Lifeguards honored for boater, kayaker, bodysurfer rescues

Los Angeles County Lifeguard Andrew Herzik was having drinks with a date last July at Tony’s On the Pier when he saw a sailboat on a collision course with the pier.
Lifeguards Lorry Haddock and John Renaud received a 911 call from the owner of Malibu Seafood this past January, warning that a kayaker had lost his craft in high winds and was being blown out to sea.
For their responses to the life threatening emergencies, Herzik, Haddock and Renaud were presented the Medal of Valor at the annual Medal of Valor Dinner last Thursday at the Seaside Lagoon in King Harbor.
When Herzik saw the distressed sailboat, he excused himself from his date, and jumped off the end of the pier to join lifeguard Sean Nolan, who had paddled out to the sailboat from the Ainsworth Court tower just south of the harbor. The two guards helped a couple and young boy off the boat onto the paddleboard. Herzik then rejoined his date at Tony’s.
After Haddock and Renaud arrived at Malibu Surfrider Beach with their PWC (personal water craft), they followed the wind line to locate the kayaker, who had been blown half a mile out to sea and was suffering from hypothermia.
Also honored at the dinner were retired lifeguard Wally Millican and lifeguards Brendon Beer and Carly Rogers.
Millican was presented the Lifetime Achievement Award for his 36-year career, which ended in 1997 with a double rescue. On his shift, he made a nighttime rescue of two sailors whose boat had drifted inside the surfline at Sixth Street in Hermosa Beach. Millican served as the operations lieutenant at the Hermosa Beach headquarters for 24 years.
Rogers and Beer were presented with the Distinguished Service Award for helping to resuscitate a body surfer who collapsed at the Manhattan Beach pier while participating in last summer’s International Surf Festival. The two performed CPR on the victim until Captain Mike Cunningham arrived with a defibrillator. After being shocked back to consciousness, the victim thanked them, and then commented, “I must have passed out.” ER