Zuma has seen some truly Awesome surf, with Rips, Blitz Rescues and Baywatch Zuma hauling in stranded and panicked swimmers delivered by Zuma OL's. Bravo to our Zuma guards!
Zuma OL, Lance Keene, said this about the surf and the conditions yesterday, Sat., Sept. 1, 2012:
"So, on a typical day at Zuma (there's never a "typical day"), you plan on "pounding the berm" for at least half of your shift, but yesterday was different. Large surf, monster rips, wind chop and large crowds kept most of the Guards on the beach doing a yeoman's job making prevents--trying to keep swimmers close and out of harm's way. There were many heroic rescues that showed the professionalism and fitness of LA County's best, usually on young studs that failed to respect the force of the ocean and wanting to prove their mettle. Fortunately, we were there to give them back to their mommy's and, like I said before, "All went home alive". As Bone said, the Zuma Guards were, indeed "pulling people out of rips like tuna" and Baywatch was constantly a critical part of the team. Two of my adventures ended with swimming a victim out to the Boat due to the size and power of the rips. One victim said he'd swam at Zuma all his life (32 Male) and never felt something this powerful. He was so shaken up, he needed extra time on Baywatch to gather his courage to jump in and let me swim him to shore. A couple of hours later there was a dramatic blitz rescue that filled Baywatch with guards and victims. Upon swimming to shore we were met with standing applause, something so surreal and unexpected, we just looked at each other and grinned sheepishly. However, as we were heading back to our towers, one of the guards said out loud, "there's nothing like a blitz to clear the beach". We all looked around and no one was in the water. Surreal for sure, but a great day to be a Zuma Guard."
*** Thanks Lance !
OLS Bob Janis (Ret.) sent us some photos and commentary of the surf at Zuma today, as follows:
"This is PDC-5 ( House Tower ) with big southern hemisphere set of waves. It is 1600 hrs, low tide and he guards are busy with maximum holiday crowds, monster rips and overhead waves, making many prevents and rescues."
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| Photo by & Copyright Bob Janis 2012. |
The swell really came on strong Sunday afternoon.
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| Photo by & Copyright Bob Janis 2012. |
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| Photo by & Copyright Bob Janis 2012. |
In Central Section, Venice has seen Epic Surf, with blitz rescues along the Avenues and at the Venice Pier. Santa Monica South has gone off... with rips, rescues, prevents and today a wet c-spine injury at Tower 25, with four guards assisting the victim into shore, followed by the area unit and the call car. OL Justin Kirby remarked that OL/EMT Ian Christensen impressively marshaled the resources and saw to the care of the victim and his transport to the waiting SMFD Paramedics.
The Southern Swell was still bringing in large waves today. Check out this next photo taken at approx. 9:30 a.m. at SMS Tower #26.
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| SMS Tower #26, Sept. 2, 2012 at Tower #26. Photo by & Copyright Will Maguire 2012. |
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| L2R, OL Justin Kirby and OLS Rick Solomon on the berm at SMS Tower #24, Sunday, Sept. 2, 2012 in the early afternoon standing of a recurring rip. Photo by & Copyright Will Maguire 2012. |
10-4
Until next time.....
"County Recurrent" News
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