After a man was paralyzed from the waist down over the Fourth of July weekend in what has been described as a “freak accident” at the beach near the Malibu Pier, fire and lifeguard officials reflected on how inexperience on the beach raises red flags for lifeguards.
The male, who is in his 20s, was paralyzed on Sunday, July 7, when he dived into shallow water near the Malibu Pier and broke his neck, a fire department official said.
“He was diving from the sand into the ocean,” said Capt. Tim Podczeviensky of Malibu Fire Station 88. “He hit a shallow sandbar.”
Podczeviensky said it appeared the male was not from Malibu. Further information about the incident was not made public due to health privacy laws.
While incidents such as last week’s are rare, they still happen, said Los Angeles County Lifeguard Section Chief Fernando Boiteux.
Boiteux estimated “two or three” accidents result in paralysis at Malibu beaches every year.
“The majority of them … either they dive in headfirst and just hit the bottom in such a way that it affects their spine, and then we have people [who] fall off [their boogie boards] and they can hit the bottom of the beach in some way,” Boiteux said.
“The warning is not to dive into water with your head first,” he said. “That’s one thing that the general lifeguard training teaches you from day one.”
Michael Morales, a firefighter specialist and 40-year certified lifeguard who works out of Fire Station 70 in Malibu, said he has often seen first-time beachgoers underestimate the shallowness of the water.
“You see people that just get down to the beach and just jump straight in.”
Sandbars almost always go undetected, Morales said, unless someone such as a lifeguard is at the same beach every single day and able to monitor the surf and its effects on underwater sand erosion.
“Surf activity erodes and cuts the beach,” Morales said. “And lifeguards are the ones there most often to see it.”
Diving in shallow water is one of several clues lifeguards utilize to keep an eye out for visitors less familiar with the ways of the powerful Pacific Ocean.
Whether it’s a person dragging a massive ice chest across the sand, someone wading into the ocean with all their clothing on or someone trying to use an inflatable pool toy, Morales described those traits as “dead giveaways” for lifeguards trying to separate the experienced from the inexperienced.
“We’re astute to looking at people and just having an idea that they don’t know what they’re doing,” Morales said.
Still, even the most experienced beachgoers are not immune to the force of the Pacific’s waves.
Last January, big wave surfer Mike Parsons was surfing in Ocean Beach in San Francisco when he got stuck between massive waves and broke the largest vertebrae in his neck. Parsons was not paralyzed and was saved by a nearby surfer who swam him ashore on a flotation device.
“My head hit the water really hard. I thought I was paralyzed under water,” he said in an interview with surfline.com.
The bottom line, according to Morales and Boiteux, is to be careful.
“Exercise caution when you’re out there,” Morales said. “Take it slow for the first go-around. The bottom’s always changing.”