Big Crowds, Few Troubles, Over Fourth

Peggy Clifford
Mirror editor

Summer not only came late to the Santa Monica beach this year, rushing in over the Fourth of July weekend, it came without a perceptible bang.
   According to L.A. County Lifeguard operations officer Tom Overmire, the three-day holiday weekend was “fairly serene,” with lots of work for the 110 lifeguards who manned the beaches, but no serious problems.
   In the three-day period, an estimated 350,000 people came to the beach south of the Santa Monica Pier, while 450,000 trekked to the North side.
   Monday, July 5, was the busiest day of the weekend, with 1.2 million people on all L.A, county beaches— from Palos Verdes to Zuma.
   Over the weekend, Santa Monica lifeguards made 3,035 preventive rescues south of the Pier, and 4772 north of the Pier, gave medical assists to 27 people south of the Pier and 29 north of the Pier, rescued 159 people south of the Pier and 41 north of the Pier and found 36 missing children.
   Lifeguards also assisted the Police in curbing code violations, but there were no major violations. The crowd, despite its size, was, in Overmire’s words, “fairly subdued.” As was the ocean. The surf was fairly flat and low tides came around mid-day, he said.
   L.A. County Lifeguards are famously prepared for everything — with helicopters, diver rescue and recovery units and a highly sophisticated communications system, in addition to their familiar trucks, but even they are stymied by the apparent invasion of the water off the beach between Wilshire and Montana by stingrays.
   According to Overmire, no one knows why the stingrays have gathered in a concave area in the sand, just beyond the water’s edge, but swimmers in that area of the beach are advised to stamp and shuffle their feet as they enter the water in order to drive the stingrays away. Their stings are exceedingly painful.