Waving to the Camera?

With as many as 7,000 rescues per year, Newport Beach lifeguards may be looking at video cameras to help keep an eye on swimmers.

An Internet site that broadcasts surf reports, https://www.HardCloud.com, wants to give the city the technology--plus $7,000 a year--in exchange for the rights to put up a video camera on city property.

Monitors would be installed at lifeguard headquarters next to the Newport Pier that would get feeds from six cameras along the city’s 7.2 miles of beach.

Newport Beach has had two drownings this year.

A similar deal with Surfline.swell.com, another Internet monitor of surf conditions, has worked well in Seal Beach.

“The technology is really fabulous,” Seal Beach lifeguard Lt. Ross Pounds said. “The cameras basically pan the beaches for us.”

HardCloud, which plans to go into negotiations with Newport Beach in September, already has five “surf cams” mounted on private property adjacent to the city’s beach.

It seeks city permission to place a sixth at the lifeguard headquarters. In addition to the $7,000, the company would provide live video feeds from all six cameras.

The company uses the cameras to show viewers on its Web site what the surf conditions look like.

The cameras might prove particularly useful to the city during the off-season when the beach is patrolled by only five lifeguards. At the summer’s peak, about 60 guards--many in towers that close in winter--work the beach.

“The main thing the cameras would add is the opportunity for us to view areas of the beach during the off-season to identify trends in the crowd and surf conditions,” lifeguard Capt. Eric Bauer said. “Right now, once lifeguards drive away from an area, it’s no longer observed.”

While lifeguards would have the ability to spot a beachgoer caught in a rip current, the Coast Guard could use the technology to keep an eye out for any boats in trouble.

In exchange for giving the city the ability to override the “surf cams” during emergencies, HardCloud gets a prime view of the beach to draw more visitors to its Web site and the opportunity to increase its advertising potential, spokesman Jim Kempton said.