Renting personal watercraft can be cost effective if you are just wanting to go have fun for the day since you don’t own one. For this couple, going to have a good time on the ocean goes from fun to almost tragedy. Cruising the Newport Harbor around 4PM Saturday, June 25, the couple found themselves in an unpredictable situation, according to The Orange County Register.
Venturing into “The Wedge” – as it’s known by the locals – the couple found themselves entering into a 20-foot wave. According to Captain Skeeter Leeper of Newport Beach Marine Safety, “They drove straight in as if they were lost.” Unfortunately, with the couple’s inexperience, they were not able to outrun Mother Nature; the wave ejected them off the rented personal watercraft, sending it up onto the rocks of the jetty walls and disappearing into the whitewashed rip currents of the crashing waves.
Quickly after they crashed, several locals known as the “Wedge Crew” went into rescue mode – familiar with the dangerous waters, they were able to help until the lifeguards could arrive on scene. “Both parties went into action within seconds and pulling them out of the water,” said Leeper. The couple survived with little injures because they were wearing their life jackets. “They were very lucky” if it wasn’t for them wearing their flotation devices in the dangerous surf, Leeper stated.
Soon after the waves knocked the PWC back off the rocks it was hit with another huge set of waves sinking the ski. This is just another situation that proves, “life jackets” save lives.
