Ocean Pacific Sunwear Loses 3rd Key Executive : Resignation: John Bernards says his departure is not related to two others last week. The company announces it wants to sell a clothing division.

Another key executive has left Ocean Pacific Sunwear Ltd., Orange County’s largest licenser of surf wear, the company disclosed Thursday. OP also said it is negotiating to sell its Jimmy’Z line of casual clothing.

John Bernards said he resigned Tuesday as president of the Newport Blue and Jimmy’Z divisions of the Tustin-based apparel giant.

OP officials confirmed that they are in the process of selling the Jimmy’Z line of street wear for young men. Jem Sportswear of San Fernando confirmed that it is the potential buyer. Terms were not disclosed. OP sold the division in 1990 for a reported $6.8 million, only to take it back a few months later when buyer 199Z Inc. could not make the payments.

Bernards, 53, said his resignation is not related to the sale or to the defections of two other top executives recently.

The job “was no longer challenging to me,” Bernards said, adding that he had contemplated quitting for the past year. He said he had accomplished his sales goal of $25 million annually for Newport Blue, which he joined five years ago. He would not say what the division’s sales were when he started.

“I want to get back to running my own business and being able to use my retail and manufacturing expertise in some new, creative and challenging environments,” said Bernards, who came to OP from Off Shore Sportswear in Anaheim, which he founded and ran for 14 years.

The Villa Park resident said he negotiated an agreement to serve as a consultant for Newport Blue, which makes a line of sports and surf wear aimed at men in their 20s and 30s.

His resignation came only a week after OP disclosed that Lee Katz, who had served as chief executive officer for about a month, and Bonnie Crail, the company’s vice president of marketing, had both resigned.

Mike Balmages, OP’s senior executive vice president, said “The three partings are totally unrelated.” Katz, he said, left because his expertise was no longer required, and Crail found a better job at PacTel Cellular in Irvine.

Jeff Marine, executive vice president of Jem Sportswear, said the acquisition of the Jimmy’Z line will allow his apparel-manufacturing company to diversify into marketing to department stores.

Privately held OP has reported annual sales of about $300 million from its Ocean Pacific, Newport Blue, Jimmy’Z and Hydro Light lines of clothing.