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A surfer's body was pulled from the powerful waves pounding the shore at San Onofre State Beach yesterday afternoon.
The surfer, a 42-year-old man from Torrance named Russ Yamada, was pulled out of the water around 4:30 p.m. and declared dead an hour later at Saddleback Memorial Medical Center, according to San Clemente Patch.
Although it's not clear from reports how exactly Yamada died, authorities are warning would-be surfers that this isn't amateur hour. The swell peaked at the end of last week but some of those waves are still crazy. Some of the waves at San Onofre State Beach were as high as 8 feet on Saturday.
"You should have very good, strong swimming abilities and fins if you're going to even think about going in the water at this point," Section Chief Garth Canning of the Los Angeles County Fire Department's lifeguard division told The Los Angeles Times.
If you want to enjoy the surf from afar, check out galleries here and here. The waves come to us courtesy of a wintery storm in New Zealand.
