Catalina Still Waiting for Summer to Arrive : Tourism: The number of visitors to the island has fallen. Merchants report that business is down by as much as 25%, but some still hope to recoup losses this fall.

By the time Labor Day weekend rolls around, tourist-weary residents of Santa Catalina Island usually get a bad case of what some call the “August uglies.”

Frazzled shop owners strain to hide clenched teeth behind their broad smiles. Residents sneer as tourists veer rented golf carts into curbs. Even young children become afflicted, elbowing their way past irksome visitors in candy stores and video arcades.

Not this year. Cloudy skies, cold seas, poor fishing, year-round schools, recession--even turmoil in the Soviet Union--are being blamed for keeping tourists away in droves.

This Labor Day weekend, people are still downright nice.

“We don’t have the stress we normally have,” said Joanna Vojkovich, who runs Shipwreck Joey’s cafe in Avalon. “I don’t know what people are doing, but they aren’t coming here to Catalina.”

Islanders aren’t particularly proud of the August uglies--many whisper the words apologetically or use the more cryptic “Augusties” when tourists are within earshot--but this weekend some have recalled the summer-end malady with a tweak of nostalgia.

August uglies, after all, meant August crowds, which in island talk reads August profits.

“It won’t be as easy to get through this winter,” said Dennis Adkins, general manager of Catalina Auto & Cartopia, which rents a fleet of 85 golf carts to tourists. “We have a lot of employees we carry through the winter, so we depend on a good summer.”

Merchants and hotel operators report that business is down by as much as 25% from last year, and official statistics kept by the Catalina Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau show the visitor count through July had dropped more than 6%. No one will venture to guess what the August numbers will show.

“All the businesses are down,” said Avalon Mayor Bud Smith, a retired airline pilot who was born and raised on Catalina. “It is the worst summer I can ever recall as far as the weather is concerned.”

It has been a strange summer in other ways, too.

The island has gotten bad press nationwide over the Santa Catalina Island Co.’s decision to cancel its lease with a Boy Scout camp at Emerald Bay after 65 years. The last group of Scouts left last week to make way for a $2.5-million aquatic complex and education center to be built by the Cousteau Society.

Early last month, Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies in Avalon arrested a 29-year-old man who allegedly was distributing LSD to teen-agers on the island. The same week, an alleged rapist jumped overboard and nearly drowned while being escorted to the mainland by a sheriff’s deputy.

The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service has made a series of high-profile raids, and last week, a private plane crashed into the ocean north of the island after losing power.

“There have been a few unusual incidents,” said Lt. Thomas A. Gahry, commander of the Avalon sheriff’s station. “For whatever reason, our (crime) statistics are a bit above what they were last year. Don’t ask me why.”

Not that this Labor Day weekend isn’t shaping up to be a commercial and recreational success. On Saturday, the air was filled with the scent of coconut tanning oil, and the beachfront walkway along Crescent Avenue was packed with tourists. The breakfast line outside Sally’s Waffle Shop was so long it was blocking pedestrian traffic.

And there was sun. Indeed, if you listen to many islanders, you might begin to believe this is Memorial Day weekend and the beginning of summer, not Labor Day and its ceremonial end. Nearly a week of sunny skies have people here talking wishfully of an Indian summer, perhaps two months of good weather--and good business--to make up for three months of bad.

“It is strange,” said Sherry Abdelnour, who works a variety of jobs, including selling helicopter tours of the island. “Here it is Labor Day. The season is ending. But summer is beginning.”

Not that the tourists were complaining. Many left overcast ports from Redondo Beach to Newport Beach not knowing what to expect 24 miles offshore. The breeze on Catalina was cool and the ocean too frosty for some, but weekend parties and family gatherings were in full swing.

Linda Davidson, a Labor Day weekend regular from Ventura County, continued a 22-year tradition of rising before dawn Saturday to reserve a prime tanning spot at the water’s edge near the Avalon pier. Six hours later, the sun broke out from behind a dark layer of clouds; Davidson peeled off a lime green robe, and, clad in a bikini, luxuriated in the sun.

“I would rather come here than go to Hawaii,” said Davidson, her eyes hidden behind large sunglasses. “It is so peaceful here. I just love it.”

Nearby on the pier, Barry Shaffer celebrated a triumphant 1 1/2-hour cross-channel journey on his Jet Ski, a recurring feat frowned upon by local lifeguards. The Redondo Beach man, whose wife is expecting a baby today, spent a few hours with his brother before heading back in the wake of a large passenger boat.

“I had a blast,” Shaffer said. “My wife wasn’t too happy about it, though.”

At the Santa Catalina Island Co. information booth, on the beachfront walkway, it was like any busy holiday weekend. The most frequently asked questions: Where is the beach? (Behind you.) Can you see through the bottom of the glass-bottom boat? (Yes. It is glass.)

“Catalina is probably the most unchanged place I know,” said John Barry, a Newport Beach industrial engineer and an unabashed Catalina promoter who has been boating to the island for 35 years. “It has all of the charm of the Spanish coast, but it is only 45 minutes away and you don’t have to go to LAX.”

Many merchants and hotel operators--some of whom, because of sluggish bookings, dropped a standard holiday requirement for a three-night minimum stay--are banking on that convenience to get them through the rest of the year. Others on the island, however, won’t be sorry to see the summer end.

“You look forward to summer getting here, and you look forward to summer ending,” said Lt. Paul McIroy, a lifeguard. “That is just part of life here.”

Smith, the mayor, said the end of summer is really a beginning for many island residents.

“The business community naturally would like to see it last 24 hours a day, 12 months a year,” he said. “But they aren’t the majority. The whole community depends on the tourist trade, but we do enjoy having our winters to ourselves.”