Lifeguards Needed at Oxnard Beach

This letter is in reference to both the tragic drowning that occurred on July 11 and the near-drowning on the previous Sunday in the ocean near the Embassy Suites Hotel in Oxnard.

I, my neighbors, friends, family and vacationers in the area have wondered for many years why there is no lifeguard station in the area.

True, swimmers must exercise caution and always be on guard for extreme conditions, but the ocean can be very dangerous at times and even the best and strongest of swimmers can experience panic and be unable to save themselves. That is why the state of California and the Red Cross have combined to create and maintain such high-quality lifeguard training programs.

How many of the people who watched and read the news about the search for the drowned teenager would be shocked to learn that there was no lifeguard station near the area, and that there is no easy way to summon aid? Is cost the problem? If so, then what was the cost of the huge rescue attempt? And I have not addressed the human cost, which can never be measured.

It is also fortunate that the survivors and the brave young man who rescued them did not drown trying to save the unfortunate victim. If anything positive can ever be said to come from this horrible event, perhaps it will be that it forced the city or county officials to address a very serious problem promptly.

NAN WOLFE

Oxnard

* I believe we should change the name of the riptide phenomenon that killed the young man at Oxnard State Beach the other day to the term “undertow,” which is used in other parts of the country and is more descriptive.

I nearly lost my life in a similar experience although I had swum since 1930 in the ocean in many places from Maine to Florida and a number of places in California. The basic water flow is the same wherever there are waves, but under specific conditions the undertow can be faster than an inexperienced swimmer can handle.

Basically what happens is that a tall wave comes in at a speed depending on many factors, but when it hits the beach, it flattens out and because there is the same amount of water, it has to go out faster than it came in, and this is called undertow.

Normally this is no problem, but depending on the wind, the size of the waves and whether the bottom drops rapidly or stays relatively shallow, you may have an undertow stronger than a swimmer can handle, which happened to me at Oxnard State Beach.

I saved my life by swimming as hard as I could when the wave was high coming in and then putting my feet on the bottom to hold my position when the water was shallower because it was going out. I gradually worked my way back in to shore. At that time there was no one on the beach within half a mile.

KEITH R. BRONSON

Oxnard