Big Wave at Aliso and A lesson in Humility

Big Wave at Aliso

By Phil Morreale

May 4, 2005

This is one of my most memorable life guarding moments.

A couple of years after expanding our guarding duties into South Laguna, I had the pleasure of working at Alisos Beach. Can't remember how many towers there were, but I was in the one just north of the pier (I think that was the only one). South swell pounding through and probably the largest I had seen in Laguna for years. Mid week, not a big beach crowd and I pretty much closed it down to swimmers. All that took was to walk down and talk to someone ready to go in and wait for a set to come through. Once that happened, most were thankful that I told them the beach was closed. The biggest sets were getting close to tipping off the base of the pier - huge...

Anyway, late in the day a guy shows up with fins in hand. I had seen him down there many times and he was very comfortable body surfing good size Alisos barrels. He heads out and after a couple of sets, no take offs and he seems to be sort of floundering just outside the surf line. I see the guard Jeep way down the beach to the south (Dave Kerr and someone else) and place a call to HQ that I’m heading out and could use some back up. As I head out, I see the Jeep heading my way with its lights flashing.

The next few minutes go something like this. I swim out and ask the guy how he's doing. He says he's tired and is having trouble timing it to get back in. I suggest we swim in together and as we float up the face of a mid size wave, I see a two or three set wave stacking up. I tell him that we will swim out past the set and once it’s over, swim in together. He agrees and I immediately turn and sprint, head down, for several strokes to get out of the impact zone. As I look up and begin to float up the face of wave number one, I see that he hasn't really moved. He's right in the impact zone and as I watch from the backside, feeling his pain, he pops up and utters a weak "help".

My first thought was to leave him to Dave and the other guard, who are now parked on the beach in front of us. However, I stroke back in and as we are floating up the face of a huge Alisos barrel (you know how awesome those are), I give him a push to make sure he makes it through the lip and into the safety zone. Major mistake as I now proceed to get sucked backwards over the falls and pounded butt first, ala turtle on his back, into the sand. How quickly the rescuer becomes a rescuee.

Fortunately, the set has ended and we swim in. As we come up on the beach, I notice that my shoulder has a welt that outlines the strap of the lifeguard tube. I never knew that could happen, but I had also never experienced an over the falls of that magnitude either.

The beauty of it lies in the fact that Dave and the other guy are just sitting in their seats in the Jeep, laughing their asses off. They proceed to describe how big the wave was and how they saw the lifeguard tube go over the falls and even though they did not see me, they assumed I got worked. I think I made their day. Lifeguard camaraderie at its finest.

Phil

A Lesson in Humility

By Dale Ghere

May 2005

This story was written in response to a letter I received from Phil Morreale explaining how it felt to go over the falls backwards at Aliso Beach.

Hi Phil,

Thanks for the story. I had a similar experience in 1961. Kiwi and I had just spent the past winter surfing the north shore. I had been in some pretty horrendous surf while we were there. One day I was the only guy who would go out with Peter Cole when Waimea was beginning to build. It was big enough when we went out everyone else said they would set it out and just watch. Mike Doyle loaned me his board. I thought it would paddle faster than my 9'10" x 19" would. His board was closer to 11' and was wider. I could knee paddle his board. Peter and I tried to catch a wave for three hours and neither one of us ever caught a wave. They were just too big. When one set broke across the whole bay, as one big shore break, Peter suggested we paddle in before one of us got killed. I agreed. It took another half hour to get to the beach. When we got in I asked the guys how big the waves were. No one wanted to state a size they just all agreed that they were the biggest waves anyone had ever seen at the Bay. During the rest of that winter I rode some very large surf. I felt confident about being in big waves by the time I got home. I had the confidence I could swim out of anything.

Then came the first day of training or the first day of the summer, I can't remember which. Main Beach was breaking at its max. It was one of those days where even the sand crabs go airborne. Even the average waves were causing other guards to back off or at least be very selective. That is when Kiwi and I decided to show them how it was done. We jumped in the water and took off on some waves that had everyone cheering. Just when I thought I had the upper hand on Nature and “the god of the waves” I received a big lesson on maintaining proper respect and a big dose of humility. I took off on what I thought was the biggest wave of the morning. I was being much too casual about the take off and I knew it. Waves that size deserve honor and require proper concentration. I wasn’t doing either and I paid the price for it. I took off, but didn’t really drive down the face hard enough. Then I got this feeling of suspended animation and knew I was getting sucked back into the wave and I was about to go over the falls. What a hit!!! Not only did I hit the bottom hard, but it also held me down and was just grinding my face in the sand. I thought, "Well that was dumb!!!" It hurt, yet I still thought I was in total control. My next thought was, “The wave should be letting me up”. No, I still had not been properly punished for being so arrogant. So I was held down a little longer. Actually it felt like a lot longer. Finally about the time I was thinking that this was enough the wave released me back into the real world of light and air. I couldn’t believe I had almost drowned right in front of the Main Tower with twenty guards watching.

I swam back to the beach and gratefully walked up on the dry sand. No one on beach knew what had happened. They thought I had just duck out the back of the wave. They could not see what went on inside that hollow monster. I accepted the praise for the waves I had taken. I didn't bother to take the time to explain the lesson I had learned that day. As kids we are all warned about getting ourselves into this kind of a situation, too much pride and a lack of humility. In cases like this, the lesson is just made clearer with a little pain sprinkled in to emphasize the points we were suppose to have learned earlier. Rock rescues and cliff training also have ways of causing you to think seriously about what you are doing. It is always good to be able to face fear and still get the job done, but one should do it with humility.

Footnote about the large waves at Wiamea - In those days I needed to prove I was brave enough to face any wave. If I had understood the physics of waves as well as I do now I would have known that it is not possible to paddle into waves of that size. None of the other surfers understood wave dynamics either. The speed of the water moving up the face of the wave increases as the wave height increases. Therefore, in order to paddle into a large wave the surfer is forced to paddle faster to overcome the upward moving water on the face of the wave. The size of the wave that can be ridden is therefore controlled to some degree by the ability of the surfer to paddle fast. Today’s surfers are riding waves too large to paddle into by switching to being towed into a wave by someone with a jet ski. You can be sure that every person taking off on a tow-in-wave is concentrating on what needs to be done. Pain avoidance is a strong motivator.