Water rescue for four teenagers in Sand City during beach hazard statement

MONTEREY COUNTY, Calif. (KION-TV)- -A beach hazard statement will be in place until the end of Thursday. There was an intense water rescue involving four people in Seaside as a result.

Large waves of 15-20 feet hit the coastline on Wednesday and Thursday.

"I love looking at the waves and stuff, but they are pretty strong today," said Franny Winters who used to live in Monterey.

The Monterey U.S. Coast Guard Station says there were three water rescues in Monterey County and two in Santa Cruz County yesterday.

"Sometimes where it seems like the surf is not as big as it is,"said Sean Nowland, California State Parks Peace Officer Lifeguard. "And then kind of we'll have some sets that will challenge the tide lines and may push a little further up to the beach than been previously kind of observed. So we just try to be extremely preventative and talk to everybody that's it's going in the water," s

Nowland says the most intense water rescue was Wednesday night when four individuals had to be saved just north of Monterey State Beach.

"There is there's, an outcropping of rocks that kind of that pushes out into the, into the ocean," said Nowland. "So it's not only is it about three-quarters of a mile down the beach, maybe even more, but it's also, kind of behind that rock outcropping. It's hard to see,"

The incident happened at around 7 pm. Nowland says that four teenagers went into the ocean and got swept away.

Out of the four, two were able to self-rescue. One stayed back to help out the other person in the water.

"One gentleman, was stayed with the female, to kind of keep her calm and coach her in while our lifeguards were showing up on scene," said Nowland.

We reached out to the Santa Cruz Sheriff's Office regarding a deadly water rescue from yesterday.
A spokesperson said the cause of the person's death is still under investigation.