Surfing 101 : Environment: A weeklong camp for teen-agers stresses etiquette, coastal currents, water pollution and--oh, yeah--catching a great wave.

At the Orange County Marine Institute, there’s more to surfing than simply grabbing a board and a bar of wax and hitting the waves.

Students in the institute’s first surf science class are tutored on surfing etiquette, coastal currents and how to test the ocean’s water for pollution.

“We want to bury the old ideas people have about surfing,” said Harry Helling, associate director. “Surfers these days are looking for political clout and are involved in keeping environmental issues alive. We want the younger generation to continue this image.”

The weeklong camp begins at 7 each morning. On Tuesday, about 16 sleepy-eyed teen-agers from cities throughout Southern California and as far away as Oakland gathered around two tables in the institute’s laboratory near the Dana Point Harbor.

Some say they enrolled in the camp simply to learn to surf, and so they were none too pleased to learn that hourlong laboratory sessions were part of the curriculum. A few rubbed their eyes and propped their chins on the table as instructors Karen Drewe and Adam Ramirez used a long rectangular glass tank to show how waves are generated.

Nick Reynolds, 12, of Laguna Beach, pretending he was the wind, paddled the water at one end of the tank. Foamy ripples knocked against the other end, where Sean Tamillo, 15, of Rancho Cucamonga, lifted an adjustable glass slope, causing the ripples to rise.

“That’s why Hawaii has humongous waves,” instructor Ramirez interjected. “When the slope is gentle, like California’s, we have smaller waves. But Hawaii is like this volcano in the ocean, so when the waves slap against the steeper ocean slopes, you get giant waves, 10- to 15-foot ones.”

The youngsters also learned how coastal development can kill the surf. Ramirez, an environmental science graduate from UC Santa Barbara, gestured toward hundreds of yachts moored at Dana Point Harbor and explained how construction of the harbor in 1966 meant the end of “Killer Dana,” the 10-foot waves that prompted the Beach Boys’ “Surfin’ U.S.A.”

Another important element of the camp is surfing etiquette. Students are taught who has the right of way on a wave and are cautioned to avoid the fistfights that are common at some surfing spots.

Later, the teen-agers grabbed their boards and wet suits and headed for Boneyard, a popular spot at Doheny Beach State Park where local long-boarders conduct water tests almost daily and have found unsafe levels of fecal coliform and pollutants. The students will take their own samples today.

But first, they slipped into their wet suits and paddled in a phalanx out to the break. A few of the youngsters wiped out on the first swell.

“Some of them hope to be performing stunts at the end of this week,” Drewe said, smiling. “We just want them to get the message that the ocean is theirs to take care of.”