Carter Fisk
By Daily Bruin Staff
July 28, 1996 9:00 p.m.
Monday, July 29, 1996
Southern California coast bombarded by 12-foot waves, surfers
enjoy the wild rideBy Karen Duryea
Summer Bruin Senior Staff
"Big."
That is the word Kevin Gaunt, a surfer and fourth-year public
relations student used to describe last week’s uncharacteristic
summer waves.
Body surfers rode waves that swelled as high as 12 feet last
Wednesday as a storm off Tahiti caused high surf along the Southern
California coast.
Gaunt took advantage of the strange summer swell on Thursday,
when he went surfing north of UCLA at Bay Street and Westward.
Along some areas of the coast, the large waves forced the
closure of jetties and prompted warnings about strong tides,
authorities said.
City lifeguards issued advisories to approximately 80,000
beachgoers last week, restricting swimming to within 300 yards off
the west-facing beaches, said Newport Beach Marine Safety Lt. Jim
Turner.
"This is unusual for the summer," he said. "In the winter, we
have these kinds of swells all the time." He added that the
warnings were issued because the uncharacteristic waves may have
caught people off-guard.
Splashing waves knocked a fisherman off the jetty located in
Corona Del Mar, but surfers were able to rescue the man, he
said.
Most people stayed out of the crashing waves except surfers or
body surfers, lifeguards said.
"It wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle," said Courtland Young, a
local surfer and a third-year student at UCLA. "They were pretty
decent waves. I’ve surfed waves bigger than that in Hawaii."
Young, a long boarder, caught waves last week all along the
coast, but he said Leo Carrillo, located north of Malibu, was the
best because there were less people. And despite rumors of waves
large enough and powerful enough to crack boards in half, Young
said he sustained no injuries save a sand scrape on his face when
he was close to shallow waters. He did, however, witness a rescue
at Will Rogers State Beach where a surfer, apparently having
trouble, was pulled out of the water.
The storm occurred earlier this month, south of Tahiti and
generated large swells across Southern California, said
meteorologist Bruce Rockwell at the National Weather Service.
"It takes a long while to get the waves here," he said. "Waves
can travel a long distance."
The swells were expected to taper off Thursday, but that didn’t
stop Young, who kept surfing right up to the weekend.
.
With reports from Bruin wire services
PATRICK LAM/Daily Bruin
During warm weather, sunbathers like fourth-year biology student
Carter Fisk, tan in Meyerhoff Park.
