EASTER SURFING CLASSIC : Surfers Fight Dense Fog, Not Big Waves

For the second consecutive day, most of the competitors at the Easter Surfing Classic thought they were surfing in a London shipyard rather than at Bolsa Chica State Beach.

Dense fog caused several delays, some lasting as long as two hours, in Thursday’s second round of the five-day meet.

Only 16 of the 32 heats scheduled for Thursday’s second and third rounds were contested, and the third-round heats will be made up this morning. The top two surfers in each of the four-man heats qualify for the next round.

The clouds that accompanied the waves left the competitors beached and, well, bummed.

Garth Tarlow of Fullerton, who qualified for the third round with a second-place finish to Robbie Todd of Costa Mesa, had to wait more than an hour for his heat to start because of the fog.

“The fog made it really hard to see the waves come through,” Tarlow said. “It was hard to tell the good waves from the bad ones. The conditions are contestable, but the waves were mushy and pretty hard to ride.”

While Todd said he wasn’t bothered by the delay, Tarlow was.

“The delay made it tough to keep your focus,” Tarlow said. “You get all amped up to surf and then they (contest officials) tell you that you can’t go out there. You’ve got to stay relaxed.”

Ronnie Meistrell, contest director, said the competition was stopped when visibility was less than 100 yards. Safety also was a factor, he said.

Meistrell was relieved when the mid-afternoon sunshine burned off the fog, allowing seven heats to be contested without fog. But the clouds, and delays, returned two hours later.

The longest delay--two hours--came between the final two heats. Chris Billy of San Juan Capistrano, a former member of the world tour, was warming up for the final heat when he and other surfers were called in to shore.

“I couldn’t even see the beach from where I was,” Billy said. “It was bad.”

Billy sat in the back of his pickup truck during the delay as nearby speakers blared out the song “Waiting for the Sun” by The Doors.

But when Billy did get his chance to surf, he made the most of it. He won the final heat and was one of 19 Orange County surfers to advance to the third round, which starts at 7 a.m. today. The tournament continues through Sunday.

The second-round results (top two advance to the third round):

Heat 1--Mark Moreno, Huntington Beach; Bobby Whipple, Balboa. Heat 2--Craig Bechtloff, Huntington Beach; Laka Burgess, Huntington Beach. Heat 3--Jason Senn, Capistrano Beach; Hans Hagan, Laguna Beach. Heat 4--Noel Rahme, Huntington Beach; Jeff Jesse, Capistrano Beach.

Heat 5--Ryan Ragan, San Francisco; Darren Tatsuno, Honolulu, Hawaii. Heat 6--Mark Linblad, San Clemente; Shawn Barron, Santa Cruz. Heat 7--Robbie Todd, Costa Mesa; Garth Tarlow, Fullerton. Heat 8--Donovan Frankenreither, Mission Viejo; Danny Melhado, Indialantic, Fla.

Heat 9--Nick Brown, Hermosa Beach; Taylor Knox, Carlsbad. Heat 10--Jamie Simmons, Puhi, Hawaii; David Pina, Anaheim. Heat 11--Joey Zintel, Huntington Beach; Pete Rocky, Oxnard. Heat 12--John Logan, San Diego; Tom Trier, Cardiff.

Heat 13--Jeff Deffenbaugh, Huntington Beach; Josh Baxter, San Clemente. Heat 14--Rob Machado, Cardiff; Steve Kane, Huntington Beach. Heat 15--Allen Johnson, San Diego; Aaron Chase, Coronado. Heat 16--Chris Billy, San Juan Capistrano; Bill Baum, Newport Beach.