Despite high surf pounding the Southland, the number of rescues has remained relatively the same along the coasts of Santa Monica, Venice, Pacific Palisades, and Topanga.
Julio Rodriguez, Captain Ocean Lifeguard at the Santa Monica headquarters, explained that the lack of increase of beach rescues can be attributed to the fact that surfers and swimmers are less likely to go into the water.
“The high surf intimidates a lot of surfers,” Rodriguez said. “People are not as inclined to go in the water when the surf is so big.”
Today, there has been an approximate total of 20 rescues reported at the Central Section Lifeguard Headquarters, which does not stray far from the number of rescues made on an average day.
According to Rodriguez, most swimmers and surfers do not even make it past the surf line due to the immense quantities of water “pushing them back” on high surf days.
“We actually tend to have the most rescues on a moderate surf day because people are more likely to go further out into the ocean,” Rodriguez said.
In a sense, avid beach-goers have self-prevented a rise in rescues and potential injuries by exercising caution.
The high surf advisory is expected to last until Thursday. As of now, there are no planned beach closures.
