Within an hour of heading into the ocean with a board, Jake Hemann found himself sitting alongside four other injured beachgoers at a lifeguard station, soaking his foot in a pail of hot water.
It has become a common scene across Bolsa Chica State Beach and other popular stretches in Southern California, where the number of people struck by the sharp, serrated caudal barbs on stingray tails has risen.
A marine heatwave is currently drawing both stingrays and people closer to the shore…