Goat Rock Beach gets 1st lifeguard tower on North Coast

Lifeguards say having an elevated post will improve their ability to monitor hazardous Goat Rock Beach, one of the most popular and dangerous on the Sonoma Coast.|

The view for lifeguards at Goat Rock Beach just got a lot better with the addition of a new tower, the first one on the Sonoma Coast and the only one on the California coastline north of the Golden Gate, according to State Parks personnel.

Installed Thursday, the new post is a coup for those charged with trying to keep beachgoers safe, offering a higher elevation view of a half-mile beach that is among the most popular, and deadly, in the area.

“It’s exciting,” said veteran lifeguard Aaron Pendergraft. “It’s kind of a dream come true.”

Lifeguards have seen more than their fair share of tragedy at the beach, most recently with the deaths in December of a Santa Rosa man and his 6-year-old son.

They’ve made dozens of water rescues, too - 61 in 2016, the latest year for which figures were available. In addition, lifeguards contact hundreds, perhaps thousands, of individual beach visitors each year to educate and alert them to dangers of which they may be unaware.

But “the ones that end up with deadly consequences, unfortunately, are the ones that we kind of remember, that stick with us - the images that we’re trying to prevent, because there’s been too many where there have been multiple drownings,” said Tim Murphy, supervising lifeguard at Sonoma Coast State Park, which includes Goat Rock Beach.

The fiberglass tower is raised only about 6 feet off the sand, atop steel runners. But it makes an enormous difference in how much someone stationed in there can see, especially when it comes to monitoring the surf line at edge of the steeply pitched beach, Pendergraft said.

Until now, Sonoma Coast lifeguards have been limited to conducting roving patrols in their trucks, and scanning the beaches from their vehicle or on foot.

The tower “is just a great vantage point,” Pendergraft said.

It should allow lifeguards to spot danger earlier, thus shortening response times. It also offers sun and wind protection to staffers who might be posted there for hours at a time, Murphy said.

It’s a constant challenge to maintain sufficient presence along public beaches that span miles of coastline, given a limited number of personnel. Employment swells during high season, but even with the new tower, the overall benefit is contingent in part on robust recruitment, Murphy said.

Even so, local lifeguards hope the structure is the first of others to come to the North Coast, though it’s unlikely they will ever be as numerous as those on the flat beaches of Southern California, Murphy said.

“My goal would be to have a couple more on the coast just to help out,” he said.

Located on the south side of the Russian River estuary as it flows into the Pacific Ocean at Jenner, Goat Rock is near the northern end of the 17-mile Sonoma Coast State Park, which includes Bodega Head and Salmon Beach on the south and continues north to the bluff-top Vista Trail about four miles north of Jenner.

The land at Goat Rock drops into the sea at a steeper slope than many nearby beaches. There’s also a deep trough along the shoreline and unique dynamics related to the river mouth and an old jetty that make for tricky currents and powerful waves that can easily knock someone off their feet and into the water.

It’s worst when the waves arrive at inconsistent heights, Pendergraft said. A strong rip tide and large swell can put anyone in the water at immediate risk, and people who get into trouble at Goat Rock are generally in more urgent need of rescue than elsewhere, he said.

A 75-year-old Cotati woman who visited the beach in 2016 to leave flowers in tribute to a son she had lost a year earlier drowned when she was swept into the water.

Earlier the same year, Pendergraft was credited with a spectacular rescue after a wave knocked four family members into the ocean during very high surf conditions. Three relatives managed to get out, with help. But a 7-year-old girl was at the mercy of the churning waves and in desperate need of help when Pendergraft dove in, along with the girl’s mother, who had jumped in to save her daughter.

All were safely returned to the beach, an outcome that earned Pendergraft the highest honor of his profession, a Medal of Valor from the United States Lifesaving Association.

But the more important and common function of a lifeguard is that of “glorified sheep herder,” shooing people away from the water’s edge, Pendergraft said.

Earlier this week, he saw an 85-year-old woman with a cane fall down trying to skitter backward away from surf that crept higher up the sand than she was anticipating, nearly resulting in disaster.

“That’s a save,” he said, “and that’s really a perfect case scenario. If it goes into the water, that usually means that something went wrong.”

The Goat Rock tower was largely funded through the Stewards of the Coast and Redwoods, using part of a 2012 settlement awarded to the Russian River Watershed Protection Committee from a lawsuit over Sonoma County Water Agency’s Russian River estuary management, according to Michele Luna, executive director of the Stewards group, a close State Parks partner.

Murphy said the nonprofit put up $15,000 of the roughly $21,000 cost.

The addition to Goat Rock comes as Sonoma Coast lifeguards are about to launch a long-awaited Junior Lifeguard Program in the county.

Common in Southern California, the program for 9-to-14-year-olds will run over four weekends in July and provide water safety education, physical conditioning, first-aid and other instruction designed to improve ocean safety and inspire future lifeguards.

Enrollment is $300, and participants must pass swim testing being conducted this Saturday and May 26 at Ives Pool in Sebastopol, beginning at 10:30 a.m. More information is available at www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=27654.

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