Beschen Is Flying High on World Tour : Surfing: ASP rookie from San Clemente has enjoyed chance to travel while climbing to No. 8 in the rankings.

If you want to know how Shane Beschen is doing, just check his latest frequent-flyer statements. They include flights to Australia and back, South Africa and back, Mozambique and back.

All in a couple of months.

Now, he’s packing for a “little trip to France.”

“One 11-hour flight I can take,” he says. “It’s the two 11-hour flights with a 10-hour layover in between that are tough.”

Beschen, 21, is a rookie on the Assn. of Surfing Professionals World Tour, and he’s fast becoming as familiar with tail winds as the tailslide maneuver that has helped him become one of the world’s hottest surfers.

And, if you want to know how he’s really doing, check the latest ASP rankings. He’s No. 8 and not only the top-ranked rookie--he’s ahead of defending champion wunderkind Kelly Slater and ahead of surfing legends Tom Curren and Tom Carroll.

But Beschen didn’t exactly sneak up on the surfing world. His experimental and innovative style made him a local legend in his early teens. He could have dropped out of San Clemente High School before 11th grade and made a good living riding pristine, exotic waves during photo shoots for surf wear and wet-suit firms.

And Beschen could always go beyond wowing the crowd on the beach with gravity-defying aerials and controlled, backward slides. He knew how to impress the judges, too. He finished second on the California-based Bud Surf Tour in 1991 and won the championship last year, qualifying for surfing’s big show.

His thumbnail sketch in the 1993 ASP media guide includes this prediction: “A brilliant competitor and fiercely determined to climb the ranks. His approach is so versatile, he should have no trouble adapting to the diversity of conditions on the world tour. He’s a survivor. He’s capable of going a long, long way.”

If Beschen succeeds, it will be on a combination of talent and competition savvy that sets him apart from some of his gifted peers who have made a career of making the least of their abilities.

Beschen has blond hair, blue eyes and tanned skin, but the California surf-cat stereotype ends with the look. He writes poetry, plays guitar and is perfectly happy to spend evenings in his hotel room alone with a book.

And he has plenty of time to read on planes. Three weeks ago, he was flying out of Durban, South Africa, after finishing third in the Gunston 500. A week later, he was flying into Mozambique to set off on a sailing expedition in search of undiscovered surf spots for a new film produced by his sponsor.

“Most of it was a nightmare of boredom,” he said. “For five days we sailed along outside the surf line before we found anything to surf. We were out there for 10 days, and two days we had good surf. But we did find some really good waves.”

Beschen has been searching for the perfect ride ever since his parents finally allowed him to get a surfboard when he was 10. Within a few years, he was a trend-setter among the elite in the high-energy atmosphere of San Clemente’s T-Street reef break.

He has been able to find his spot in the wave’s pocket for a long time; now, he’s carving his niche as a world-class professional surfer.

“Shane’s always been a self-motivated child who set his own goals,” said Beschen’s mother, Sue. “He’s always stood on his own. I’m not surprised he’s made a good adjustment to the traveling. And he does it all on his own.

“He makes every effort to stay on the same diet. He reads books on yoga. He gets massages. He knows how to relax. He’s just so calm.”

Until he gets in the water, that is.

Then it’s slash-and-flash time.

Beschen is tailsliding his way into surfing’s new age, but please don’t call him a pioneer riding the crest of a new wave. And don’t point to him as the young gun poised to blow his boyhood idols out of the water.

“The press is always trying to drum up this stuff about young versus old, and I guess in a way, it’s always true,” he says. “But I think it causes a lot of unnecessary conflict between the younger guys and the older guys.

“Let’s face it, everyone wants the same thing, to do well. On this level, it’s all man-on-man competition. It’s every man for himself. It’s not like there’s a group of young guys trying to take over surfing.”

Whether he likes it, Beschen is entrenched in the debate: Is vertical, power surfing enough, or is the gymnastic midair maneuver the future of the sport?

“I just love surfing, and I love doing different things on the wave,” he said. “Everyone tries to make it sounds like tailslides and aerials are all the kids do, but I love a big round-house cutback, too. I love doing everything in surfing, and sliding backward is fun.

“It’s not something I do to impress the older guys. It’s just fun. If they’re not capable of accepting that it’s fun and try to make this out like it’s their surfing against ours, that’s a bummer, because it just makes the sport more exciting.

“And anyway, it’s just a case of a sport progressing. It’s just the kids saying, ‘Where can we go from here?’ ”

Beschen knows where he’s headed. His itinerary says, “Lacanau, France,” the fourth stop on the 10-tournament world tour.

He also knows he has a long way to go this year . . . and he’s not thinking about those frequent-flyer miles.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m stoked about being eighth,” he says, “but there are still seven contests left. I’m still adjusting to the different format, man-on-man as compared to the four-man heats with two advancing they use on the Bud Tour. And almost every contest is in a different country.

“There are still two directions I can go.”

If it turns out to be a lower spot in the final rankings, Beschen doesn’t figure to go down easy. He has dealt with distractions before and seems able to turn most obstacles into advantages.

Last year, after a “mutual disagreement” over a contract with his surf wear sponsor, Beschen competed without sponsorship. But he won three events and every heat during the final event in San Francisco to secure the Bud Tour title and drive home the new truck that went to the tour champion.

“I saw the dark side of the industry, how people work, how ruthless it is, how fake people can be when they’re trying to get something they want for as little money as possible,” he said. “I was surfing well, and the guys around me were all sponsored and making good money and I wasn’t making anything except what I could win.

“Looking back, I guess it was a motivating factor for me. I wasn’t bursting or anything, but it was very satisfying to finish the year at the top. I felt like the industry had sort of let me down, but I proved I could make it all by myself and that’s a good feeling.”

Beschen has managed to keep his balance, on and off the surfboard. He knows he can go it alone now and is beginning to appreciate his continuing education without benefit of classroom or professor.

“I have friends in college, and I hang out at their schools with them a lot, and I feel more educated than a lot of those kids,” he said. “School is great, of course, but seeing the world, communicating with people who speak other languages, finding a place to stay when you don’t know anyone, that’s all a kind of learning that’s very valuable.

“I think all college kids should take a year off at some point and travel. It would give them a better sense of perspective and a better sense of direction in their studies. Almost every person I ask, ‘Why do you go to college?’ says, ‘I don’t know.’

“You can learn a lot, but if you’re trapped in school, there’s no way to see if what you’re learning works in the real world. Everything’s fine and dandy when you’re living in the dorm and mom and dad are sending the checks, but when you get out of college, you’ve got to deal with real-life stuff.”

So far, Beschen is doing a solid job of dealing with the real world of professional surfing, trying to keep from getting too high (except during an aerial) or too low (except when he’s crouching in the tube).

“Surfing is your job, your fun, your whole life,” he said, “but it’s important to find time away. When you’re in a contest situation, you’re concentration level is so high that nothing else enters your mind. So it’s important to think about other things and find a way to wind down.”

See, those long flights are good for something.