Quick Take:
The National Weather Service will extend its beach hazards statement through Saturday afternoon, the agency told Lookout on Monday, following a weekend full of water rescues due to rough ocean conditions.
The National Weather Service (NWS) is extending its beach hazards statement through Saturday afternoon, the agency told Lookout on Monday. The statement has been in effect since Friday, and rough ocean conditions prompted numerous rescues throughout Santa Cruz County.
NWS Meteorologist Joe Merchant told Lookout that two large storms in the Pacific Ocean — Hurricanes Fausto and Genevieve — are causing long period swells. Those are the result of heavy winds transferring a high amount of energy into the ocean, he said, comparing it to dropping a rock in a pond. If the water is still, he continued, the waves will go a long way.
Anaiis Moise, a Santa Cruz Marine Safety Officer, was stationed near Towers four and five at Cowell’s Main Beach over the weekend, carefully watching the water to ensure no one got swept away by the intense swells. As each new wave formed, she took a mental snapshot before it crashed on the shore, observing things like how many people were in and near the water and what they were wearing.
“We do a lot of creating that visual map before the wave even comes, and then once that wave hits, people might try to jump over it and get washed around,” Moise said. “So once that wave rolls through, we’re repopulating that mental image of, ‘OK, we’re got four people there, we’ve got two people over there, have all of the heads that went under the wave come back up?”
She said they had large waves periodically throughout the weekend, with the dangerous conditions being seen after 20 to 50 minutes of flat, “inviting” waters that give way to 10 to 15 large, powerful waves paired with rip currents.
Merchant added that the weather is going to stay warm through the week, which means that it’s likely there will still be many beachgoers across Santa Cruz County amid the continuing dangerous ocean conditions. He referred to a dramatic rescue at Seabright State Beach on Saturday, where lifeguards pulled a boy out of strong waves, and said it showed how deceiving the ocean can be.
“They were in a pretty shallow area, but kept getting overwhelmed by sneaker waves. That’s the type of thing that can happen,” Merchant said. Sneaker waves are very large and often appear unexpectedly following periods of calm waters, hence the term “sneaker.” Long period swells typically give way to sneaker waves.
In total, there were at least 29 people saved off of city beaches from Friday through Sunday, Fire Emergency Operations spokesperson Katherine Lee said. Merchant said that the NWS, which keeps track of serious incidents caused by weather events, had not received any reports of death associated with this weekend’s rescues.
Moise was one of the guards that had to make some saves at Cowell’s Main Beach this past weekend, which she categorized as smaller, “more preventative” lifeguarding. This included running in the water at full speed to help people regain their footing after being knocked over by a wave, Moise said, and then helping them walk out of the water before getting swept away by a second one.
“Probably our youngest people that we were going in for were just a couple years old, but then we also had some elderly folks,” Moise said of the people needing rescue. “It really did not discriminate, it was all ages.”
This is Moise’s second season as a Marine Safety Officer in Santa Cruz, which is essentially a lifeguard supervisor, but she has been open water lifeguarding for 11 years. Now 29, she was born and raised in Santa Cruz, so she has seen many harsh beach conditions over the years.
The events of this weekend – good weather paired with large crowds and an intense swell – happened a few times each summer, she said. But, she added, to a family coming to the beach for a weekend, it could be something they haven’t seen before and creates dangers because they don’t know the proper beach-going safety protocols.
Moise advised both locals and tourists to never swim in the ocean of a beach that doesn’t have lifeguards, and Merchant said that anyone heading to the beach to cool off throughout the week should be very cautious.
“Never turn your back on the ocean, swim near lifeguards, and stay away from jetties,” said Merchant. “And people that aren’t good swimmers or aren’t really comfortable in the ocean should stay out.”
