Surfing at Huntington Beach : Last Year’s Riot Has Forced Changes at Pro Surfing Event

It completely overshadowed an earlier semifinal showdown between American Tom Curren and Australian Mark Occhilupo. It may have caused the sport’s top executive director to resign. And some said it could have set back professional surfing 10 or 20 years.

As Occhilupo and countryman Glen Winton were competing at Huntington Beach Pier in the final of the 1986 Ocean Pacific Pro Surfing Championships on Labor Day weekend, a disturbance that would later be called one of the biggest riots in Orange County history broke out nearby.

Witnesses said the problems began when two or more men behind the bleachers were trying to remove the bikini tops of two young women. When police tried to help the women, a bottle was flung at one of the officers, and the situation escalated into a riot.

In the ensuing melee, five police cars were set on fire and a lifeguard station was looted before 150 officers arrived from neighboring communities to assist the 20 Huntington Beach officers assigned to the event.

Some 40 arrests and 40 injuries resulted. Two weeks later, Ian Cairns, who founded the Assn. of Surfing Professionals, announced his resignation as the group’s executive director.

“It’s more than disappointing; it’s terribly depressing,” said Cairns, who was in attendance the day of the riot. “I was flabbergasted. I can’t believe there are that many animals out there who could do that sort of stuff. We were lucky the police were able to get it under control before anybody was killed.”

Almost a year later, on May 29, Sean Clark Boles, 19, of Yucca Valley, was sentenced to 345 days in jail for assaulting a police officer with a deadly weapon. And last week, Robert M. Oates, 20, of Redondo Beach, was convicted of felony arson and a misdemeanor charge of participating in a riot. He is awaiting sentencing.

“The disturbance was brought on by some unruly element,” said Jerry Crosby, vice president of marketing for Ocean Pacific Sunwear Ltd. “Quite honestly, those people who were there saw that the people who came to watch surfing continued to watch surfing during the whole event.”

Promoters and city officials questioned whether the event should be held again.

“There was an enormous amount of concern by Op and the city of Huntington Beach and the surfing community itself,” Crosby said. “Nobody wanted to be a part of anything like what happened last year. If we thought it had anything to do with surfing, we wouldn’t have run the event again. We think it was an anomaly and probably would have happened without us.”

However, that didn’t stop promoters from making changes to reduce the chances of another such incident.

When the $66,000 1987 Op Pro opens Monday at Huntington Beach Pier, it will:

--Have been moved back nearly one month from its usual Labor Day weekend date;

--Have been shortened from seven days to six;

--Have no live coverage from MTV or radio, which some believed incited excessive behavior;

--Have no skateboarding exhibition;

--Have stricter enforcement of a city ordinance banning alcoholic beverages at the beach.

The new ASP executive director, Graham Cassidy from Australia, will attend.

“I think moving it back will be good,” said Cassidy, who attended last year’s event. “The (dates) last weekend attracted an element that would not normally show up for a surfing event. They’re looking more for finishing up the summer in a big way. The security surrounding the contest will be the same. It was effective last year as far as the contest was concerned.”

The Miss OP beauty contest will also go on as usual, with preliminaries set for Thursday at 10:20 a.m. and finals for Friday at noon.

Crosby said that the changes will create a more pure surfing event but that the six-day schedule may be a bit restrictive for the more than 200 surfers who are expected to compete.

“I would rather be running through the weekend,” Crosby said. “It might be a surprise to some surfers that the event is over Saturday.”

Men’s trials begin Monday, and women’s trials Wednesday. Finals for both divisions are set for Saturday.

Among those expecting to be surfing Saturday are Santa Barbara’s Curren, 23, who has won the last two ASP world titles, and Occhilupo, who has beaten him in the last two Op Pros. Frieda Zamba, of Flagler Beach, Fla., the winner of the last three women’s ASP world titles, is favored to win her second straight Op championship. She also won in 1984.

Crosby is again expecting a crowd of about 100,000 for the free event. He says he isn’t expecting any problems from those in attendance, but says the surf could pose a problem.

“The last three to four years were very good surf conditions,” Crosby said. “It’s a lot earlier (in the year this time). We’re praying for surf at this point.”