Laguna Beach Lifeguards Conduct 900 Rescues during 4th of July Holiday Weekend

Laguna Beach, CA--Lifeguards from the Marine Safety Unit attributed the nearly 900 marine rescues from the 6 miles of Laguna Beach shoreline to warm weather and consistent surf conditions.

Captain Tom Trager stated that over the three day weekend, 22 rescues were small boat, paddle craft or kayak rescues, 600 of the rescues were due to swimmers getting caught in rip currents and nearly 250 were surf related.

Similarly, up in Seal Beach, under 200 rescues took place, all due to surf conditions, according to Chris Pierce of the Marine Safety Center.

"The 4th was actually slow, due to wind at the shore," Pierce said. "There were no major incidents over the weekend, just rescues due to the big rip and high surf."

With holiday weekend waves measuring between 4 to 8 feet in height, swimmers were often caught in the pull of the strong current, unable to get back to shore.

Lifeguards on any beach recommend that swimmers:

• Always swim near lifeguards
• Check with towers for updated surfing and swimming conditions
• Know your limitations

"We've had yellow or red flag surf conditions for the past four to five weeks," Trager said. "Because of the hard work of all the tower rescues, we were able to get away with only minor injuries this holiday weekend. Everyone went home safe."

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