NEW WAVE: The Op Pro championship, which...

NEW WAVE: The Op Pro championship, which began Sunday at the Huntington Beach Pier, is the largest surfing contest on the U.S. mainland, with more than 150 of the world’s top professionals and amateurs. . . . For the first time since 1987, fans can watch from the pier, reconstructed after being ravaged by storms. Op officials had hoped it would be ready last year, but it opened a month late. . . . The contest continues through the week with finals scheduled Saturday.

WAVE LENGTH: Surfing legend and longtime county resident Corky Carroll says the sport’s popularity goes in 10-year cycles. “It started building in the early ‘60s with the beach-party movies and the Beach Boys’ music,” he says. “Then we went through a kind of recessive period in the ‘70s with the Vietnam War. Then again in the early ‘80s, it started building again and got big before taking another dive in the last few years. . . .” Despite all this, participation continues to grow. “There’s a certain number of people who surf all their lives,” he said, “and then there’s always a horde of new kids starting.”

WHIZ KID: Look for defending world champion Kelly Slater of Cocoa Beach, Fla., to attract a lot of attention. Slater, who plays surfer Jimmy Slade on TV’s “Baywatch,” is mobbed almost everywhere he goes. But that started long before television. . . . As a 19-year-old at the Op Pro Junior amateur in 1989, he and agent Bryan Taylor figured they’d escape autograph seekers by going to a restaurant on Main Street. But they were given a window seat, and within 10 minutes, a crowd of 30 was staring at him. “It was unbelievable,” Taylor says.

SURF BUCKS: Surfing’s struggling economy has forced the Op Pro to drop off the Assn. of Surfing Professionals’ world tour. . . . After Op filed for protection from creditors in 1992, it cut the contest’s purse to $85,000--about $40,000 less than required by the world tour--and turned it into a team event that flopped with fans. It’s now back to an individual competition but with a $60,000 purse, about half that offered at world tour stops.