Bodysurfer Used to Taking Bull by Horns : Bodysurfing: Peter Rombold of Chula Vista can be freewheeling in the water, but he has to get a bit more serious when he picks up the red cape.

In the water, bodysurfer Peter Rombold can be loose and expressive. It is not the same with some of his other hobbies.

Rombold’s free-spirited approach earned him a quarterfinal heat victory Saturday on the opening day of the third annual Pacific Beach Pro-Am bodysurfing championships. The tournament continues today at 8 a.m., with the finals scheduled to begin around 10 a.m.

But as relaxed as bodysurfing allows him to be, it is different when Rombold, 44, fights bulls.

No bull.

Rombold, who grew up and lives in Chula Vista, is an amateur bullfighter--one of only a handful left--and has been waving the red cape for nearly 30 years.

“I don’t consider myself brave,” Rombold said. “I have knowledge. And with knowledge comes courage.”

Rombold’s fascination with bulls started when his father took him and his brother to their first bullfight in Tijuana when Rombold was 14 and attending Hilltop High.

His passion for bodysurfing came much later--Rombold didn’t enter his first contest until he was 36. It was the 1983 World Bodysurfing Championships, held annually in Oceanside, and Rombold won his age group. He has been a regular ever since.

With Saturday’s victory, he qualified for today’s semifinals, but he won’t be competing. He is scheduled to be the feature of a Today Show segment on bullfighters, and NBC wanted to shoot this morning in Tecate.

Of his bullfighting beginnings, Rombold says, “I was just struck immediately by what I saw. I don’t remember exactly too much about the fight itself, but Monday morning I was in the library checking out a couple of books, and I got involved with a bullfight club in Chula Vista.

“It was more socially oriented, but they had an ex-matador as a member, and I had my first chance to get a cape in my hands. One thing led to another, and I had a chance to get in front of a couple of animals when I was 18.”

He has been fighting bulls as a hobby ever since. He has had 37 kills and even set out to become a professional when he was in his early 20s.

“I spent a couple of months in Mexico kind of examining the professional side of it,” Rombold said. “I got homesick and broke and came back. I was disappointed of course, but it’s a rough business. I don’t regret giving up being a professional. I just came to my senses. I realized there was another level and that was as an amateur.

“I was very content to fight on that level. The pressure’s not on to make a living at it. Still, it really dominated my life for about 12 years. I didn’t get married until I was 35 because I was supporting my bull habit.”

As an amateur, Rombold had to work to buy bulls--they cost about $1,000--and promote fights.

He did so at first as a lifeguard, where he developed his bodysurfing skills. Rombold now works for American Film Technologies in Sorrento Valley, which is involved in the colorization of old movies.

In part because of his involvement with bullfighting in Mexico, he was recently promoted to general manager of an AFT plant in Tijuana.

Rombold doesn’t bear any noticeable scars from his hobby, although he has been kicked, nicked, stomped on and thrown around by a bull’s horns--but never punctured.

Surfing Notes

Mike Cunningham, a five-time world champion from Gardena, qualified for today’s semifinals with a high score of 88 in his heat. Cunningham is the defending champion and will go against Geoff Northrop of San Diego, Keith Kulberg of Encinitas and Arman Eshraghi. San Diego’s Alan Fogel, who had the highest score of any professional (89), will go against La Costa’s Jeff Davies, J.P. De St. Croix and Michael Kennedy in the other semifinal. . . . In the amateur division, defending champion T.J. McIver of Laguna Hills advanced to the quarterfinals along with San Diego’s Steve Rachal, who had the highest mark (89) among the amateurs. . . . The women’s final was held Saturday, and there were only two competitors, Nancy Nowak of Rancho Penasquitos and Isabelle De Loys of Rio de Janeiro. De Loys, 22, who is here attending MiraCosta College, won. . . . The event was switched from one day to two this year so that the finals could be contested without the threat of a late afternoon sun glaring off the water.