Sizzling Day Celebrated With Surf, Ceremony : Weather: Temperatures soar past 100 degrees as thousands flock to the ocean. Rebuilt piers in Manhattan Beach and Huntington Beach are dedicated under a scorching sun.

Soaring temperatures and moderate humidity made for a quintessential Southern California beach weekend Saturday as more than half a million sun worshipers crowded the Los Angeles County shoreline and thousands of others braved the heat in pursuit of outdoor thrills.

Lured by cooling coastal breezes, beach-goers listened to barbershop quartets during ribbon-cutting ceremonies for the newly renovated Manhattan Beach Pier and giggled at Elvis Presley and Elizabeth Taylor impersonators during similar rites at Huntington Beach in Orange County.

“It’s one of those perfect days to go to the beach,” said Los Angeles County Lifeguard Capt. Tom Viren, as he surveyed crowds so thick in some stretches of Venice Beach that they blotted out the sand. “It seems like everyone and their brothers are here. Sisters, mothers, fathers, uncles, aunts, too. You name it, they’re here.”

The high in downtown Los Angeles reached 91 degrees and the humidity hit 53% late in the morning, drifting down to the low 40s and high 30s.

In the San Fernando Valley and in desert locations, thermometer readings broke the 100-degree mark--108 in Van Nuys, 102 in Northridge, 105 in San Bernardino, 114 in Palm Springs and 115 in Blythe.

About 70 people--many of them children--were treated for heat exhaustion at an air show at the Van Nuys Airport on Saturday, authorities said. A West Hills woman was taken to Northridge Hospital Medical Center after she collapsed outside a booth.

At least 75,000 people attended the Van Nuys Airport Aviation Expo, some of them trying to escape the triple-digit heat by seeking shade under the wings of planes on display.

“There are some great planes here,” said Ron Pope, 52, a small-plane pilot from Van Nuys, as he sat under the wings of a VP-21 anti-submarine plane. “As a pilot I appreciate them. But right now I like the shade a lot. It’s just too hot out here.”

The heat softened a patch of newly paved asphalt on the transition road from the southbound Golden State Freeway to the Pasadena Freeway. California Highway Patrol Officer Robert Bloomfield said the freeway was closed from 1:45 p.m. until 3:45 p.m. while Caltrans crews worked on the problem. The Riverside Drive on-ramp to the Pasadena Freeway was closed for the same reason, the dispatcher said.

“The problems happened in newly resurfaced lanes,” the dispatcher said. “We’ve spread sand over the affected areas and we’re waiting for them to dry up.”

The South Coast Air Quality Management District called first-stage smog alerts after its Pollutants Standard Index reached the 200 level in the San Bernardino Valley, metropolitan Riverside, the east San Gabriel Valley and central Orange County. Health advisories were also in effect in the Pomona-Walnut Valley and central San Bernardino Mountains.

Warnings issued earlier for southeast Los Angeles County, the east San Fernando Valley, the west San Gabriel Valley, south San Gabriel Valley and north Orange County were canceled.

In La Habra, about 200 Southern California Edison customers were unable to use their air conditioners for much of the day after a dump-truck accident knocked out power to the area.

Hundreds of thousands of Southern Californians abandoned air-conditioned comfort, swamping beaches to work on their tans, frolic in the surf or snooze away under umbrellas.

“It’s a great day,” said Keith Robinson, president of the Manhattan Beach Pier Restoration Assn., said as he watched Roller-bladers and cyclists swoop on and off the newly rebuilt public pier. “You have a bad day, you come down here for a stroll at night, and everything seems better.”

The 92-year-old landmark was heavily damaged by storms and politicians thought it was too expensive to restore. But on Saturday, those behind the six-year effort to raise $3.8 million in funding were in a mood to celebrate.

Making their way to the sand and the bike path were two bikinied friends, Yeon Yi Rhee, 20, of La Canada Flintridge and Janeen Bacich, 21, of Glendale.

“You know where La Canada is?” asked Rhee. “That’s why I’m at the beach.”

In Huntington Beach, officials and visitors also were celebrating a rebirth. Three years and $10.8 million after the 1,856-foot-long walkway to the sea was damaged in storms, the city’s new pier was being feted.

“This is going to last for another 100 years and is going to be the best pier in the United States, if not in the entire world,” said Assemblyman Tom Mays (R-Huntington Beach).

Thousands of spectators strolled the length of the pier, stopping to watch volleyball games on the beach, surfers riding the waves and fishermen trying their luck.

Even away from the beaches, Southern Californians found ways to catch rays.

In Topanga Canyon, about 300 nudists showed up at eight-acre Elysium Fields nudist camp to work on tans without lines and do some good for victims of the riots.

Camp officials urged visitors to donate clothes to a Brotherhood Crusade effort to help needy families who lost possessions during the riots. A sign in front of the Santa Monica Mountain retreat read: “Leave Your Drawers Here.”

The hot weather was expected to last through today before cooling off to the 80-degree range through the week. Steve Burback, a meteorologist for WeatherData Inc., which supplies weather data to The Times, said temperatures would hover in the 90s again today in Los Angeles and in the 100-degree range in the San Fernando Valley and central regions.

Times staff writers Jim Herron Zamora and Bill Billiter in Orange County contributed to this story.