THAT FIRST
RESCUE
A lifeguard always remembers his very first ocean
rescue. Whether it was a long, dramatic, scary one or just a routine shallow water quickie, it was why you were there,
it was what you were trained for and what you were paid to do. You were a lifeguard and when you made that rescue it felt good. Maybe other guards can describe their first
experiences on these pages; mine that follows was a real initiation.
It was over seventy years ago, a hot, crowded Sunday at the beach. I was a teenager and had only been working for the Los Angeles City Lifeguards for a week or two and the calm, quiet water had not produced much action. I had been assigned the Navy Street Tower alongside and just south of the old Ocean Park Pier that was demolished some forty years ago after its rebirth as POP. At the time of this story this was the most densely crowded beach in all of Santa Monica Bay due to the drawing power of the popular amusement pier with its three dance halls, two movie theaters, roller coaster, boat chute, games, numerous restaurants, bars and an open air band stand. Today, with the very much wider, sandy beach in this area, and with all the piers gone, it never seems to get anywhere near that crowded anymore.
 |
| Navy
Street, Ocean Park |
A south swell had finally kicked
up some pretty sizeable waves on this particular Sunday, with
riptides and an
unusually strong lateral current pulling towards the pier. In those days, 1930’s,
early 40’s, all the towers
were of the little open variety and had street names not numbers;
only a few of
the new towers still have street names. There were lifelines scattered at
intervals
along the beach, usually at the main towers where the crowds
gathered. These lines were ropes
with metal
buoys attached for flotation that ran from a post on the beach out to an
anchorage
some fifty yards or so into the ocean. They were there mainly for fun, and the beachgoers
loved to hang on them and make their way hand over hand out into deep water
where many
of them would never think to venture otherwise. This was usually ok on calm days but when
the
ocean roughed up a bit it could be a different story with a lot of non-swimmers
out there
tempting fate. It was
impossible to enforce a “no hanging on the lifeline” rule on those rough
days
with such huge crowds in the water and swimmers drifting with the current from down
the beach someplace and ending up grabbing onto the lifeline.
 |
| The Lifeline at my Navy Street Tower,
Venice Pier in distance. |
What we did do on rough, crowded
days was to not allow swimmers in the water between
the lifeline in the photo
above and the pier from which this photo was taken, since the lateral
current
could easily sweep unsuspecting bathers into the pilings. On this day we had kept
this no swim area
clear, but dozens of swimmers were hanging on the lifeline all the way to
the
far end. Then the largest set of waves
of the day suddenly appeared from nowhere in the
early afternoon, They were much
bigger than anything we had seen, and while most of the
bathers with a good
grip on the line were okay, ten to fifteen were swept off the rope into water
well over their heads on the pier side of the line. Five or six of them were going to be able
to
swim to shore; the others were going to be carried inexorably by the strong
lateral current
into the waiting, barnacle covered pilings. I grabbed my red rubber rescue tube, knocked
the phone off the hook to notify headquarters that help was going to be needed,
and headed
for the water. The Dudley
Street lifeguard, a couple of blocks south, saw the problem and
was on a dead
run to help. Most of our victims quickly
were swept under the pier and were
clinging to the pilings for dear life. The
other struggling swimmers my partner and I were
able to bring to shore before
they reached the pier. We were then headed back out for the
piling clingers
when the emergency call car arrived.
Three veteran lifeguards headed our
way to help: Bink Hedberg, who had
been a guard since the late 1920’s, and Harry Canaan
and Mac McMasters who had both
been on since the early 1930’s. These
guys knew their stuff.
 |
| Call Car Crew, Bink on the
Tailgate |
Some of our remaining victims, in
panic mode, clung onto the pilings and were very reluctant
to leave their
precarious grip as the waves pounded them, but we convinced them they were
in
safe hands. It took a good bit of time
and back and forth effort but all were finally brought
to shore safely. Lots of first aid work ensued with plenty of
bloody scratches involved; two
were sent off to ER for stitches. And the victims weren’t the only ones scraped
up and bloody.
And so ends my first ocean rescue
as a beach lifeguard, and what a way to begin.
I’m not
sure I ever had another quite like that first one even though I
worked as a guard for
thirty-seven years.
POST SCRIPT
Turning out to be more of a hazard
than a help, a few years later all the lifelines were removed
and became
something out of the past. The lifelines
on the Venice and Ocean Park Beaches
in this story that were located near the
street-named towers at Navy Street, Brooks Avenue,
Westminster Avenue, and the
one between the Venice and Sunset Piers disappeared, never
to be seen
again.
 |
| Westminster
Ave. Lifeline |
*** "That First Rescue", Story by & Copyright Cal Porter 2012. All Rights Reserved.
Used here with permission. Photo source info provided by Cal, as follows:
"Photos:
1. In Fred Baston’s book, “Santa Monica Bay”. I saw it in another book and credit
given to Fred for the photo. Lives above Castle Rock; been there.
2. LA Public Library.
3. In Verge’s LA CO LG book, gives no credit.
4. LA Public Library."
Thanks Cal! We really appreciate your contributions. What a great First Rescue, indeed!
10-4
Until next time.....
"County Recurrent" News
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