Rip Current — Orange County Coastal Areas, California

2014-04-14 · Orange County Coastal Areas, California

Event narrative

A teen from Lakewood drowned off Sunset Beach. Damian Frierson Jr., 19, was pulled from the water by Huntington Beach city lifeguards and transported to Huntington Beach Hospital, where he died at around 1821 PST. Drowning due to rip currents was suspected, and later confirmed to be the cause of death.

Wider weather episode

A teen from Lakewood drowned on the 14th off Sunset Beach. Damian Frierson Jr., 19, was pulled from the water by Huntington Beach city lifeguards and transported to Huntington Beach Hospital, where he died around 1821 PST, according to the Orange County coroner. It took about 25 lifeguards, 15 from the city and additional units from Bolsa Chica State Beach and Seal Beach, about 47 minutes to locate Frierson, who was found submerged in about 10 to 15 feet of water. At about 1643 PST, a lifeguard on duty told Frierson and two women with him to get out of the water because of the currents. A guard saw one of the women on shore yelling that her friends needed help and that he other woman was still in the rip current. CPR was initiated after Frierson was brought back to shore. It was the first drowning in Huntington Beach and Sunset Beach this year. Lifeguard reports from 4 PM that day at Huntington Beach reported surf of 4 feet, and reports from Surfline surf observers reported surf of 2-3 feet at 12:50 PM that afternoon. At around the time of the incident, the SIO (Scripps Institute of Oceanography) San Pedro Buoy reported a dominant 1.3 foot West swell at 15 seconds and the SIO Dana Point buoy reported a dominant 1.6 foot West-southwest swell at 17 seconds. Huntington Beach lifeguards reported 2-3 foot surf with no rip currents at 1030 PST on Sun April 13, and 2-3 foot surf with strong rip currents at 1530 PST on Tues April 15. No rip current report was sent out on the day of the incident (Mon April 14) for Huntington Beach, though it was later confirmed by lifeguards that a rip current was responsible.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 519820. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.