"It was a big set and it broke so wide it wiped out, like, six of the boats, twelve kids in total."
A flotilla of twelve-year-old wanna be sailors is lucky to be alive after almost being washed into rocks at Santa Cruz harbour late yesterday. The group, part of a sail training school, entered the harbour mouth just as a clean-up set swept through the lineup, overturning the boats and throwing the kids into the water.
Fifteen-year-old photographer Connor Garde, a freshman there at Soquel High, was shooting his buddies from the beach when he saw the drama unfurl.
“They came in at the very worst time,” Connor told BeachGrit during a break from school. “It was a big set and it broke so wide it wiped out, like, six of the boats, twelve kids in total.”
On the beach, Connor says chuckles quickly turned to panic with the alarm raised, 911 called etc.
Before help via jetskis arrived, surfers in the lineup had scooped up the kids and got ’em to safety.
“We’ve had days like this where we end up with nine, ten people on our boat that are being rescued simultaneously, so it’s not just one person getting rescued because they got in over their heads. It’s half the people in the water sometimes,” Assistant Santa Cruz Harbor Master, Sean Rothwell, told KSBW.
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They are gunna find out that the manatee with TRUMP etched into its back is a die hard Trump supporter who had the work commissioned
The ocean always wins.
“The Surfers are coming to help” excellent BG shirt idea.
More homesick than outraged. We used to see this stuff all the time and it made us angry. We had to pull people from Davy Jones Locker all the time.
So, it’s a school without a teacher? Sounds pretty cool!
This is why the general public put up with dickhead surfers!
Dumb dumb dumb.
A -1.0 low tide at around 2:42 and one of the biggest swells in the year and a harbor channel clearly clogged by sand = take the kids into the upper harbor.
But not outside. Dayum!
It was even worse in the 1970s and we all saw people die and we all saved dumbass boaters and sailors who showed as little ocean and wave knowledge than whoever the dingaling was who dragged a bunch of kids in Jester Dinghies into that.
I personally saved two drowning boaters – one with Michael Duffy – because they would go out at a 7.00 high tide when all was well, then come back six hours later with a -2.3 tide and six foot waves barreling across the mouth and a channel about as three feet wide and two feet deep and they would eat shit – regularly.
This was really dumb on the part of whoever leading those kids.
They are sooooooo lucky none of them drowned.
You also swam uphill both ways when rescuing them back then, too, right?
No one of them was a powerboat that came in sideways, got hit by a wave and thrown into Little Jetty. The boat flipped and threw out everyone except one guy who was para/quadraplegic and was strapped to his chair.
Alex Johnson dove under the boat and tried to save the guy but he couldn’t cut him out.
Me and Michael Duffy swam a guy who was heavy and in shock and wearing an Army jacket and boots across the channel. He would have sunk like a rock.
We used Duffy’s red gun. Remember that very clearly.
The other guy was an older guy whose little fishing boat got flipped.
He was holding onto the bow with his pipe in his mouth and his hat floating away.
He looked like Popeye, or Popeye’s dad.
I felt bad for him. That was his beloved boat.
Swam that guy into shore by myself, on the beach by Little Jetty.
Those were wild, fun times, boy howdy.
Those were the Harbor Bill days with Kevin Reed, Dobbs, the Arco Brothers, Hewitt, Kennon, Brothers Johnson, etc.
The Harbor was extremely dangerous in those days, but apparently still is even though they figured out how to dredge it a long time ago.
We all saw boaters die out there, even after screaming at them when to go and when not to go.
Dumb.
Whoever guided those kids out there in Jester Dinghies needs to be fired.
We used to lick road clean with our tongues
that coach on the powerboat needs to be sacked. i sailed these funny little Optimists from 8-14, if you know how to handle them and have some wind, they can actually manage something like this.
We sailed FJ’s out of Santa Cruz Harbor in the winter during High School.
We knew enough not to go out in conditions like that.
And the harbor channel is a dead zone for wind a lot of the times.
The Jetties cut it off.
Whoever was leading those kids haf judgement, zero ocean judgment and zero wave judgment.
I’m sure the surfers were screaming directions at them and they ignored it
They’re so lucky those kids didn’t drown.
And I thought it was just another of Kai Lenny s wacky exploits into alternate wave riding craft
Sail away, sail away, sail away
Sail away, sail away, sail away
Sail away, sail away, sail away
Sail away, sail away, sail away
From Bissau to Palau, in the shade of Avalon
From Fiji to Tyree and the Isles of Ebony
From Peru to Cebu hear the power of Babylon
From Bali to Cali, far beneath the Coral Sea
Turn it up, turn it up, turn it up, up, adieu. Ooh ooh
Turn it up, turn it up, turn it up, up, adieu. Ooh ooh
Turn it up, turn it up, turn it up, up, adieu. Oh
Sail away, sail away, sail away
Sail away, sail away, sail away
Sail away, sail away, sail away
Sail away, sail away, sail away
From the North to the South, Ebudæ into Khartoum
From the deep sea of Clouds to the island of the moon
Carry me on the waves to the lands I’ve never been
Carry me on the waves…
who knew you had such a good singing voice channel!
I can kill crows at 50 paces with my screeching.
That’s why I use the vocoder for all my top
shitshits.I see your Enya and raise you a Chris Cross;
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
Im all in
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
Now we’re getting to the heart of it Harry. Well done.
still sailing – Khachaturian. 1.31 is one of the greatest of all melodies IMO
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
Sublime! (adjective, not band)
sounds like andy partridge/XTC, havent heard this for ages!
Poor kids saving rich kids.
Are there any poor kids in Santa Cruz? If you are under 25 and your parents own ANY house/condo/double wide then you are not poor. Even most houses in Watsonville are north of 500k and no one chooses to live in Watsonville.
Comparatively, yes!
Thank goodness everyone’s ok so that we may laugh with impunity.
Half expected a mulleted Mikey Wright to sprint into the frame.
What a yard sale! Glad they were ok, but they might want to check the forecast next time.
kids have been watching too much of JOB vlog
Great job guys!
Amazing and wonderful!
Bravo!!!