Weather Helps Spring Break in Balboa Have a Quiet Ending

Spring break ’87 in Balboa may have come in with a roar and a near-riot, but it went out with a whimper Saturday, when cool breezes and early morning low clouds kept the crowds away.

The afternoon view from the top of the Ferris wheel in the Fun Zone was of wind-whipped palms, a choppy Newport Bay and a very light sprinkling of holiday revelers in the normally crowd-choked amusement area.

“I guess the threat of rain kept people away today,” said Craig Sheldon, 21, as he doled out pizza-by-the-slice at Pizza Pete’s. “But the last couple of days have been a real madhouse. It’s been intolerable, too many people coming down. It’s a major source of these riots. It’s getting to be like Palm Springs here.”

Provoked by a Young Woman

Three adults and five juveniles were arrested Tuesday night after police broke up a crowd of about 700 chanting, taunting youths in Balboa, in a disturbance reminiscent of Palm Springs’ problems during spring break in 1986.

The story circulating through the Fun Zone in subsequent days was that milling throngs of youths were provoked by a young woman who drove by in a convertible and momentarily revealed a bare chest to the crowd, witnesses said.

But on Saturday, Balboa was an entirely different tourist attraction.

“It’s very quiet,” said Newport Beach Police Sgt. Richard Long. “The weather’s in our favor, and we don’t expect to have any problems.”

The Ferris wheel and merry-go-round revolved nearly empty for much of the afternoon. The sparse crowds consisted mostly of parents and their cotton-candy-aged children. Strolling tourists sported more goose bumps than bikinis.

Zach Holt, who said he would turn 11 “at 4:30 p.m. today,” brought three of his friends and all of their skateboards to the Fun Zone to celebrate his birthday and the last real day of vacation.

“Are you having a good time?” they were asked. “Yeeeaaah,” they replied.

“Do you want to go back to school?”

“Noooooo.”

“Well, what do you want to do?”

Not the End for Everyone

That was an easy one for Zach, who lives in Brea: “I wanna skate ‘til I’m 30 and then be a lawyer.”

But Saturday was not the end of everyone’s vacation. Students at Mater Dei High School, a Catholic school in Santa Ana, were just starting their spring break. Well, most of them were.

Kim Rubi, however, got an early start on her vacation. “I didn’t go to school Friday,” said the 17-year-old student from Fountain Valley. “I came here. I was here Thursday night, too, and there were tons of cops. It wasn’t even any fun. They were all over.”

Between bites of pizza, Rubi and classmate Janet Rensing, 16, of Fountain Valley, said they preferred crowded nights in the Fun Zone to family-filled weekend days like Saturday.

“I like the crowds better,” Rubi said.

“Yup,” Rensing said, “more guys.”