One Guard Out

Between 1980 and 1990, a total of 57 people perished in the treacherous ocean waters along the Sonoma Coast. That deplorable statistic equated to a fatal drowning occurring every 64 days, thereby condemning the Sonoma Coast as “the most deadly stretch of coastline in the United States.”

With frigid ocean temperatures which hovered between 48 and 53 degrees, unsuspecting victims, swept into the ocean by powerful shore breaking waves, were quickly overwhelmed. Abalone divers, tempting those same perilous conditions, often met a similar fate.

The Sheriff’s Helicopter, the primary rescue method at the time, was largely relegated to body-recoveries. The idea that anyone would swim out into the ocean to save a besieged victim was considered ludicrous, since well-meaning bystanders who attempted to rescue victims, often died in the process.

In an historic move, despite surprising opposition from the local EMS community, in 1990 the California State Parks recruited 11 Southern California Lifeguards, hand-picked from various beaches between San Diego and Huntington to work the Sonoma Coast. They arrived with impeccable skills in the surf line and a fiery idealism that they could reverse the 50-year trend in drownings. This new frontier of lifeguarding would challenge them in ways they could never have imagined.

This is their story. It’s a bald-faced retrospective chronicling their rousing successes and their gut-wrenching failures. It’s the story of big waves, cold water, unthinkable tragedies, and revelations of glory. It’s the story of a brash group of young lifeguards on a mission to accomplish what had previously thought to be impossible – to swim out in deadly seas to snatch victims from the jaws of death.