SURFING AT HUNTINGTON BEACH : Soot, Not Swells, Are Topic of the Day

The sun peeked through the leaden rain clouds for a few minutes late Saturday afternoon, but it did little to raise spirits at the Richie Collins Drug Use Is Life Abuse Surfing Championships. The topic of the day at Brookhurst Street Beach was the conditions. And the conditions were truly disgusting.

It was cold, and raining, and windy. The ocean looked like a washing machine with a very dirty load, a frothy mish-mash of converging swells. Worst of all was the ugly brown tint.

Some of the contestants seemed to think the sewage treatment plant across Pacific Coast Highway was to blame.

“I can’t talk very long,” said Newport Beach’s Jeff Deffenbaugh after advancing into today’s quarterfinals. “It’s really dirty out there. It was so dirty, it was slippery. I’ve got to go get a shower. And take some vitamins.”

A friend yelled some more hygiene tips as Deffenbaugh trotted away. “And put hydrogen peroxide in your ears and nose . . . and eyes. And drink a quart of bleach.”

Newport Beach’s Collins also advanced to the quarterfinals of the event that bears his name, but he certainly wished he was competing in the clean, five-foot sets that were slamming ashore earlier in the week.

“Now, it’s not even surfing, it’s pretty much just luck,” he said. “It’s just whoever gets a wave and makes a couple of turns. And it’s better now than it was at low tide this morning.”

Deffenbaugh, in a competitive heat with defending champion Rob Machado of Cardiff, Vince De La Pena of Laguna Niguel and Mission Viejo’s Donovan Frankenreiter, caught two high-scoring waves in the final minutes to finish second to Machado. Two players from each heat advance.

“I knew I was down, so I had to scratch,” Deffenbaugh said. “It’s really hard to judge which waves might hold up a little so you can make a couple of maneuvers. It was just sort of a matter of doing what you have to do under these conditions.”

Frankenreiter seemed to be the only one who could find a silver lining on this day.

“There’s so much sediment and sooty stuff out there, I think it’s making the face of the waves a little smoother.”

Other county surfers making the most of a bad situation Saturday were Dino Andino (San Clemente), Todd Miller (Newport Beach), Shane Stoneman (San Juan Capistrano) and Seal Beach native Marty Thomas.

Actor Matt Adler, who appeared in the films North Shore and Flight of the Navigator, won a special celebrity event.

Competition in longboarding, body boarding and surfing continues today beginning at 9 a.m. The surfing finals are scheduled for 2:30 p.m.