Riptides occur several times a day off the shores of populous Zuma Beach, yet there hasn’t been a drowning in Malibu in the last decade because the proactive L.A. County lifeguards are quick to respond.
This was demonstrated last week when a couple of swimmers ventured beyond the wave break at Zuma Beach. Anticipating they may become trapped in an emerging rip current, two lifeguards leaped into action, backed by a boat and a jet ski. As one of them jumped into the water to help the victims swim back to shore, the other stayed on shore to direct people out of the water until the rip current was gone.
This scene happens several times a day at Zuma Beach, a strip of Malibu sand blanketed with people throughout the summer and where L.A. County lifeguards save the lives of countless swimmers.
As he sat overlooking beach operations from the lifeguard headquarters at Zuma, Capt. Steve Page did not want to press his luck. There has been no drowning in Malibu for the past 10 years and he wants to keep it that way. He was concerned that even talking about it would jinx the good fortune.
But Page did concede these good results are not just due to luck.
“The ocean lifeguard specialists who monitor the beach are very aggressive,” he said.
The lifeguards spend very little time in their towers and most of it patrolling the shore, tracking rip tides and directing people out of danger.
On busy days, some of the 14 blue towers at Zuma have two lifeguards on duty, and they get the support of a speedboat that stays near the shore ready to jump into action, as well as a powerful jet ski and several yellow trucks with loud speakers that can be heard over the crashing wave.
Derek Kite who was staffing Tower 6 on Friday, explained the riptide process as he watched over the horizon for stray swimmers and perilous currents. He pointed to a brown bubbly spot beyond the break of the waves, which was creeping westward quickly. At that point, Kite stepped away to assist a fellow lifeguard where the current was growing stronger.
Back at the tower, Kite, who is also a Malibu resident, said, “People usually mind the lifeguards.”
However, there used to be better swimmers than there are now, he noted.
Kite explained one of the ocean-swimming tricks he learned as a lifeguard. When a person needs to be rescued, lifeguards jump into the water and move up and down in dolphin-like motions, grabbing onto the sand with their feet to move forward faster, he said.
But not all beach dangers come from the water. Last week, a child needed CPR because friends had covered him with sand and some of it got into his mouth, choking him, said Kite.
Kite became an ocean lifeguard in 1997, but he was already an experienced pool lifeguard. He watched over swimmers at the Pepperdine University pool.
“Being a lifeguard requires a lot of body strength,” he observed, and though he was physically fit as a professional runner and tried out for the U.S. Olympic team twice, Kite had to work on his upper body strength before he could pass the test for the L.A. County lifeguards.
L.A. County beaches had 50,117,518 visitors in 2001, with a total of three drownings, albeit none in Malibu. The lifeguards performed a total of 8,038 rescues and provided medical aid to 12,976 people. They also rescued 872 people by boat.