Photo by Jeff Gritchen of the Orange County Register and the Southern California News Group.
In the stretch of Southern California shoreline where I frequently train, I almost always see birds and dolphins above, below, and around me.
Because Huntington Beach is the location of the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve and Huntington Beach Wetlands, it is a major stop on the Pacific Flyway that hosts a large number of migrating birds. They often fly low over the ocean to land and take off from these sanctuaries.
Similarly, bottlenose and common dolphins frequently swim in pods near the Huntington Beach shore and close to Sunset Beach and Bolsa Chica, especially in the morning hours, where Hank Wise (58, USA, MSF bio here), Ben Brewer, Dylan Jones, and Brandon Samaniego recently pioneered the 10 Miles = 100 Waves event from Newport Beach to Huntington Beach to Bolsa Chica to Sunset Beach. It is rare that dolphins are not seen by ocean swimmers training along the coast.
The beach is also site of the annual Pacific Airshow where all kinds of over-the-water aerial acrobatic demonstrations by world-class pilots demonstrate cutting-edge aircraft and piloting performances.
So an ocean swimmer was breathing towards shore about 200 meters from shore and caught a vision of a low-flying bird – at least what appeared to be from the ocean surface – there was no sense of panic or urgency. But then, the vision clearly became bigger than a bird, even bigger than a flock, and was coming low from the horizon.
It was a plane heading for an emergency landing on a popular public beach in the middle of summer.
The pilot Mike Bremner had to make an emergency landing on the Huntington State sand. He had lost power at 1,000 feet after taking off from the nearby John Wayne Airport and had to make quick decisions as to where and how to land as he was flying northward along the Orange County coastline.
Huntington Beach is about 200 meters wide and, fortunately, there were few people on the particular stretch of sand where he finally landed…safely.
Brumner is, in his own way, a superman as he helps prosecute those who steal from and physically abuse the elderly. As he describes his non-profit organization, “We use the power of aviation to expose, prevent and combat Elder Financial Fraud Physical Abuse by flying Awareness Missions to protect seniors and push for stronger laws.”
© 2026 Daily News of Open Water Swimming
“to educate, enthuse, and entertain all those who venture beyond the shoreline“
World Open Water Swimming Federation, a human-powered project.