Making a Political Splash : Fund raising: Elected officials put their best foot foward--on a long surfboard--at a celebrity surfing event in Huntington Beach. There are some thrills, many spills.

Taking a conservative approach, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Long Beach) stayed in the low surf and rode the smaller waves. Mayor Thomas J. Mays and Councilman John Erskine, on the other hand, shot for glory. They tried to ride the crashing, dashing waves close to the pier. The results were mixed: some thrills, but many more spills.

Meanwhile, the lone female in the event, Rhonda Carmony, a 20-year-old aide to Assemblyman John R. Lewis (R-Orange), used fancy footwork to outscore the five other politicos competing in the Mayor’s Invitational Celebrity Surf Contest at the Huntington Beach Pier. Judges noted, however, that Erskine came in a very close second.

Erskine, 39, wowed the cheering crowd on the beach by turning backward on his board as it soared on a high wave. The judges gave Erskine a perfect 10 score for that feat. But Mayor Mays, 36, said he was not impressed. “That turkey Erskine was hotdogging,” said Mays, with a big smile.

Mays organized the event to raise money for the city’s new Surfing Museum, which was launched earlier this year. “Businesses sponsoring this Celebrity Contest have donated $3,500, and it’s all going to the museum,” Mays said.

For the crowd at the Huntington Beach Pier, the Celebrity Contest provided color and comedy, but few moments of surfing grandeur. The six contestants spent more time flailing around in the water than riding on their long-style surf boards. And some of the contestants came perilously close to whacking the barnacle-covered pier pilings. Nonetheless, the judges said they were impressed.

“Frankly, I didn’t expect any of these guys to stand up on their boards,” said one judge. “So they did a lot better than I predicted.”

The contestants, in addition to Rohrabacher, Carmony, Erskine and Mays, were former Huntington Beach Mayor Bob Mandic, 49, and Orange County Deputy Dist. Atty. Chris Evans, 35. Most said they were badly out of shape for surfing, having spent more time of late in smoke-filled rooms than in the ocean. They poor-mouthed their chances before entering the water for the half-hour event.

“I’ve got the longest board, so I should get the biggest handicap,” Mays said jokingly.

“I’m the oldest in this thing, so the others ought to be required to surf with one hand tied behind,” Mandic said.

“I’m not used to surfing on a long board,” Carmony said.

Not to be outdone, Rohrabacher said, “I’m used to body surfing, but I haven’t done any board surfing for 20 years.”

Erskine complained of aging. “It’s been five or six years since I was an active surfer,” he said. “I ought to get a 20-stroke handicap.”

The excuses ended abruptly as the air horn signaled them to get into the water. The six contestants waded into the surf near the pier, and the judges watched from their tents on shore.

“Don’t quote us by name,” one judge warned. “We don’t want to get in trouble with these politicians.” The judges were surfing experts who had scored competitors in the city’s two-day 20th Annual Summer Surf Contest. The celebrity event was a last-minute addition to the contest.

The judges watched as Mays, out by the pier, rose briefly on his board, only to pull back as the wave rolled by him. Said a judge, jokingly, “Typical politician. Pulling out at the last minute.”

A few minutes later Erskine thrilled the crowd with his turn-around steps on his surfboard. But one of the judges had a cynical joke: “Now there’s a politician changing his position. What else is new?” Despite the joking, however, the judges said they were genuinely impressed with Erskine’s feat.

Tim Ball of San Diego, one of the judges, allowed himself to be quoted by name for these comments: “Erskine was the only one to score a 10. Rhonda (Carmony) won slightly on points because she was able to stay up longer on her board. But actually, all these guys did well. That was a bumpy, choppy, 3- to 4-foot surf out there.”

The choppy surf pulled the surfers towards the pier pilings. Erskine saved himself from injury by throwing up his surfboard like a shield just before a wave dashed him against a barnacle-covered pier piling. The collision with the piling broke off the rear fin of Erskine’s board. “For a while out there I was thinking that it might be embarrassing to come back to shore all blood covered,” said a sheepish Erskine after the event.

Although Mays had jokingly proclaimed there were five second-place finishers, the judges’ combined tally showed Carmony first, followed in order by Erskine, Evans, Rohrabacher, Mays and Mandic.

Rohrabacher said he would now go back to Washington and stake his claim to fame. “I may not be the best surfer in Huntington Beach,” he said, “but I’m certainly the best surfer in Congress.”