A dramatic helicopter rescue from a deadly section of Long Beach has one local MP calling once again for the return of lifeguards to the popular surf spot.
It started with a 911 call around 4 p.m. Tuesday. Three people were spotted stranded on Lovekin Rock, the same area where two surfers died in separate incidents last spring.
Victoria’s Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre scrambled an Air Force Cormorant helicopter out of CFB Comox along with two marine rescue boats.
At 4:30 p.m., two of the stranded were able to swim to shore, where they were met by Parks Canada officials and BC Ambulance attendants. The remaining person was kept on the rock by two-metre swells, according to Maritime Forces Pacific.
As the rescue boats approached the rock, it was ruled too dangerous for a sea rescue due to the churn of the water.
While rescuers and the stranded person waited for the helicopter, three people on boogie boards were also washed onto Lovekin Rock and stranded as sea conditions worsened.
By 6 p.m. the Cormorant arrived and airlifted the four victims from the rock, landing them onto Long Beach where they were tended to by Parks Canada and rescuers.
“This is happening year after year,” said Courtenay-Alberni NDP MP Gord Johns.
There have been no lifeguards on Long Beach since 2012, when a long-standing program called Surf Guard was shuttered.
“That rock has been a problem for years. It’s exactly why we had a Surf Guard program there for 36 years,” Johns said.
Parks Canada told CTV News last year that as surfers moved to other beaches, it couldn't maintain the Surf Guard program and instead turned to signage and education to try to keep visitors safe.
“The community actually wanted the program expanded,” Johns said, adding that he has raised the issue in the House of Commons, where it has “fallen on deaf ears.”
Johns said he is meeting with Parks Canada Minister Catherine McKenna next week, when he will again raise his concerns with the federal government.
