Neither Sewage Nor Sludge Can Stop the Surfer : Beaches: Lure of waves is so strong, many are in the water this week despite health warnings.

Head held high and surfboard in hand, Matthew Hall ignored the health warnings and marched across the sand toward the three-to-five-foot waves plunging at the Redondo Beach breakwater.

Officially, the county’s beaches were closed as millions of gallons of sewage coupled with post-storm urban runoff sent bacteria counts rocketing to dangerous levels. But the ocean was business as usual for Hall and dozens of other surfers who ignored personal pleas by lifeguards and walked right past bright yellow “Beach Closed--Avoid Water Contact” signs--grumbling about the pollution along the way.

“I live to surf,” said Hall, a 23-year-old with shoulder-length brown hair who has surfed since he was 8. “If I’m going to die or get sick, I’d rather have it happen in the ocean. I’ll go out if there is a toxic drum out there. If the water is green and glowing, I’ll still go out. Maybe I’ll get some cancer bump on my head and they’ll say it’s the result of surfing. Who knows?”

Added Pete Miller, 26, who left the water in Redondo Beach Tuesday afternoon only because the smell was overwhelming: “Nothing is going to keep me out. I’ve been doing this since I was 7 years old. . . . I’m addicted to the ocean.”

Storm-clogged sewage lines continued to overflow Wednesday, polluting coastal waters with a total of 66 million gallons of partially treated sewage. The beaches will remain closed at least until Tuesday and probably through next week, county officials said.

The County Board of Supervisors adopted strict beach closure policies Tuesday requiring officials to warn the public of hazards after heavy rains, sewage spills and environmental accidents.

But warnings won’t weaken what surfers say is the mysterious lure of the waves.

“When the surf’s good, other considerations tend to blur,” said Nick Carroll, 32, an avid surfer who is editor of San Clemente-based Surfing magazine. “You don’t pass up a chance to surf good waves.”

Carroll added that surfers are generally an independent lot who are wary of official pronouncements. “I think a lot of surfers aren’t exactly trustful of official health warnings,” he said. “They’ve heard a lot of stuff from officials and they think a lot of it is nonsense.”

Experts put the intrepid beach-goers into the same category as other thrill-seekers who throw caution to the wind: motorcyclists who speed down freeways without helmets, bungee jumpers and even those who engage in promiscuous, unprotected sex.

“There is a real human need for danger,” said Dallas Willard, a USC philosophy professor who studies sports and society. “It is one of the vitamins of life. . . . Generally speaking, life is quite bland in our organized society. Everyone is concerned about keeping us safe. That deadens the personality of people without meaningful work or opportunities for adventure. Then out come the bungee cords and motorcycles.”

Those who think they are different and would never engage in such activities are probably doing so vicariously, Willard said, by experiencing adventurous social lives through daytime soap operas or aggression through broadcasts of professional sports.

That’s all so much mumbo jumbo to the surfers who hopped on their boards this week and paddled to the waves, leaving the warnings behind. Surfing is a way of life, they said, an activity no bureaucrat is going to interrupt.

“Sometimes you’re just tempted. You can’t help it,” said Andrew Gushiken, 34, a surfer who heads the local chapter of Surfrider Foundation, an environmental group. “Most surfers will wait a day after a storm but there are those crazies that go out right away--and I’ve done it, too. You go out and take your chances. You spit a lot. You take a nice long shower.”

Lifeguards recommend that those who swim or surf in the ocean take showers when they finish and be sure to rinse their mouths, ears, eyes and noses. In addition, surfers who brave polluted waters have their own tricks for cutting down on illnesses.

One said he wipes rubbing alcohol in his ears to cut down on infection. Another takes vitamins before and after surfing to build up his resistance and rubs his skin with a moisturizing cream. Several surfers said they allow open cuts to heal before hitting the waves.

Nonetheless, health experts say staying out of the water is the only way of escaping the disease-causing bacteria that sewage and other urban spills bring.

“You shouldn’t be swimming in dirty water,” said Dr. Shirley Fannin, director of disease control programs for the County of Los Angeles. “You don’t know what’s in it. Any raw sewage is a no-no for skin contact or getting it in your mouth. It has human disease-causing potential.”

She called those who go into the water despite the warnings “scofflaws” and said they risk diarrhea, skin irritation, ear infections, stomach aches and fevers.

Still, surfers say the risk is worth it. And going in the water--closed beach or not--is within the law, surfers said, a point with which the county’s chief lifeguard, Don Rohrer, concurred.

Steve Zrofsky, 17, who was surfing Tuesday morning in a cove off Palos Verdes Estates, said he stays away from water that looks polluted but knows that the best waves come right after storms.

“You can always take medicine to get better,” said the Narbornne High School student from Lomita. “There’s nothing better than a good day’s ride.”

Challenging the health warnings is not just a quixotic quest for a killer wave, some surfers said. Surfing on closed beaches also makes a statement about the pathetic state of the ocean, they said.

“I can’t express to you my anger,” said Hall, the Redondo Beach surfer. “The people who are polluting are bureaucrats in three-piece suits, not water people. They care about making money. They don’t even go in the water. . . . I want the county to take care of the problem and not waste their time warning us of the problem.”

Surfing magazine’s Carroll said ocean pollution is the biggest unifying issue that surfing has: “There are many things that surfers disagree on--what kind of surfboard to use, who’s the best surfer--but the one thing that welds all surfers together is their anger at the state of the beaches.”