The waves, rip currents, and high tides from a storm in the Southern Hemisphere are expected to hit Orange County beaches this weekend. The surf should be dangerously sporadic today, and peak on Friday, just in time for the California regional lifeguard competitions at Seal Beach.

According to Joe Bailey, Seal Beach Lifeguard Chief, "At Seal Beach, the most we expect would be 4 to 7 feet. We'll have dangerous rip currents down here which we'll be monitoring continuously. There's a potential for this one to flood because we also have some high tides, but we're not expecting it to because of the angle of the swell.

The swell is coming in from the South and since our beaches face almost directly South, the waves will be coming in nearly head on. Bailey said "It's coming in at an angle of 185 {compass degrees} to 195." Due South is 180 degrees. Bailey said "It will be coming right at us."

The heavy surf will cause strong rip currents. Bailey said "When you have all this water pushing up on the beach, it needs a place to escape back into the ocean." The water finds the lowest channel on the sea floor to return to the ocean. "As the water rushes back out, in those spots, it creates a rip current."

If you are caught in one of these dangerous currents, don't try to fight it. "The best thing is to swim to the side until you're out of the rip current, and then swim in." But, for a swimmer, it is not easy to know when you are caught in one of these currents. Instead of the usual blue/green color, the water may appear brown and dirty, but that is hard to see if you are caught up in it.

"For the common person, especially when you're in the water with the glare of the sun, it's really hard to identify unless you know exactly what you're looking for." Thus, if you are out in the water and you begin to feel like you are being pulled off shore, "Your best bet is to think that you probably are in a rip current and either you swim at an angle towards shore, or you swim to the side of the rip current and once you feel like you're not being pulled out, you want to swim in."

Under these conditions, the West beach might be the best choice for swimmers. "Each side of the beach is different. The East beach is a steep beach so the waves crash on shore or real close to shore. If you're able to get through the surf, you'd be fine, but going through that impact zone is often difficult for people. The West beach is a flatter beach, so the waves break further out. The rip currents on the East beach are shorter in duration and the rip currents on the West beach are longer in duration. I would say, if you had to come to the beach and you were going to let your kids go in the water, the best spot for you this weekend would be around tower 5 which would be fourth Street."

The surf should be even higher at Sunset Beach. According to Jason Young, Director, US Ocean Safety, the private company contracted with Orange County to provide lifeguard services at Sunset Beach, "We're expecting it to peak with its largest size on Friday, but holding with large surf all through the weekend."

They will provide an additional lifeguard on an ATV patrol. Young said "depending on how big it actually ends up being, we'll be proactively warning beach goers on the shore before they can even go out. We would advise swimmers to stay out. It's possible that there will be some areas of the beach that have good shape for surfing or body surfing, but generally speaking when we have such a large South swell, that beach will be just a large wall of water coming in and just not advisable to even try and go out there. If it lives up to occasionally 10 feet, that would most likely be a Red Flag condition."

High surf notwithstanding, on Friday and Saturday Seal Beach will host the California Lifeguard Regional Competition. The lifeguards will be competing on Saturday and the Juniors will meet on Friday.
Bailey said "On Friday, the competition zone is between the pier and tower five, surfers will be between tower 5 and 7 and the river. Swimmers will be able to swim in the Aquatic Sporting area which is between tower 5 and 7, which is Second and Fourth Streets. On Saturday, the competition is between the pier and the end of the parking lot."

For the junior competition, there will be about 2,000 competitors from 28 beaches. Beaches from Imperial Beach on the South North to Santa Cruz will be represented. On Saturday, there will be about 200 competitors from 15 beaches.

Your Editors asked if the high surf conditions would hamper the competition and Bailey said "No, it's a lifeguard competition, the lifeguards love the surf. The biggest surf will be near the pier and as you go down the beach, it gets less and less. The older kids will be near the pier and the younger kids are further away. In general, most kids enjoy the bigger surf, because it makes things a lot more exciting. We're excited that we have surf, especially for the senior lifeguards. when we have the dory races, which are the lifeboats, with the big surf, it makes things extremely exciting. With 20 foot boats flying around through the surf and lifeguards going everywhere, it's rather fun."

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