He’s Catching Waves but No Longer Riding All Over the World : Surfing: After four years on the world tour, Gary Clisby comes home to Huntington Beach. He has joined the U.S. tour, which stops this weekend at Bolsa Chica State Beach.

The extra bedroom in the rear of Merrill Clisby’s house is an organized mess. His son, Gary, wades through stacks of surfing T-shirts, magazines, computer disks and paper work.

Gary Clisby has converted the bedroom into an office, where he handles the West Coast distribution of an Australian surfing magazine.

“I’ve got a lot of orders to fill,” Clisby says as he sorts through a stack of mail. “This keeps me busy, but it’s flexible hours. That gives me time to get in the water.”

At age 24, Clisby’s surfing career is somewhat in limbo. He has left the world tour to settle in Huntington Beach, but still yearns to surf competitively.

As have many others from the world tour, Clisby has made the adjustment to the Professional Surfing Assn. of America’s U.S. tour.

Adjustments are nothing new for Clisby. He has dealt with some tough ones, including an auto accident in 1984.

Clisby joined the U.S. tour in 1989 after four years on the world circuit, which included a 33rd-place finish in the 1986-87 standings.

He quit the world tour to spend more time at home and save money. Although the prize money on the U.S. tour is only a fraction of what world-class surfers make, Clisby found he was spending much of his earnings while roaming the world.

“I’m making more money now because I’m keeping it,” he said. “The world tour costs more than $20,000 a year with the travel and everything. I was making pretty good money on the world tour, but I was spending it.

“It was great on the tour. I got to travel all over the world--Japan, South Africa, the South of France, Australia.”

Clisby, who is ninth on the U.S. tour in winnings with $1,525, will try to improve his standing this week at the Easter Surfing event at Bolsa Chica State Beach. It’s the third of 11 stops on the U.S. circuit.

Surfing competition begins Wednesday and runs through Sunday, with the unseeded surfers in the water Wednesday through Friday. Each session starts at 7:30 a.m. and finishes about 4 p.m.

Clisby will be surfing on familiar waves this week. He grew up in Huntington Beach, chasing the best surf first on his bike and later in his pickup truck.

“I relate the life style to a skier,” he said. “They run around looking for good snow. We run around looking for good waves.”

But while Clisby developed his surfing career cruising Pacific Coast Highway, it almost ended there in the spring of 1984, a few months before he graduated from Marina High School.

Clisby and a friend were riding in his pickup one morning on the way to a surfing competition. They weaved along the coast highway near Malibu, unaware that two off-duty policemen were chasing a drunk driver ahead of them.

As Clisby pulled around a curve, he saw a pair of headlights flash in the lane in front of him.

“I have no memory of it,” Clisby said. “It was a blur.”

His pickup met the sports car head-on. The driver of the sports car died. Clisby’s friend suffered a broken pelvis and arm.

Clisby broke his left arm and both feet, cracked some ribs and suffered internal injuries. He needed 20 hours of surgery.

“I woke up in the hospital and I wasn’t sure if it was a dream,” he said. “It was a big, big setback, but fortunately I healed. It was an answer to a lot of prayers that I could come back and surf again.”

Clisby was back in the water only three months after the accident.

“The doctors were blown away,” he said. “The surfing was the best therapy. I did some machine (weight) work, too, but the surfing helped a lot.”

It’s been six years since the accident, and Clisby has all but forgotten it.

“It was part of my life,” he said, “but I moved on. It makes you appreciate being able to go surfing and live a normal life style. What’s happening right now in my life is the most important thing.”

And quite a bit has happened to him lately.

He married his junior high school sweetheart, Anne Marie, on St. Patrick’s Day and has recently returned from a honeymoon ski trip in Canada. He and other area surfers also recently completed an hour-long videotape stressing Christianity.

The busy schedule keeps Clisby thinking of the future.

“I thought I would miss the world tour,” he said. “But then I get to a contest and look around and see all the same old faces. I enjoy it here. I’m with my wife, my family and my friends. It’s good to be staying home.”

After failing to receive competition permits for Huntington Beach Pier in the past three years, the PSAA has moved the surfing meet to Bolsa Chica State Beach.

The permit, which was granted by the state, allows the PSAA to have the event at Bolsa Chica only during Easter Week.

The Huntington Beach City Lifeguard Department had denied permits to compete at the Huntington Beach Pier for the past three years because of the meet’s affiliation with a national beer distributor. The state owns the beach near the pier, but leases it to the city.

The PSAA tour had held five events at the pier during the 1985-86 seasons, but was denied a permit after a riot at the Op Pro Championships, which is part of the world tour, in the summer of 1986.

While the Op Pro continued at the pier after the riot, the PSAA tour was sent packing.

“It really hurt the U.S. tour as well as the Huntington Beach surfers,” said PSAA President Robbie Meistrell, “They no longer had an avenue to compete as the top seeds in front of their hometown fans.”

Huntington Beach surfers expected to compete for the $7,000 first prize include Clisby, former U.S. champion John Parmenter and Bud Llamas. Chris Cunningham of Huntington Beach will compete for the $2,000 first prize in the bodyboard division.

Parmenter said he hopes the event will draw attention to the recent oil spill that closed miles of the beach for weeks. More than 190 surfers are expected to compete for $50,000 in prize money.

“There’s still oil out there,” Parmenter said. “People who come down to the beach will see it. Hopefully we can all get united in some way to make a statement about the hazards of oil drilling and transport.