Sun Worshipers Get a Shady Deal in Quest for Springtime Tans

There is nothing worse than a damp, foggy day at the beach, when the world drops off at the edge of the pier, your hair gets wet and frizzy, and the sky, sand and ocean mesh into a montage of dismal grays.

Unless, of course, you’re visiting from Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio--or even La Crescenta or the San Gabriel Valley.

“We were told the ultraviolet light even comes through the clouds,” said Franc Fennessy, 27, a graduate student from the University of Minnesota who was basking in the spectacular Hermosa Beach fog Tuesday afternoon in bright red surfer shorts special-ordered from a catalog back in the Twin Cities.

“This is great for us,” he said, undeterred by sunbathers from Glendale City College several yards away who, having given up on the sun, wrapped themselves in towels and blankets to keep warm. “People were getting all worked up last week in Minnesota when it went above 45 degrees for the first time.”

The temperature in Hermosa Beach on Tuesday topped at a crisp 66 degrees, the sun made only fleeting appearances, and the ocean registered a frosty 59.

But to college students like Fennessy who had escaped to the South Bay for spring break from lands far colder or far from the beach, the dreary day in the South Bay was heaven--well, close to it, anyway.

“We drove an hour for this, but it was a nice drive,” said Suzanne Clark, an 18-year-old marketing student at Glendale City College, who braved the freeways and rush-hour traffic to spend a day at the sunless beach with two friends. Most of Clark’s other college friends were in Palm Springs getting a desert tan, she said, but with part-time jobs at the Broadway in Glendale, the trio from La Crescenta had to settle for a more local escape.

“We don’t really know why we are still here,” said Jamie Beall, 18, who had fallen asleep on her beach chair, all wrapped up in two towels.

“It’s because we were the only three people left in La Crescenta,” Clark interjected. “It sure is beautiful here, but I am not sure we will make it back tomorrow.” She pulled her towel up around her neck, wrinkled her nose and rolled her eyes toward the foggy sky.

No one really knows how many exam-weary Fennessys, Clarks and

Bealls settled for the South Bay instead of Fort Lauderdale or Palm Springs, but about 40,000 people--many of them college and area high school students--dotted South Bay beaches Tuesday on an overcast weekday that normally would attract fewer than half as many people, some lifeguards said.

“With the fog coming in, I would think they would head for Palm Springs until it clears up here,” said Lt. Tom Hargett, who works at the South Bay lifeguard headquarters in Hermosa Beach. “We’re having the weather doldrums.”

Students from South High School in Torrance, equipped with headsets, portable stereos, coolers and Frisbees, shared the cold sand with students from Alhambra High, who had rented an apartment in Hermosa Beach for a week away from what one of them called the “pressures” of life in the San Gabriel Valley.

A Fun Place

Fifteen-year-old Heather Dockray, a 10th-grader at Alhambra, couldn’t say enough nice things about Hermosa Beach, calling the weather “nice,” the water “warm” and the beach a “fun place for teen-agers.”

There is no ocean or beach in Alhambra, her friend noted.

Not far away, a group of seniors from Northern Arizona University and San Diego State University, who had come home to Rolling Hills for Easter, sat clustered in a circle asking themselves why, as South Bay natives, they were sitting on the beach in the fog.

“Where’s the sun?” asked Amy Winje, 21, a business management major, growing impatient with the uncooperative weather. “I think our parking meter is running out, guys.”

No one budged.

No Roller Skaters

Fennessy, who hails from Omaha, and his friend Bob Isaacson, a native Minnesotan and fellow student at the University of Minnesota, complained more about litter on the beach and the lack of roller skaters and skate boarders than they did about the weather.

Most of their buddies in Minnesota had gone to Fort Lauderdale or to the ski slopes of Colorado, but for $158 round trip, they couldn’t resist flying to Los Angeles for the week.

“It is less crowded here than in Florida, and it is more laid back,” Fennessy said, stretching out on his towel, and showing off his surfer beach attire.

“I try to blend in,” he said. “But I think my white skin gives me away.”

Not to mention sunbathing in the fog, Franc.