Thursday morning, May 19, 2016..... we made it to the Venice Breakwater on our off duty foot patrol this morning and were told that a youth from the LACo WATER program had met a stingray at North Channel and was being treated with a bucket of hot water in the Venice Garage... so that piqued our interest and we kept heading in that direction to see how the young lad was doing. He was fine and in good hands and his left foot was soaking in a bucket of hot water...
Next thing you know, OLS Kevin Curtis observed that the lifeguard on duty at Ave-23 had gone down on a foot patrol to get a closer look at a group of 5 - 7 swimmers, bodyboarders and a surfer caught up in a rip off of Ave-26. I spoke to Kevin and asked him what he thought of the group which appeared to be trying to make it to shore directly against the current of the rip..... thus revealing them to be inexperienced. Kevin indicated that they appeared to be novices. I had my fins in my backpack so I jogged down toward Ave-26 where Veteran LACo OL Chris Baer was in the process of removing his jacket and shirt and to swim out to the victims...
OL Chris Baer in the water at right inside the surf line... with the group fully in the rip outside at center of frame...
close up/screen shot below
Kevin Curtis used his radio and stated his location at Ave-26 and that he was going in the water and requesting back up. I arrived, while off duty... and observed OL Baer hit the water. I then snapped a couple of quicks photos and then stripped down to my board shorts, grabbed my DaFins... and also hit the water..... OL Baer brought two victims to shore who were latched onto his rescue can, the surfer (x-ref: Wavestorm soft top) made it to shore alone, and I was able to assist a bodyboarder and her boyfriend to shore along with Veteran LACo OL, Renee Locarnini (who had been standing by as part of the WATER program at the Venice Garage where the young lad was being treated for the stingray injury). Also in the water from the Venice Pier was (overtime shift) OLS, Dave Kastigar, who did a double take on seeing me in the water! :-) Woohoo!... We could make all this up but we didn't have to!... Everybody made it shore AOK.
After it was all over, the bodyboarder and her boyfriend talk to the lifeguard who makes sure they are ok...
OLS Dave Kastigar drying off...
Back at the Venice Garage, L2R, OLS Kevin Curtis, Capt. Eugene Atanasio, OLS Cosmo Flynn, and OLS Matt Rhodes discussing the use of the Dept's new digital EMS tablet (which Matt is holding and using).
I was able to hitch a ride back to CSHQ with Capt. Eugene! Thanks Eugene!
The new digital EMS Tablet!...
Back in SMS we pass OLS Mike Murphy, doing double duty as a telephone repairman at Tower #22 which has just recently been moved to the front of the beach from its winter storage spot on the sand back by the boardwalk...
10-4
Until next time.....
"County Recurrent" News
http://CountyRecurrent.blogspot.com
(All photos by & Copyright Will Maguire 2016.)
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