During big storms, the L.A. River can...

During big storms, the L.A. River can course like the Colorado River’s Crystal Rapid, water rushing at speeds of 45 mph, faster than any natural river would flow. “Swift-water rescue is one of the most dangerous activities we do,” says Capt. Larry Collins of L.A. County Fire Department’s Urban Search and Rescue Task Force 103. “It has a high mortality rate for victims and rescuers.” Members of Collins’ team and others will compete in San Diego at the first Rigg International Swiftwater Challenge, a kind of Olympics of the search-and-rescue world. You can’t compete, but you can go and watch some of the most cutting-edge technical maneuvers performed by the nation’s top rescue workers. From 1 to 5 p.m. Thursday, at the Encina Power Plant’s jetty -- where outflow water spurting from the power plant into the ocean creates a half-mile stretch of Class III current -- teams will square off in various timed mock rescues, including using a “throw bag” to pull a victim to safety and ferrying victims on a tethered rigging system that uses carabiners and pulleys. On Friday at 8 a.m. at Tecolote Shores in Mission Bay, teams will compete in rescues using personal watercraft with sleds. A barbecue will be held afterward; $5 per person. The event is named for Nancy Rigg, who became a pioneering proponent of swift-water rescue training after watching her fiance, Earl Higgins, get pulled to his death while trying to save a 12-year-old boy from the rain-swollen L.A. River in 1980. “The last image I had was the boy just ahead of Earl, and they were both swept beneath a bridge,” Rigg says. For information about the two-day event, call (714) 997-2645.