Skip to main content

2 men drown off Huntington Beach

We knew Ryan only briefly and wish his friend's and family all the best.

2 men drown off Huntington Beach

By Tami Abdollah and Garrett Therolf, Times Staff Writers
8:09 PM PDT, August 8, 2007

Two workers from a dirt motorcycle accessory company drowned just off Huntington Beach early Wednesday, their bodies spotted by surfers after an all-night search, officials said.

The men were among five people who went into the water after midnight just north of the Huntington Beach Pier, said Huntington Beach Police Lt. Craig Junginger. When their friends noticed the two men were missing, they notified the beach maintenance crew, which called police, officials said.

The victims were identified as Christopher Palmer of Long Beach, who died about a week before his 25th birthday, and Ryan Reid, 22, of Huntington Beach.

The cause of death is "presumed drowning" pending autopsies, said Jim Amormino, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff's Department.

All five members of the group had been drinking in the hours before entering the ocean, but they were not believed to be heavily intoxicated, said Huntington Beach Marine Safety Lt. Michael Baumgartner.

Ronnie Kimble said Palmer, his cousin, went far into the ocean in an attempt to save Reid. "If the ocean wants you, it's going to take you," Kimble said. "There's no fighting Mother Nature, but he died a hero."

The search involved lifeguards, five divers, two helicopters, boats and the Coast Guard's 41-foot search vessel, Baumgartner said.

Reid's body was found at 5:48 a.m., about half a mile north of the pier near 17th Street and Palmer's was found at 7:53 a.m. near Goldenwest Street, roughly a mile north of the pier, Baumgartner said.

The death of Palmer was especially shocking for his family because he was a strong swimmer who had been a lifeguard and was an experienced surfer. He also enjoyed dirt biking and skiing.

He worked with Reid at ASV Inventions of Huntington Beach, a maker of handles, levers and kickstands for dirt bikes.

Reid had started working for the company in recent weeks, and his family had seen the job as a turning point in his life.

"He just got his life together. He got a good job. He had struggled to live in the past with drinking, but things were getting better," said his cousin, 19-year-old Justin Reid.

The city beach closes about 10 p.m., Baumgartner said. Popular with surfers, the beach had low to normal surf breaking about 1 to 3 feet, Baumgartner said.

"The best we can say is there are rip currents on the beach, and it is possible they got caught in a rip current and drowned," he said. Rip currents are the No. 1 reason for ocean rescues in the country's coastal zones, Baumgartner said.

"Obviously, we love people to come to the beach to enjoy surfing and swimming," he said. "And to do it safely, we always recommend they come during the day to have lifeguards to help them out if they get into trouble."

garrett.therolf@latimes.com

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Hardware: Supermoto Wheels Explained

Supermoto wheels are a big investment, when you factor that your 2-3 year old dirt bike may have a resale value in dirt form in the $4-5K range, if that. We get calls from guys all the time who say "well, I'm not really racing or nothing, so I'm just looking for the cheapest wheels you have to convert to Supermoto". Well, the real reply there is that there really isn't a cheap way to get into Supermoto unless you're going to go Sportsman about it and ride on knobbies or some type of dual-sport tire. Quality 17-inch supermoto wheels that will last are going to set you back between $800 and $2000 depending on how deep you're going to go at this and whether you want quality and performance or just a good price. Motostrano is a full scale supermoto specialist and we've been involved in Supermoto since it's re-birth in the United States in 2002. We offer complete supermoto wheels made from the finest materials and built by experience wheel builders

Riding the Moustache Samedi 27 2X Tandem Electric Bike

I love riding with my partner and riding by tandem is one of my favorite ways to get around on a Sunday. Touring by tandem is literally twice as fun as riding solo,when you are on a bike with the one you love and the one that loves you. But tandem bikes are rare and excellent electric tandem bikes are even rarer, so I wanted to give you a fresh impression of our ride yesterday on the 2018 MOUSTACHE Samedi 27 X2 tandem . Moustache is a French company, making some of the most innovative ebikes in the world. Their tandem is no exception. This bike comes in two build types, either a smooth tire touring type or a knobby tire off-road type, but the frames, motors and other specs are pretty much the same.  I've ridden tandems for the past few years on road and off road. Yesterday we did a Meet-Up ride with other fellow ebikers in the Sonoma area. Naturally we were the only tandem riders, with others riding solo on their Haibikes, KTM, Giant, Felt and Blix bikes. Out and

Bust Your Commute at Motostrano.com

If you live in the Bay Area, "getting around" is a constant thing to be reconciled with in your daily life. But, unlike other parts of the country where cars dominate completely and your only choice is to grin and bear it, you have countless alternate transportation solutions to help you differentiate from the crowd, go against the stream instead of with it, get un-stuck from traffic and benefit from health upsides as a result. Never before has there been such a wide variety of commuter-focused "personal transportation devices" available to you and the Bay Area is as usual a testing ground for all kinds of creative solutions to help you get from A to B.  Motostrano is the store at the center of all these alternative commuting solutions and we have been for almost 20 years now. Since 2002, a big part of Motostrano's focus has been about busting your commute. In the beginning it was motorcycles and in 2009 we migrated to bicycles and specifically  electric bicy