Searchers Find No Sign of Missing Bodyboarder

As more than 40 relatives and friends gathered on the sand to pray Tuesday, helicopters and boats continued to search the Redondo Beach coastline for the body of a 16-year-old boy who disappeared while bodyboarding on Christmas.

Officials held out little hope that Juan Mejia, a Harbor City resident and a junior at Narbonne High School, could have survived in the rough, 58-degree water. Waves were as high as eight feet Monday, the result of a storm front moving south from Alaska. There is also a dangerous undertow at the spot near Avenue H where Mejia vanished, lifeguards said.

“You can’t see it, but especially around low tide, the undertow is really strong. It has a river effect, running out to sea,” said Chris Linkletter, a spokeswoman for Los Angeles County lifeguards.

Carlos Mercado, a spokesman for the Coast Guard unit in Long Beach, said wetsuits and fins are recommended at this time of year and that Mejia wore neither on Monday afternoon. “It’s cold and it gets hard to breathe. The survivability in water of 58 is two to four hours,” he said.

A multiagency team including the Redondo Beach Fire Department and Harbor Patrol, county lifeguards and the Coast Guard began searching for Mejia late Monday afternoon. But because of darkness, they were not able to send divers out until Tuesday morning. The divers were called off by 1 p.m. Two boats and helicopters continued the search until dark at 5 p.m. Tuesday.

The search will to resume today if weather conditions permit, officials said.

Throughout Tuesday, friends relatives of Mejia sat on the beach and stared out to sea. At times they joined Mejia’s father in a circle of prayer. Mejia’s mother and two sisters remained at home.

Linkletter said a lifeguard had passed by nearly two hours before Mejia disappeared and warned Mejia and his companions not to bodyboard so far from the lifeguard station. Linkletter said the lifeguard noticed Mejia and two other teenagers entering the water again about 3:20 p.m. Monday, when they suddenly were knocked under the surf.

Mejia, his cousin Jesse Mora, 18, and Juan Jose Ambris, 16, all Harbor City residents, were sharing two bodyboards in the heavy surf, authorities said.

A fourth teenager resting on the beach saw his friends go under and called 911. Ambris managed to swim ashore. Two nearby bodyboarders dragged Mora to a lifeguard’s boat, but Mejia was not found.

Mora was treated at a local hospital and released on Tuesday.

Trevor Higgins, 16, a neighbor and close friend of Mejia, recalled his humor. “Whenever you were around him, he always showed a smile on his face,” Higgins said, his voice catching.

Mejia was active in his church’s high school youth group and helped out with the junior high youth group.

“You know a lot of those kids came from places with problems in their families, and he would talk to them and give them advice,” said George Zavala, a fellow member of Mejia’s youth group.

Playing soccer was his passion, friends said.

“And he was so proud because tomorrow was going to be his first varsity soccer tournament,” said Laura Holguin, youth group coordinator at St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church in Lomita.

Jesse Olea, an avid bodyboarder from Carson, out to catch some waves Tuesday near the search site, agreed with lifeguards that fins and wetsuits are necessary in winter. He said he has been surfing at Redondo Beach for more than 10 years.

“Fins are very, very important. You’ve got to work a lot harder on these boards than on surfboards because they’re smaller, and a lot more of your body is touching the water. So you also need the wetsuit,” he said.

Linkletter said that each year more than 70 million people visit the 72 miles of Los Angeles County coastline, where there are an average of 10 drownings per year.