When the Surf Beats Turf on Bowl Day : Wet-Suit Set Storms Beaches for Some Good Waves of Winter

Clint West didn’t spend all day Monday glued to the tube watching college football bowl games.

Instead, the 30-year-old Malibu resident threw on his wet suit, rubbed some wax on his surfboard and headed down to the Huntington Beach Pier, where he plopped in the 54-degree water and paddled out.

“I’d rather be surfing, if you really want to know,” he grinned. “I can always tape the football games.”

About 800 like-spirited individuals crowded into the waves Monday around the pier, a Southern California surf mecca. The crowd was reported considerably larger than on a normal winter weekday, as it was at Newport Beach, Bolsa Chica and other county surf spots.

Disputes Flare Over Room

No serious problems were reported from crowding, although surfers complained of disputes that occasionally flared into arguments. The battles tended to center along generational lines.

“The little kids get in the older guys’ way,” veteran surfer Tom Yellow grumbled as he dried out on shore with a yellow board in hand. Yellow, who would not give his age, was referring to surfers older “than 30.”

“All the old men think they own the place,” countered 15-year-old Joe Vedder of Huntington Beach, who was resting between waves with his buddies, James Nichols, 16, and Matt Eveler, 15.

Young and old alike bobbed in rolling, foam-crested waves as Huntington Beach lifeguards reported “fair to good” surfing conditions. Waves of up to 3 feet rolled in all day, pushed up into desireable peaks by opposing south and westerly winds.

The springlike, 60-degree temperatures ashore also drew out holiday strollers and even a few hardy sunbathers. Picture-perfect skies were reported throughout the county, where temperatures reached as high as 69 degrees in Santa Ana.

Rain and cold weather last week had kept surfing to a minimum. But a weak Santa Ana wind condition cleared the skies Sunday and Monday, bringing in crowds. The National Weather Service called for continued sunny and clear conditions through this afternoon, when a polar storm system will bring partly cloudy skies and a 20% chance of rain.

At the Huntington Beach Pier on Monday, surfers came from as far away as South Africa. But most were like Chad Stevens, 14, and his friend, Chris Eso, 13, who took the bus from their homes in Brea--a 1 1/2-hour trip.

Stevens said he was trying out some new surf boots he got for Christmas. Lifeguards attributed the heavy turnout to young surfers, out of school for the holidays, who were trying out new equipment.

Some of the young surfers posed a danger in the water, said Marc Panis, a city marine safety officer for Huntington Beach.

“You get kids with brand new boards who don’t know anything,” Panis said. “They don’t even know to put wax on their boards, and they just slip right off. But what they don’t realize is that you can get killed by one of those boards.”

And many young surfers fail to observe etiquette by relinquishing a wave to someone who has already caught it, said Michael Locke, 20, a 10-year surfer from Huntington Beach.

Consequently, he said, some of the younger surfers get hit by boards, which he said happened earlier Monday when his board grazed a 9-year-old surfer who would not get out of his way.

“This is when it gets dangerous,” he said. “Kids don’t watch out enough.

They’re just happy to have their new boards.”

However, West of Malibu said older surfers can prove equally dangerous by trying to compete for every wave.

Monday was a particularly competitive day because the good waves were relatively few and far between, he said, adding: “Everyone wants the same wave.”

Even with the increased competition, all surfers interviewed Monday agreed that the winter surf crowds are preferable to those in the summer. Mike Bowma, 19, of Lakewood said there are so many surfers in the summer that it is almost impossible to find a place near the Huntington Beach Pier.

“In the summer you also get more tourists--people who don’t know what they’re doing,” said Bowma, who drove to Huntington Beach on Monday with two friends.

Surfers said the winter conditions are better than summer because winter’s northerly swells are generally much larger than the southerly swells common in summer. Surfer Jim Quick of Lakewood said the bigger winter swells scare off the inexperienced, leaving the water open to veteran surfers--except during the holidays.

Veteran surfer Yellow said he had intended Monday to spend the entire day riding waves. But frustrated by the holiday crowding in the water, Yellow--who has been surfing in Huntington Beach for 15 years--retired to his van, where he keeps a TV.

“I’m gonna watch a football game,” Yellow, a meat cutter from Huntington Beach, said about noon Monday, “and I’ll go back surfing tomorrow when all the kids have gone back to school.”