Waves of Protest : Two Eastern Towns Defend Turf Against Upstart 'Surf City'

By BILL BILLITER and RALPH FRAMMOLINO

Feb. 24, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITERS

HUNTINGTON BEACH —

Yo, dudes, it’s radical.

Ya know, like Huntington Beach decides to market itself as Surf City. But, like, some guys back East say “Not!” Like, you know, there’s two cities already named Surf City. One in New Jersey. One in North Carolina. The mayors of those Surf Cities are totally amped out, like with major problems. They’re saying, “Hey, get outta my surf, ya wannabes.”

But check this: HB tells the other Surf Cities, “Hey, chill out. Don’t get all agro. Let’s be mellow.” Then HB says it’s going for the copyright. Like, wipeout, East Coast dudes!

Call it the Battle of the Beaches.

A pair of East Coast beach towns have been doing some tongue-in-cheek huffing and puffing over the Huntington Beach City Council’s decision to market itself as “Surf City.”

The slighted cities are Surf City, N.J., population 1,600, and Surf City, N.C., population 1,500. Huntington Beach, population 185,000, has for decades been unofficially called “Surf City,” especially by young surfers who flock into town. But Huntington Beach began the surf spat with the East Coast Surf Cities when it announced that Huntington Beach would copyright “Surf City” and use it as a sales tool.

A turf fight over surf was in the making, according to the eastern cities. Tourism is a big industry in all three communities.

Huntington Beach officials insist that all the misunderstandings have been laid to rest. They say there’s enough surf for everyone--that taking a copyright to protect their marketing scheme won’t hurt the New Jersey and North Carolina communities.

But the mayor of Surf City, N.J., said last week that he is still leery of Huntington Beach’s intentions. And officials in all three cities said there is, indeed, tourism magic in the Surf City name. A major reason is the Jan and Dean rock song “Surf City,” which hit the top of the charts in 1963 and remains a surf-music classic.

The sand spat began last September, when Huntington Beach’s City Council first voted for the Surf City marketing strategy. Humorously written wire stories relayed the news back East.

Mayor Leonard T. Conners Jr. of Surf City, N.J., responded with a letter to then-Huntington Beach Mayor Peter M. Green.

“This could be viewed as an effort to obtain some degree of exclusive rights for the use of the great name of Surf City,” Conners wrote. “ . . . I am also notifying our colleague, Mayor Douglas C. Medlin of Surf City, N.C., of this situation and asking his community’s opposition to any attempt to make exclusive the great name of Surf City.”

Conners put enough light touches in the letter to show Green that the challenge from the Garden State was good-humored. For instance, Conners closed his missive by telling Green: “Bring your board and see you at the beach.”

Green replied with a similar light touch.

“I wrote him words to the effect that we weren’t taking over the surf--that the surf would still be hitting the beaches of his city,” Green said in a recent interview.

Huntington Beach Community Services Director Ron Hagan additionally made a peacemaking phone call to Surf City, N.J. Hagan is in charge of Huntington Beach’s marketing program. He said he didn’t want a messy surf fight.

“I explained to them that the copyright we’re seeking is ‘Surf City Huntington Beach,’ ” Hagan said. “We’re not copyrighting ‘Surf City’ just by itself. I also told the New Jersey people that we could exchange promotional programs and promote travel to both coasts. And we invited them to come visit Huntington Beach. I think everything’s ironed out now.”

Well, maybe.

But Conners, in an interview last week, was not too happy about hearing that the Huntington Beach council had unanimously voted Tuesday to pursue the copyright.

“Oh yeah? How about that,” said Conners. “I wonder what that would do. Not being an attorney, maybe I should look into that. The name is ours. I don’t think they can steal it from us. But we certainly are going to look into it, and we will resist with all the vigor that is necessary to do so.”

Conners explained that the Jan and Dean “Surf City” song has always been a big boost for his community.

“How could you miss?” Conners said. “Here’s the No. 1 song in the nation (in 1963) and everybody but everybody looked to Surf City, New Jersey, as the place to be. . . . There were people who came to Surf City because of that record and who I married as mayor. There was one couple, the girl came from California and he was from New Jersey, and they came to Surf City to be married in Surf City. And they were married on the beach.”

However, Conners said he and other city officials never gave a thought to claiming the song as their own as a tourism gimmick.

“I’ve got to tell you this--we need very little promotion to get the people out. . . . We don’t advertise. This is a mecca.”

Huntington Beach officials also consider their community a beach mecca.

Nonetheless, the city advertises. With a recession in full bloom, tourist dollars are very welcome. And Community Services Director Hagan said Huntington Beach is already reaping vast commercial attention because of the new Surf City marketing.

In Surf City, N.C., Janet Chamblee, interim town manager, said last week that city officials there were at first unhappy when they learned about Huntington Beach’s marketing plans.

“But then we learned that they weren’t going to take over the Surf City name by itself, and we felt that was OK,” Chamblee said.

Chamblee said the surf is a big draw for tourists. And tourists balloon the little island community in the Tar Heel State from a winter population of 1,500 to about 30,000 in the summer, she said.

Likewise, in Surf City, N.J., the winter population of about 1,600 swells to around 25,000 in the summer, said Municipal Clerk Mary Lundy. Tourism is the industry, she added.

Huntington Beach has a major ace in the hole in the high-stakes Surf City game. Dean Torrence, the Dean of Jan and Dean, now lives in Huntington Beach and is a volunteer adviser for the city’s marketing plans.

“Dean knows a lot about what people in the rest of the nation think of surfing communities and how we should market them,” said former Mayor Green, who is still on the City Council.

But Torrence, in a recent interview, said there’s no reason for any of the other cities to worry. There are many visions of a Surf City, he said.

He added, “There’s room enough for everyone.”

A Surf City Comparison

Two cities in the United States are named Surf City. Here’s how they stack up with Orange County’s own version, Huntington Beach:

Surf City, N.J.

Winter population: 1,600; summer, 25,000

Location: 25 miles northeast of Atlantic City

Major industry: tourism

Official motto: none

Unofficial nickname: “The Family Community”

Incorporated: 1894

Surf City, N.C.