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ILWACO — Breaking 18-foot Benson Beach swells crashed over the bow of the 47-foot Coast Guard motor lifeboat as USCG Boatswain’s Mate First Class Brian Fuller navigated the swirling chaos on one engine in a simulated search and rescue surf training session in late March.

It was one of the final steps in a nine-year journey for Fuller, a 27-year-old from Texas, before officially being pinned this week as the latest surfman, joining an elite and select class qualified to operate a 47-foot motor lifeboat in 20-foot breaking surf, 30-foot seas and 50-knot winds.

Demanding process

The Coast Guard surfman qualification process is extensive and extremely demanding, with only about 10 certified each year, according to the Coast Guard. This program is intended to attract, guide and develop surfmen trainees. Interested members should expect an average of four years of training to become a qualified surfman.

The National Motor Lifeboat School (NMLBS) helps screen candidates for the eight feeder ports for the Prospective Surfman Program, the majority of which are located along the Oregon and Washington coast.

Pull Quote

Cape D was one of the few specific stations I had heard about before joining the Coast Guard and going through the process of deciding to go surf. There’s so much history and lineage here — it’s one of the premier surf units. If you come here, you’re either going to leave because you couldn’t cut it, or you’re going to leave as a fantastic boat driver. it’s a place where you can really push yourself, grow and learn a lot.’

Brian Fuller, USCG Boatswain’s Mate First Class

Operating rescue boats in surf and heavy breaking seas remains one of the most challenging and dangerous tasks Coast Guard boat crews perform. The predominate need for surfmen and consistent training conditions exist in the Coast Guard’s 13th District. Located on the Columbia River Bar in Ilwaco, the NMLBS trains students in one of the most consistent surf zones in the country. The Coast Guard is working to increase the number of surfmen and heavy weather coxswains and is actively seeking candidates to join the Prospective Surfman Program, according to the Coast Guard.

“It’s like a national training center, where in the summer they train basic coxwains and in the fall and spring they train heavy-weather coxwains — that next step up in certification,” said Cheif Boatswain Mate Andrew Sadler. “In the winter, around January-February, they’ll hold a surfmen class, usually at least once, sometimes two. They’ll have 9-12 students, and that’s the capstone course, the surfmen course.”

“Every day, they’re trying to find the biggest and most dynamic surf zone they can find,” Sadler added. “They spend 80 hours in surf over a four-week time frame in a high-risk training environment. The amount of experience and exposure they get is far superior than what they would see at their home units. Their entire focus is on training at every opportunity with nothing else distracting them.”

‘Breaking in’

Before coming to Cape Disappointment, Fuller spent three years in Neah Bay, where he received his heavy-weather certification. Upon arrival in Ilwaco, he started “breaking in” as a surfman.

“I’ve been breaking in as a surfman for about 20 months at this station. I’ve been on the 47s for five years this summer,” said Fuller, who is originally from Dallas-Fort Worth. Prior to Neah Bay, Fuller was stationed in south Texas for three years.

“Before that I was in Alaska. I’ve been kind of back and forth a lot,” he said.

On joining the CG

Fuller had initially considered two of the bigger military branches before choosing the Coast Guard, after talking to a recruiter in high school. A desire to pursue search and rescue missions pushed him away from the more combat-oriented branches.

“I had always planned on joining one of the military branches; originally I was planning on the Army or Navy. I never even considered the Coast Guard or knew anything about it, [but] then a Coast Guard recruiter came to my high school,” he said.

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The Coast Guard is among the seven branches of U.S. armed forces, including the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, National Guard, and the Space Force — the most recent branch established in 2019.

The Army accounts for the largest in terms of personnel (461,000), followed by Navy (340,000), Army National Guard (329,000), Air Force (320,000), Army Reserve (176,000), Marine Corps (174,000), Air National Guard (104,000), Air Force Reserve (68,000), Navy Reserve (55,000), Coast Guard (40,000), Marine Corps Reserve (33,000) and Space Force (8,000).

Fuller was sworn-in around his senior year and entered basic training in the summer of 2015. Soon he was sent off to Alaska, where he experienced Coast Guard missions firsthand working in the Aids to Navigation field while on a cutter buoy tender.

During the experience in Alaska, Fuller realized he would prefer to drive the boats instead of maintaining weapons or working in the engine room.

“My career has taken interesting turns,” he said. “I’m a boatswain’s mate, and when I first joined I had no interest in doing that. I wanted to be a gunner’s mate, who typically maintain the weapons. But when I joined, I went up to that cutter in Alaska and thought ‘Man, this is pretty cool.’”

Fuller attended school in Virginia to officially become a boatswain’s mate.

“Then I went to another unit in South Padre Island [in Texas]. I enjoyed it, but it wasn’t really what I joined the Coast Guard to do, which was search and rescue. I advanced while I was there and got a list of picks to choose from, and Neah Bay was one of them. I went to a heavy weather unit instead of a surf unit. I spent three years in Noah Bay, got my heavy-weather certification first.”

After receiving his heavy-weather certification, Fuller decided to pursue the surfman certification, among the most demanding positions in the Coast Guard.

“You have to specialize. I had a tough decision to make while I was in Neah Bay, and I decided I would like to go the surf route, which was partially for my passion of search and rescue.”

In Neah Bay, Fuller cemented his decision to pursue the surfman certification, with encouragement from former surfmen who felt Fuller had what it took.

“I made first class, so I was kind of at that point where I had to decide. That’s when I initiated the screening process for the Prospective Surfman Program.”

Prospective Surfman ProgramA highly selective process, the Coast Guard typically only certifies about 10 surfmen each year, a process that Fuller expected to be demanding from the start.

“In the screening process you sit and interview — usually it’s a teleconference — with surf station [commanding officers] and the National Motor Lifeboat CO asking you a bunch of questions about your character and your drive to determine whether you’re someone they want to be in the process,” Fuller said.

“They recommended I go to a feeder unit, where they have the best and most consistent surf conditions conducive to getting certified. I had the option of Cape Disappointment, Yaquina Bay, Tillamook Bay and Barnegat Light [New Jersey] on the East Coast. Cape D was my first pick. I’m glad I came here.”

Several factors separated Cape Disappointment for Fuller, particularly its rich history and tough reputation.

“Cape D was one of the few specific stations I had heard about before joining the Coast Guard and going through the process of deciding to go surf,” he said. “There’s so much history and lineage here — it’s one of the premier surf units. If you come here, you’re either going to leave because you couldn’t cut it, or you’re going to leave as a fantastic boat driver. it’s a place where you can really push yourself, grow and learn a lot.”

A ‘welcome to the Coast Guard’ moment

In the fall of 2020, while in heavy-weather school in Neah Bay, Fuller experienced a memorable ‘welcome to the Coast Guard’ moment.

“The heavy-weather training was fantastic, Neah Bay gets rough out there. It gets gross for sure. You’re more exposed to the wind,” Fuller said.

Pull Quote

‘In training, I had never been in anything above 15-foot, which is eye level when you’re sitting atop the open bridge on the 47-footer. I have this distinct memory of us doing some training on the bar. I look over and I’m watching another boat doing training and I see a wave just towering over that boat. It was wild, that was my welcome to the Coast Guard moment. I loved it. What an incredible job this is.’

Brian Fuller

“In training, I had never been in anything above 15-foot, which is eye level when you’re sitting atop the open bridge on the 47-footer. I have this distinct memory of us doing some training on the bar. I look over and I’m watching another boat doing training and I see a wave just towering over that boat. It was wild, that was my ‘welcome to the Coast Guard’ moment. I loved it. What an incredible job this is.”

Still, the conditions in Neah Bay don’t quite compare to those encountered around Cape Disappointment — particularly the infamous Peacock Spit, a shifting sand bar where the mouth of the Columbia funnels into the Pacific, producing some of the most dynamic ocean conditions on earth and providing a primary training ground for the local Coast Guard crews seeking heavy weather and rough-surf experience.

“But out here the conditions are much more dynamic,” Fuller said. “You have the (Columbia) river current and a strong ebb current that really influences your wave characteristics.”