RESCUES ALL IN A SUMMER'S WORK.

Byline: Jordan Smith  Staff Writer

MALIBU - It's days like Monday, when the waves are small, that foolish beachgoers think the Pacific is tame - but the ocean never fools Zuma Beach lifeguard Jon Van Duinwyk.

Van Duinwyk, a Reseda resident, has worked as a seasonal lifeguard on Zuma's two miles of beach for the past five summers, earning the prestigious rescue-of-the-year award in 1997 and 1998.

Now with the season ending, the 28-year-old joins the ranks of those in Los Angeles who can proudly look back at their summers of service.

Van Duinwyk has made 362 rescues in his career, 85 of them this summer. But some of the beach's busiest days - the Labor Day weekend - are yet to come.

``People overestimate their swimming ability,'' he said. ``And when the surf is small, people feel more confident. But even when the surf is small, there are still rips.''

Rip currents are the No. 1 way swimmers get themselves into trouble at the beach, and Zuma is naturally prone to rip currents. Driving the patrol truck up and down the sand - deftly avoiding beach chairs, umbrellas and a group of boys playing a hybrid game of baseball - Van Duinwyk always has one eye on the water.

``The rips here are some of the strongest on this coast,'' he said. ``And here at Zuma they can happen any time in any place.''

This year alone, Zuma lifeguards have made 2,028 rescues. Countywide there have been 9,408. A typical year sees nearly 10,000. Then, there are years including the 1997-98 El Nino season - which brings more volatile ocean conditions - which saw nearly 14,000 rescues at county beaches.

``Water comes to shore and needs to return, so it finds the path of least resistance - like a hole or a break in the waves,'' said Dan Douglas, lifeguard training coordinator for the Los Angeles County Fire Department, which oversees the county's nearly 700 permanent and seasonal lifeguards.

``Usually the water moves in a group, and it's like all of it jumps on board forming a river back to the sea.''

That river is the rip current, and it's powerful enough to pull even strong swimmers off course.

Van Duinwyk said the lifeguards call the rips ``coffee stains,'' identifiable on the seascape as brown frothy water amid the blue.

Between lifeguard towers No. 5 and No. 7 - which Van Duinwyk calls rescue alley because of its high concentration of kids - he stops the patrol truck and looks out at three young girls swimming in what is quickly becoming a small rip current.

``This could be a rescue, a blitz - with three or more victims in the current,'' he said, staring intently at the girls. ``See, they're beginning to swim to the shore and it doesn't look like they're making progress - that's the rip.''

Lifting the receiver off the truck's public address system, Van Duinwyk tells the girls they are in a current and asks them to swim to shore.

The best piece of advice when in a rip current, Van Duinwyk said, is to swim parallel to the beach. Rip currents travel at 90-degree angles away from the shore, so swimming parallel will take swimmers out of its path.

The girls comply with his request and he watches until they are safely strolling back to their beach towels.

Van Duinwyk knows not to take his eyes off them just because they appear to have made it to land. Sometimes, he said, waves can sweep people right off the beach.

Van Duinwyk found that out in 1998 when a 4-year-old girl was scooped up by a wave and thrown into the sea. She was under the water for four minutes, he said, and when the guards got to her she was bleeding and frothing from the mouth, her eyes wide open and glazed with death.

``We resuscitated her and within 48 hours she was home from the hospital, no brain damage,'' Van Duinwyk said. ``My feet haven't touched the ground since. It's the greatest feeling. It's a rewarding and challenging job.''

It also earned him the rescue of the year.

CAPTION(S):

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Photo:

(color) Beach lifeguard Jon Van Duinwyk looks for trouble Monday along Zuma Beach, as a surfer heads for the waves. Zuma Beach is notorious for its dangerous rip currents.

Charlotte Schmid-Maybach/Staff Photographer

Box: Beach safety