Teen Falls From Pier, Feared Dead

Amid an atmosphere of revelry as thousands of teens enjoyed spring break, rescuers faced a somber duty Friday morning. The search was on for a second person in two days swallowed by the rough waters off the city pier.

Brandon Paul Bandas, 19, of Toluca Lake fell from Huntington Beach Pier about 10 p.m. Thursday, apparently while leaning over the railing, said Lt. Mike Beuerlein of the Huntington Beach Marine Safety Division. Bandas tried to grab the railing but fell 40 feet into the cold water, fully clothed and wearing steel-tipped shoes.

City lifeguards, who had finished their shift at 8 p.m., might have been able to save Bandas had the accident happened just two nights later. Beginning today, lifeguards are on duty until midnight, when the pier closes. Lifeguards could have responded within two minutes, said Beuerlein, and “that might have made a difference.”

Bandas, an Arcadia High School graduate, was with friends when he fell in plain view of several people, Beuerlein said. Witnesses told authorities they saw Bandas struggling and yelling for help as people yelled at him to take off his jacket and shoes.

“Bandas may have hit his arm on the pier, or the weight of his body may have injured him,” Beuerlein said. Bandas was 6 feet 2 and weighed about 190 pounds.

It was not clear if horseplay or alcohol played a role in the incident, authorities said.

“They had been drinking,” said Lt. Luis Ochoa of Huntington Beach Police, who interviewed Bandas’ friends. Bandas “was leaning over the rail on his own. A friend cautioned him not to do it, but then he leaned too far and went over.”

Police received a 911 call at 10:03 p.m. and quickly dispatched a helicopter to the scene, Ochoa said. Coast Guard personnel, Orange County Harbor Patrol officers and lifeguards from Huntington State Beach a mile away also responded but gave up the search after three hours.

Bandas was the second young man to disappear in the ocean off Huntington Beach this week. On Wednesday afternoon, Nelson Nguyen was pulled out to sea by a strong current while swimming with friends. Nguyen, 17, of Riverside County, has not been found and, like Bandas, is presumed to have drowned.

A Coast Guard helicopter resumed the search Friday morning, and a Huntington Beach search-and-rescue team made several dives but was unsuccessful.

Lifeguards across Southern California have issued warnings this winter that storms generated by El Nino have shifted the ocean bottom, producing pockets of treacherous rip currents.

In 1997, two people drowned off Huntington Beach while lifeguards were on duty, Beuerlein said. Those tragedies were unusual, he said, because most drownings there occur after hours.

Spring break brought as many as 25,000 people a day to Huntington Beach this week, Beuerlein said. Next week will be even more crowded, officials estimated, with as many as 35,000 beach-goers expected every day.

“It’s scary. I don’t want to go out in the ocean,” said Kelly Shaw, 17, a high school student from San Bernardino who was walking on the beach at midday Friday.

Parents strolling along the beach with their children also expressed concern.

“My son was just playing over that railing,” Patty Tye, 42, of Diamond Bar said, indicating the pier where her 12-year-old had been watching the fish. The two drownings, she said, “will make me think twice.”