death.

Eight of the 12 accidents on the lake this year involved personal watercraft, said Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies, who are responsible for patrolling the lake.

Early last month, a Los Angeles man suffered a critical injury when he fell off his craft and was struck by another. Last year, a Canyon Country man’s personal watercraft collided with a bass boat and he was killed. He was the fifth watercraft operator to die on the lake in 10 years.

But now the deputies who patrol this recreation area with its 20 miles of shoreline have a pair of new tools to police the water: WaveRunners of their own.

“They’re just becoming more and more popular,” said Paul Hardy, one of eight deputies trained to use the craft. “If you can’t beat them, join them.”

The cop-skis have surprised speeders who take them for fellow fun-seekers.

Valued at $7,000 each, the WaveRunners were loaned for two years by manufacturer Yamaha as part of a nationwide program under which the company has provided watercraft to about 1,000 agencies to date.

Pyramid Lake deputies applied for the craft last year and were notified in December that they would receive them. The watercraft were delivered in mid-June, just in time for the first weekend of summer.

After learning of the award, the station’s deputies were trained by a private company to maneuver the craft amid a crowd of boats and personal watercraft.

The department’s flashy white, purple and turquoise speedsters feature a sheriff’s emblem, flashing lights, and of course, a watchful armed deputy.

Although the ski-mounted deputies wear their dry-land uniforms, they top them with a life vest and use a water-protective holster.

The three-seat Wave Ventura 700s are capable of reaching speeds of 53 mph--about 10 mph faster than the sheriff’s four patrol boats--and a good deal more nimble on the sometimes-crowded lake.

“It’s like having a motorcycle on the water,” Hardy said. “You can get in and out of traffic a lot quicker.”

Hardy said the craft allow the deputies to more consistently enforce the lake’s speed limit without chasing watercraft speeders from the sheriff’s full-size patrol boats, which create dangerous wakes that can buffet or swamp watercraft not involved in a chase. Personal watercraft make smaller wakes.

Deputies said state law permits anyone over age 12 to pilot a boat or personal watercraft. With personal watercraft representing a fraction of a boat’s cost, they are often operated by the young and inexperienced, who are apt to have less respect for the water’s dangers.

Bob Fox, who travels from his home in Fullerton to ride his WaveRunner at Pyramid Lake, is glad the deputies now have access to smaller, faster craft.

He said his WaveRunner was damaged on a Kern County lake when a speeding, under-age operator on another personal watercraft crashed into it.

“Now they can get to the people who don’t obey the rules,” he said.