Swimmers Rescued From Riptide

Bill Stratton has been swimming and surfing the waters near his Faria Beach home for 30 years, mastering the largest waves, the coldest waters and strongest rip currents.

But on Monday, Stratton and his 37-year-old daughter, Sheryl, almost met their match: an unusual series of unrelenting rip currents that converged near the beach and turned a quick dip into a 45-minute, near-death experience.

The quick thinking of Stratton’s son Shelby, help from a 25-year-old surfer and Sheriff’s Department helicopter rescue crews saved their lives.

“I’m feeling kind of humiliated,” said Stratton, 67. “It was just a strange set of circumstances, a weird lineup of rip currents, which I’d never seen or even knew they could exist in such small surf.”

Stratton said he swims even in the dead of winter, unfazed by the sub-60-degree ocean temperatures.

Monday was no different. Wearing only bathing suits, he and his daughter jumped into the chilly, 3- to 4-foot breakers about half a mile north of the Faria Beach county campground for a quick “wake-me-up” dip shortly after noon.

Almost immediately, they could see and feel the strong rip currents--a potentially lethal phenomenon caused when surf is pushed by waves onto the shore, then funneled by beach topography back out to sea.

“I said to my daughter, ‘Let’s get out of here. Let’s go in,’ ” Stratton said.

They had both swum their way out of rip currents before, knowing enough to avoid the common trap of trying to swim directly to shore.

The plan was to allow the current to take them out until it weakened--usually less than 100 yards from shore--and then swim parallel to the beach until the current disappeared and they could ride a wave in.

Problem was, each time Sheryl and Bill Stratton swam north, a separate rip current pushed them back to where they had started.

Each time they swam south, the same thing. And each time they caught a wave to ride in, another rip current pushed them back to sea.

“It was almost like a washing machine out there,” said Sheriff’s Deputy Frank Underlin, who would later jump into the water from a helicopter to aid in the rescue. “You couldn’t go in, you couldn’t go out. All of the rip currents were converging in that same location.”

Concerned that her father was short of breath from continually ducking waves, Sheryl Stratton--who was visiting from Virginia to attend her mother’s funeral--waved and yelled to her brother Shelby, 31, a Navy pilot who had been watching from the shore.

He quickly called authorities, then ran down the beach to the county campground, where, after surfing for four hours, Newbury Park resident Joe DeVere was walking to his car.

With his surfboard under his arm, DeVere ran the half-mile back to where Bill and Sheryl Stratton were caught in the currents.

When he jumped into the water to paddle out to them, his arms cramped up, tired from paddling all morning.

“I said, ‘God, nobody die,’ ” said DeVere, a certified lifeguard who a month ago finished seven years of active duty in the U.S. Coast Guard. “I said a prayer, and my arms actually felt better.”

Sheriff’s rescue officials said DeVere made the difference by getting his board out to the Strattons, giving them a chance to rest.

“I’ve got a surfboard here,” DeVere recalled saying. “Nobody’s going to die.”

But the currents were still too strong for the trio to paddle through. Firefighters from county Fire Station No. 25 soon arrived with life jackets, which Shelby Stratton swam out to his sister and father.

Minutes later, a sheriff’s helicopter hovered overhead. Underlin jumped in and, with DeVere, helped paddle Bill Stratton to shore.

Meanwhile, Sheryl Stratton was attached to a rescue sling and lifted from the waters by the helicopter and brought to shore. Shelby Stratton was able to swim back to shore on his own.

Safely at home, Bill Stratton offered DeVere a beer, but his lifesaver doesn’t drink.

So Bill Stratton instead promised to buy DeVere the surfboard of his dreams.

“I think I’m going to buy a long board,” DeVere quipped. “I could stick another person on that.”