Teen-Ager Is Wasting No Time Becoming Ski-Race Expert

For a 14-year-old who someday wants to play major league baseball, Jeff Ettinger rides a mean water ski.

In fact, he won the Water Ski Race National Championship in Northern California at age 12, traveling up to 90 m.p.h. behind a boat piloted by his 19-year-old brother, Rob Ettinger.

“It’s the thrill of it,” explained Jeff, a freshman at El Modena High School in Orange. “It’s kind of crazy going down a straightaway at 90 miles per hour,” he added, pointing out that the objective is to stay on top the water, not in it.

“Besides, it’s fun and it keeps the family happy,” said Jeff, who competes in open class ski races against all ages. “They cheer me on, and it’s really nice having them there.”

Baseball is Jeff’s true love, however. In Little League baseball, he has made several all-star teams and plans to make the game his adult career.

“I’d rather play baseball than anything,” said Jeff, the starting catcher and cleanup batter for El Modena High’s freshman team. “I hope to get a baseball scholarship to a good college.”

In the meantime, there is water ski racing, and his family members are unabashed boosters of Jeff’s abilities.

“Jeff is one of the most stable skiers I’ve ever pulled,” said Rob Ettinger, who pilots the family’s Toker Sport Tunnel Ski boat, which is capable of reaching 100 m.p.h.

“He’s really solid both physically and mentally and wants to be an international competitor. And I know some day he will.”

But the cost of racing can be prohibitive. “It’s a very expensive sport,” Rob Ettinger observed. “When you figure it up, it has already cost $60,000 for equipment, truck and boats.”

Jeff has been water skiing since the age of 7, but it was his mother, Beth Ettinger, who got him started in ski racing--well, sort of.

“I take an exercise class and the instructor asked me if I wanted to ski race,” she explained. “I told him I didn’t, but I would give him my son.”

Now, Jeff is preparing for September’s marathon water ski race to Catalina and back.

“I tried it 2 years ago and could only make it one way,” he said. “This time, I’ll have a bigger boat to cut the wake and make it easier. I’m going to finish this time.”

The First Church of Religious Science in Fullerton plans to welcome parishioners back to its sanctuary on June 4 after completion of restructuring the building, which was damaged during the Whittier earthquake on Oct. 1, 1987.

Part of the work consisted of digging a series of trenches below the foundation to support six massive steel beams.

So it was only natural that the Rev. Marlene Oaks, pastor of the church, would quip, “We’re the holiest church in town.”

The Brea Fire Department’s new $250,000 state-of-the-art pumper has been dubbed the “Brea cab” by other departments.

The truck has an enclosed air-conditioned cab for the five firefighters aboard the truck on calls. It also has a rear engine that reduces noise, which has prompted a second nickname--the “hush” pumper.

In case you were wondering, engineer Jerry Richardson said the 36-foot-long pumper truck handles like a luxury automobile.

Acknowledgments--Alisa Runstrom, 9, a deaf student at Bonita Canyon Elementary School in Irvine, was named recipient of the Youth Achievement Award from the Alexander Graham Bell Assn. for the Deaf, an international organization based in Washington, D.C. The third-grade student, who has been deaf since birth, has been mainstreamed into normal hearing classrooms. She wears two hearing aids and an auditory trainer at school.