Bodies Cover Sand as Holiday Opens the Season

Talei Nacagileva, 18, aimed her movie camera toward some hunks strolling toward the shore Friday afternoon and pronounced Newport Beach “awesome.”

Talei, a Sacramento high school senior, was among nearly 3,000 out-of-town high school seniors sunbathing, swimming and eyeing each other at the Balboa Pier, where they launched an early start on the Memorial Day weekend as part of a graduation trip.

“Thanks to my friends, I am here. I didn’t have the money (about $200) for the trip, so they paid,” said the swimsuit-clad Talei, with a grin. ‘

While the national holiday is celebrated with memorials to America’s veterans, the three-day weekend also spells the beginning of a season in Orange County.

Even though Southern Californians visit the shore year-round, Memorial Day weekend marks show time, when lifeguard towers are brought from their winter berths, sunscreen goes on the front display counters of coastal stores and extra shipments of beer and ice cream are ordered for the tourist crunch.

And this year is no different along Orange County’s 42-mile coast.

If warm temperatures and clear skies materialize as promised, lifeguards said, you can expect to share the sand with about 100,000 people a day in Newport Beach’s six miles of beaches alone.

If it’s overcast? “You can expect 90,000,” said Eric Bauer, Newport Beach marine safety officer. “It would have to flat out rain to keep people away from the beach this weekend.”

For those not inclined to get up early to snag a fire ring at the beach, there are other alternatives: the Strawberry Festival in Garden Grove, a Scottish Festival in Costa Mesa and even an all-day Save the Canyon shindig for environmentalists in Laguna Beach, featuring art exhibits and belly dancing.

But if you are venturing to the ocean--or driving any significant distance--lifeguards and public safety officials offer survival tips.

The California Highway Patrol is preparing for heavy traffic and “lots of vehicles with problems,” state CHP Commissioner James E. Smith said Friday. “This is a maximum enforcement period, meaning more officers on the road.”

Smith reminded weekend travelers to check their vehicles before leaving to avoid highway breakdowns that can cause crashes--and injuries.

Last year, 46 people died in California in traffic accidents during the Memorial Day weekend, Smith said. Still, he said, that was “well below the all-time Memorial Day high of 83 in 1978.”

Wherever you are headed, leave early, officials said. There will be more traffic on the road and, thus, delays. Buckle seat belts and stay sober, authorities warn.

In Buena Park, Brea and Sunset Beach, police will operate sobriety checkpoints throughout the weekend.

At the county’s beaches, parking lots probably will fill by 10:30 a.m. if the weather is good and surely by noon even if it isn’t. If you want a fire ring, better be on the beach by 10 a.m., lifeguards said. There are 400 fire rings along the 3.3 miles of city-run shore in Huntington Beach, and they go quickly.

Along Huntington Beach’s 8 miles of shore (about 5 miles of which is state-owned), swimmers should be extra careful about what they called “finger riptides,” or miniature riptides, lifeguards said.

Beach Services Manager Doug D’Arnall said people visiting the beach for the first time since last year should “remember that the entire topography (of the ocean floor) could change over that time.”

Beach-goers should never swim alone and should swim only when lifeguards are present because “90% of the drownings in Southern California coastal waters are in un-lifeguarded areas,” D’Arnall said.

Alcohol is not allowed on many city beaches, although it is on state shores.

As the holiday got an early start Friday, Mike Perez, a 25-year-old truck driver, parked and got ready to unload his freight. He normally delivers a weekly shipment of 25 cases of Coors beer to the Neato Burrito in Newport Beach. On Friday, he dropped off 61 cases. At other eateries along the Balboa Peninsula, he said, the deliveries were running about double the usual because of the Memorial Day weekend.

Some beach-area merchants Friday said this weekend is matched only by Labor Day and the Fourth of July for business, which virtually doubles.

At Ruby’s, a ‘40s-style diner at the tip of the Balboa Pier, business was booming Friday for all of the specialties: shakes, French fries and hamburgers.

About 1,500 pounds of hamburger meat, 3,200 pounds of French fries and 400 gallons of ice cream were stocked up for the weekend for two Ruby’s restaurants--at the Balboa and the Seal Beach piers, said Tony Granatowski, operations manager of the burger chain. That, he said, was a third more than the average.