ON THE BEACH : Riding Boards, Not Hitting Them

Mike Hopkins can run the basketball court as well as anyone in the Big East Conference. But paddling in the Pacific Ocean was a different gig for him.

Hopkins, a forward at Syracuse, got a lesson in conditioning last weekend when pal Matt Allen took him bodyboarding in San Clemente.

“We were out there five minutes, and Mike was huffing and puffing,” said Allen, a pro bodyboarder from Costa Mesa who was a teammate of Hopkins’ on Mater Dei High School’s 1988 State championship basketball team.

“Mike turned to me and said, ‘Geez, you guys have to be in shape to be doing this.’ ”

The observation drew a laugh from Allen, who has been bodyboarding competitively since 1985.

“Bodyboarding requires a lot of strength and conditioning,” Allen said. “You’re using different muscles than you are in basketball.”

Allen, a junior studying English at UC Irvine, competes on the Professional Surfing Assn. of America bodyboarding tour. His best contest finish was ninth last year at Lower Trestles.

“I’m probably not as contest-oriented as some of the guys on the tour,” Allen said.

But he was competitive as a high school basketball player. Allen, 6 feet 4, averaged about six points a game and was a part-time starter on the Mater Dei team that featured Hopkins and LeRon Ellis.

And Allen still finds time to trade his bodyboarding fins for his high tops. He’s a regular in pickup games at UC Irvine with Hopkins, Jeff Herdman, and NBA players Scottie Brooks and Tod Murphy.

“I try to stay in shape and keep up with them,” Allen said.

He’s more comfortable in the water. He was a competitive swimmer at age 7 and was in training with the local junior lifeguard program. He started bodyboarding at 8.

By age 10, he was a regular at the Wedge, the legendary surfing spot at the end of the Balboa Peninsula. It’s still his favorite spot.

“The Wedge is definitely a mainstay,” Allen said. “I have a passion for that giant wave. It’s the epicenter of my bodyboarding. It’s a powerful place. There’s a lot of prestige in being able to ride that wave well.

“I remember I was intimidated my first time out there. I was overwhelmed by the energy the ocean produces. I remember the feeling looking out the tube. It keeps me going back to this day.”

Add bodyboarding: ShinFins, the latest development in bodyboarding equipment, are expected to hit retail surf shops within the next few weeks.

Bodyboarders strap the small, flexible plastic fins just below their knees. The fins help the riders control turns with their legs instead of using the board tail and rail, and also allow them to maintain speed while turning.

The fins, similar in size and shape to those on a surfboard, were designed by inventor Hal Waller of San Diego.

“Marine mammals have been using directional fins with excellent results for more than 50 million years,” Waller said. “Why shouldn’t human wave riders benefit from that experience?”

The fins will sell for about $40 a pair.

Go figure: Surfing magazine recently published a list of the most respected and least respected surfers on the pro tour, and the fans who voted seemed somewhat confused about San Clemente’s Christian Fletcher.

Fletcher was fifth on the most respected list and second to Newport Beach’s Richie Collins among the least respected surfers.

Here are the lists:

Most respected--Tom Curren, Kelly Slater, Martin Potter, Tom Carroll, Fletcher.

Least respected--Collins, Fletcher, Curren, Damien Hardman, Derek Ho.

Hacker’s Open: Karch Kiraly chipping out of the sand on the 17th? Steve Timmons slicing into the woods? Sinjin Smith dropping a 20-foot putt to save par?

Several of the top beach volleyball stars will test their golf skills July 8 at the Steve Obradovich/Volleyball Monthly celebrity golf tournament at Mesa Verde Country Club in Costa Mesa. The event starts at 9 a.m.

Several openings remain for the five-player, scramble-format tournament. All proceeds will go to the Salvation Army.

Among the players expected to compete are Kiraly, Timmons, Smith, Randy Stoklos and Mike Dodd. For more information, call 805-541-2294.

Matt Archbold of San Clemente, one of the top surfers on the Professional Surfing Assn. of America tour, is being schooled in the fine art of diaper changing.

Archbold and his wife, Kari, are the parents of Ford Matthew, born April 3. Ford was born three days after his father won a PSAA contest at Santa Cruz.

Archbold was in the delivery room and got to cut the umbilical cord.

“It was gnarly,” Archbold said.

Notes

The Op Pro surfing championships will be July 22-28, and the Seal Beach Open pro beach volleyball tournament will be Aug. 10-11. . . . ESPN will again televise the Op Pro. Dates for the hourlong show will be Aug. 5 at 7 p.m. and Aug. 7 at 7 a.m.

Because of construction at the Huntington Beach Pier, the Op Pro will move several yards south of its previous site. The new contest site will be near Lake Street and Pacific Coast Highway, where the Op Wintersurf Pro was in February.

Tom Curren of Santa Barbara, a three-time Op Pro winner, is planning to open a surf shop in Biarritz, France, where he has lived for the past three years.

San Clemente’s Shane Beschen, who lost in the first round of the main event at the Oceanside Open last weekend, is still the PSAA points leader with 3,098 points.