Spring Break Beach Party Is Almost Over

For Brian Wiener and Mike Talley, it had been like flying and going to heaven.

After months of scrimping and saving their wages from part-time jobs, the two Atlantic City, N.J., high school juniors had traveled by air to Southern California for what Wiener described as the “best week I ever had, ever.”

They had started each day with colossal hangovers, cured by breakfasts of Fruity Pebbles cereal in beer and a couple more hours of sleep. Then it was off to the beaches, maybe a bit of sightseeing, and, for sure, lots of girl ogling. Evenings were spent in packed beach bars chugging beer (sans Fruity Pebbles) and partying hearty enough to create the next day’s hangover.

Saturday afternoon, as the two 17-year-olds plunked their coolers and towels down onto the sand of Newport Beach, they lamented that it was all coming to an end.

“No-o-o-o,” they moaned in misery-has-company unison when asked if they were ready for their Monday morning plane flight home.

Near and Far

Wiener and Talley were among thousands of students from high schools and colleges far and near who streamed to Newport and other area beaches Saturday to celebrate the last days of spring break 1988.

Some of them had shopped around and chosen Orange County’s coast to spend their annual nine-day Easter vacation, rather than other well-known spots.

“Malibu was dead and Palm Springs had too many cops,” said a Stanford University student who, along with his buddies, was passing out “Zooport Beach” bumper stickers from an ocean-view porch Saturday in Newport Beach.

Orange County police departments reported that spring break crowds this year were large all week, but that, for the most part, they were well-behaved.

There were the usual scattered arrests all week, mostly alcohol-related, however, and two incidents last weekend that involved unruly crowds.

The first occurred the second day of spring break in Huntington Beach when a woman allegedly exposed herself to beachgoers and was surrounded by about 500 people, including a man who allegedly began to shout “riot” as police took the woman into custody.

Beachgoers Arrested

The next day in Laguna Beach, a crowd of about 200 taunted officers trying to arrest a man who had allegedly passed out on the sand.

In the first incident, the woman, a Bellflower resident, and the onlooker, a Long Beach resident, were arrested; in the second, a San Clemente man was taken into custody.

During the 1987 spring break, three adults and five minors were arrested in the Fun Zone of Balboa as police dispersed a crowd of 700 chanting young people that had reportedly gathered after a woman passing in a car bared her chest.

On Saturday, beaches were crowded but police reported no major incidents.

At Newport Beach, bumper-to-bumper traffic jammed all streets near the shore.

Police officers, out in force, waded into the traffic to ticket the drivers and occupants of cars spotted holding open containers of alcohol.

At Mutt Lynch’s Beer Hall and Pizza Parlor, a popular spot for the spring breakers, a line of people waiting to get in extended out onto Ocean Front. Inside, patrons drank beer from 32-ounce goblets and kept the noise level high.

Rory Barton, the doorman at the saloon, said he had thrown out at least 100 patrons during the week, mostly for banging on the windows as bikini-clad girls passed.