No injured cavers recorded.
On Saturday, June 11, Patrick Ivicevich (16) and Robert Cowan )16) of Harbor City were swimming at a rocky ledge that juts out from Inspiration Point near Portuguese Bend on Palos Verdes Peninsula. The two were periodically diving into the water 10 to 15 feet below the ledge. One of the youths jumped in just as a powerful wave crashed in and was swept into a partly submerged cave. A fisherman, Mike Wilson, in a rubber raft, paddl- ed furiously against the current to reach the two. As he approached the cave another huge wave struck, overturning the raft and casting him into the cave. Nearby beach-goers rushed along the rocks to help but could do nothing in the treacherous surf. Cowan was soon swept back out of the cave, was given mouth-to-mouth resuscitation by onlookers and revived. Fifteen minutes later the tide brought out the dead body of his companion. Cowan received only minor injures. The fisherman's body was not recovered.
This was not a voluntary caving trip. Even so, some awareness of
the hazard posed by the wave-by-wave flooding sea cave by those carrying
on recreation activities near it might have saved the two lives lost.