Moonstruck by the Waves : After the Sun Goes Down, These Surfers Beat the Heat, Crowds by Venturing Out Into the Ocean at a Time When Much of the Light Comes From Below

The moon over Malibu hangs in the sky like a bright yellow beacon, bringing wave riders out of the valleys and hills.

The lights of Malibu Pier glimmer and Pepperdine University twinkles on the hill. Headlights of cars on Pacific Coast Highway carve tunnels in the night.

But the Moon Patrol at Surfrider Beach is interested only in the light of the moon and the waves rolling in like shadows in the night. It’s that time of the month, full-moon time.

“I come out every full moon,” says Bill Arthur, 20, a surfboard builder-repairman from Agoura Hills. “You don’t beat the crowds anymore, but you beat most of them.”

Marv Adams, 37, says he drove from the sweltering heat of Chatsworth to surf under the lunar light.

“That’s why I come out here late or at night. And because the crowds tend to go away. Last night was outrageous. It was great. It was one of the best surf sessions I’ve had in long time.”

Adams is taking a breather after riding a small wave to the beach. Twenty or so others are bobbing offshore, waiting for the next set. Not two hours ago there were hundreds bobbing in their place.

It’s nearly 10 p.m., it’s balmy and the visibility is fair. The only problem is that the surf that has been so good all week has dropped from a steady four feet to an inconsistent two to three, with only an occasional larger set.

Still, the beach is busy as those who aren’t out riding the waves are deciding whether it’s worth it--hoping it will get better when the tide drops. It’s the same west of here at Leo Carillo State Beach, east at Topanga State Beach and at practically every point-break from here to San Diego.

Night surfing, though it is nothing new, is becoming an increasingly popular part of the summertime surf scene, and not only because of the smaller crowds.

“There’s something magical about it,” says Pierce Flynn, 40, a longtime surfer and national program and communications director for the San Clemente-based Surfrider Foundation. “Sometimes, when there’s a lot of plankton in the water, you leave these (phosphorescent) plankton trails when you paddle. You dive underwater with your eyes open and it’s like a meteor shower or something.”

Preparing to paddle out into the small waves rolling in at Malibu, Brian Grossman, 29, a lifelong surfer from Santa Monica, recalls such an occasion.

“Two months ago we had good solid four- to five-foot swells, a grunion run on the beach, an offshore wind, low tide . . . and it was a phosphorescent evening. So, when the white water hit, it would just turn a fluorescent blue, and when you paddled through the water, you’d have these blue trails coming across.”

But in the light of the moon, the eyes can play tricks. In the ocean, things such as kelp and small fish often go bump in the night--against the dangling legs of surfers.

Says Adams: “A buddy and me were out at 10 one night and he comes paddling over and says, ‘Oh man, I just had the . . . scared out of me.’ I asked why and he goes, ‘This head, this face stuck itself out of the water and I looked at it and it was looking right at me.’ I asked what was it, and he said he couldn’t tell. So we’re sitting out there and this thing comes swimming right by us and it was a seal , barking like a dog. But we were pretty freaked out.”

Adams tries to remain philosophical when the subject of sharks comes up.

“The way I think about it is, whenever I’m out there, if there’s another guy out there, the shark will eat him first,” he says. “Then I’m OK.”

Flynn has been night surfing for nearly 20 years and has never seen a shark.

“Maybe they’ve seen us, though,” he says. “We’re always thinking about them.”

Flynn belongs to a club in north San Diego County called the Night Tribe.

“We take those glow-lights people use on Halloween or at concerts, and we tie those to our wet suits and they light us up when we go streaking down the long waves.”

Others have tried coal miner-type helmets and other means of illumination to help them see even when there is no moon. In Huntington Beach, the bright lights of the pier light the sea from sunset to sundown, so surfers can stay out all night.

Still others say they need no light--pier, lunar or otherwise, to catch a wave or two after the sun goes down.

“You just have to adjust your eyes,” Grossman says. “You don’t want to look at the lights on the pier, and you don’t want to look to the lights on the mountains. You’ve got to really stare out into the blackness and really focus. A lot of it is instinct--you feel the pulsing of the ocean and sometimes, when you take off on waves, you’re taking off in the last moments that it’s possible.”

Lifeguards certainly don’t endorse such practices, nor do they endorse night surfing in general, although many of them do it.

John Baker, a senior Los Angeles County lifeguard at Zuma Beach, says that although there are far more serious injuries reported during the day, when the less-experienced venture out into the surf, the risk of injury at night is significant because of the reduced visibility.

“But the type of injury we usually find is a laceration, or someone being hit by another board or by his own board,” he says. “It’s not usually something that sends them to the hospital.”

Eric Ching, a lifeguard at Huntington Beach, says serious injuries among the nighttime crowd at the pier are also rare, for the same reasons.

“Most of the guys that do it are pretty experienced,” he says. “The only real danger out there is the pier itself, because they have to surf so close to it to stay under the lights.”

It’s pushing midnight now at Malibu, and many of the surfers have moved from first point 100 or so yards north to third point, where the waves are breaking cleaner and more frequently.

Arthur, Roman Sawelenko and Mike Narchi, have decided the waves aren’t good enough at first, second or third point and have gone home. Grossman has completed his session and says night surfing is always pleasant, despite the waves.

“If you want to be alone with your thoughts, and stare out into the blackness, this is the way to do it,” he says.