Gloomy weekend weather in Malibu kept Memorial Day visitors at bay during a usually crowded holiday weekend and the unofficiall kick-off to a busy summer season.
Around 203,000 visitors made their way to Malibu beaches over the three-day weekend, where temperatures outside stayed around 65 degrees, according to Los Angeles County Lifeguard Captain Kenichi Haskett.
Between the northern section of Malibu through Nicholas Beach, Haskett reported fewer rescues than usual for a normally busy weekend by the beach.
“On Saturday, we had 25 rescues and another 10 rescues on Sunday,” said Haskett. “That’s not very many, but enough for that three-day period.”
Last year’s totals exceeded 363,000 visitors and more than 150 ocean rescues by the lifeguards patrolling Malibu beaches, a stark contrast to the 2015 figures.
“The weather cooperated more so on our side,” said Haskett. “The marine layer in the morning was impacted through the valley and inland areas, and led to a slower build up than usual.”
Cool ocean temperatures could also have had an impact on beachgoers as water temperatures remained below 60 degrees.
“Memorial Day is definitely the kick-off for summer, and we were predicting [more visitors] based on surf conditions,” Haskett noted. “The surf didn’t materialize as much as we anticipated, per the National Weather Service. We usually have more rip currents with warm weather. It brings more people to the beach and subsequently more rescues.”
More than 30 lifeguards were stationed along Malibu beaches throughout the weekend, with a few guards assisting with sea lion rescues at Will Rogers State Beach.
“We had a few sea lions beaching themselves and we put up the marine mammal signs [and] called the California Wildlife Center’s Marine Mammal Rescue team for assistance,” Haskett said.
A calm holiday weekend by the beach doesn’t necessarily mean fewer problems from visitors on the shore, but Haskett advised, “We encourage people to stay away from the jetties and the rocks and we also encourage people to swim in front of the lifeguard towers for their safety.”
Volunteers with Malibu Search and Rescue (SAR) teams also reported a quieter weekend than anticipated for rescues, with teams responding to two separate incidents over the holiday.
The first rescue SAR assisted with early Sunday morning involved a group stuck near the top of Escondido Falls.
“It wasn’t a typical rescue that happens at Escondido Falls,” SAR Team Captain David Katz said. “There were a couple people who were stuck at the top of the falls. They were guided out by the L.A. County Fire helicopter. They weren’t airlifted and there were no injuries.”
Another rescue later Sunday evening involved two women, a dog and a GPS tracking device.
“Around 6 p.m., two girls and a dog had started hiking up from Bonsall Canyon and made their way up the Zuma Ridge Trail,” Katz said. “They thought it was supposed to be a loop and it never looped back.”
After the women called for help, “Our patrol crew plotted their location through GPS,” Katz said. “They ended up picking them up on the Edison road off of Kanan. That one was over within the first hour, a good result and efficient.”
But Katz also admitted that while weekend rescues were low, 49 rescues have already accumulated in 2015 and “we’re running well ahead of last year regarding the number of rescues.”
“There’s no rhyme or reason as to how many we get, what type there are,” Katz said. “There’s no predictability.”
Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff deputies were involved in a vehicle rollover collision on Kanan Dume Road on Saturday, May 23 that completely closed the road for more than 10 hours, according to a release from the station.
Around 6:45 p.m., beach team deputies on their way back to the station after beach patrol responded to a request for assistance regarding a transient throwing bottles in the middle of Pacific Coast Highway, according to Sargent Sheridan.
“Our beach team was leaving from duty and they had started heading back on Kanan, 100 yards prior to Latigo Canyon,” Sheridan said.
As the beach team deputies turned around on Kanan to respond to the assistance request, the deputy’s vehicle made a u-turn, and in an attempt to avoid a head-on collision, steered quickly and flipped the vehicle.
“They were transported to UCLA for medical precautions,” Sheridan said. “They have bumps and bruises. Lieutenant Royal responded to the scene of the transient with Deputy Mike Treinen and the transient was taken to Olive View [UCLA Medical Center] for a 5150 medical hold.”
The deputies involved in the rollover collision were initially rescued by on-scene deputies and were airlifted to UCLA. Both deputies suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
Even with the deputy vehicle rollover and subsequent closure of a main traffic artery in Malibu, Sheriff’s beach team patrols, Malibu SAR and lifeguard rescues, the climate usually plays the biggest role in bringing the masses to Malibu.
“It was a pretty calm weekend,” Sheridan said. “The weather drew people away.”
