With recent storms drenching the South Bay, the weather has given local surfers a reason to get wet with swells sending monstrous waves crashing near the breakwall along the southern border of Hermosa Beach and elsewhere in other beach cities this past week.

Many areas along the local coast became the site of waves, some as high as 15 feet, attributed to the combination of high tides and the stormy weather swells.

“There are deep reefs and with the deep swells, we observed waves breaking out a half mile offshore,” said Los Angeles County Lifeguard Capt. Dave Story. “There is a reef in El Segundo and with the big swell, the tankers stationed out there were moved farther out to shore to avoid being damaged by the waves.”

“We have had some rescues in the last few days, one in Manhattan Beach and the other in Cabrillo,” said Story. “In the first few days when the swell was big, the surf was good and we rescued folks who just couldn’t handle it.”

El Segundo residents Ted Robinson and Jim O’Brian took their jet ski out past El Porto in Manhattan Beach to the site of where the tankers usually float. They surfed waves generated from the underwater reef called Tanker’s Reef. Both surfers used the jet ski to tow them to the area that would have been virtually impossible to reach by paddling out.

“Sunday was the best part of the swell,” said Robinson. “We had to take advantage of it and with swells that big and that consistent, you don’t have the paddling strength to get dumped into the waves. I know when those tankers move farther from shore I know we can expect a big swell.”

Some surfers returned back to shore with broken boards and in one case, broken bones.

Ralph Ramirez, 42, misjudged the area at the breakwall bordering Redondo and Hermosa Beach Sunday and got caught in the rocks, suffering a punctured lung, broken ribs and a broken knee. He is now recovering at UCLA Harbor Medical Center.

“We weren’t called on that incident,” said Story. “We saw hundreds of surfers in the water over the weekend. The swell was really nice and we had no wind or rain so we got the edge of this swell before the storm.”

The lifeguard headquarters in Hermosa Beach looks after the beaches stretching from Cabrillo to Marina del Rey. Story said some areas in Torrance and Hermosa Beach saw an overflow of water but nothing serious.

“With the rain and the wind we lost considerable amounts of beach but we saw nothing in terms of real structural damage,” said Story. “The bike path in Torrance and The Strand in Hermosa Beach saw some water.”

Hermosa Beach and nearby cities will see another storm scheduled to appear this Thursday with possibly stronger winds and stronger swells, making for possibly bigger waves.

“It could be a formula for disaster but we will just have to wait and see what happens,” added Story. “We are not sandbagging buildings quite yet. It’s not quite as big as it was in 1983 or in 1985, but by the end of the week could get there.”

Robinson recalled the last time he surfed waves this big in the area. This weekend, he said he saw waves with 25-foot faces which usually only happens two or three times in a given winter.

“The last time was January of last year,” added Robinson. “I hope we see them this big again but we need to have a combination of the low tide with the big swell in order to use the jet ski because we can only come in so far to the shore.”