Summer Daze : Beautiful Day Draws Admirers to the County’s Coastline

Jerry Dobyns took a break from his frenzied day as a traveling salesman, sat on a bench by the Ventura Pier and ate a sandwich while gazing out onto an ocean alive with youthful swimmers and surfers.

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“This is a real beautiful day,” the Port Hueneme resident said. “We haven’t had many like this in Ventura County this year. It doesn’t get any better than this.”

On the breezy beach below, Karen Hicks of Ventura watched her two youngsters tussle playfully and struck up a conversation with Kim Gray, who sat nearby and kept a vigil on Mason, her 14-month-old son.

“Mason, do you have to take a sand shower?” Gray said as Mason poured a handful of sand over his head. “Come here! Don’t put that in your mouth!”

Both women sighed as the short-lived conversation ended, and Gray fetched the sandy toddler.

“It’s a perfect day at the beach,” Hicks said.

Ventura County’s lazy, flawless summer days are finally here, and beach-goers from the county and beyond say they have arrived none too quickly.

In a summer that has seen entire weeks pass by in a haze of rain, smog and overcast skies, the sparkling days that Ventura County residents sometimes take for granted--with pleasant offshore breezes, good waves, mild temperatures and sunny skies--are suddenly eliciting newfound appreciation.

“It’s killer that it’s sunny finally,” said a longhaired surfer who identified himself only as Perry, still soaked from a morning at San Buenaventura State Beach. “We’ve been socked in with all that fog here. And the waves were the best we’ve had in weeks.”

Bruce Rockwell of the National Weather Service in Oxnard said this summer’s cloudy conditions have differed little from previous years.

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“There’s nothing unusual going on this summer,” he said. “But after a few overcast days, it starts to feel like something’s wrong.”

Complaints about the weather shouldn’t resume soon: The next several days look clear and mild, with average temperatures in the mid-70s, Rockwell said.

Looking to escape the incubator-like heat of the San Fernando Valley, Julie Bustad took the Ventura Freeway to the beach with her four children and met their grandfather, Joe, near the Ventura Pier.

“This is just a beautiful day,” Bustad said as her 3-year-old son, Kenan, buried her legs in sand. “We came over to feed the squirrels and the pigeons and take a walk on the pier. It’s a lot nicer here. It’s miserable in the Valley.”

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Josh Borgese and his friends came to Ventura from Canyon Country to evade the inland heat and take advantage of the good weather. They also came to eye the local girls, they admitted.

A simple sand castle-making session soon turned creative as the teen-agers began molding hammerheads and other great white sharks. Details such as the hammerhead’s tail were ignored in favor of flashy jaws and pointy fins.

“It’s too hot in Canyon Country,” said 15-year-old Ben Catcher, fresh from an ocean dip. “It’s boring and there’s nothing to do. Here, at least, you have a breeze.”

Sand crabs had a hard time hiding Tuesday from 9-year-old Etidal Lamaoui of Moorpark as she dug deep tunnels beside the surf and scooped the little critters into a plastic pail.

“It’s fun catching them,” she said. “Last time I came here with my friend Samantha, I caught 26.”

But 7-year-old Matt Shenkman was not nearly as adventurous as he ran toward the pail with a freshly caught crab in hand.

“It tickles! It tickles!” he said.

At Oxnard State Beach, Christopher Wayne’s friends buried him up to his neck in sand, but he was not worried about what would happen next.

“I can get out if I have to,” said Christopher, 8, who was visiting the beach with several dozen children from the Camarillo YMCA.

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Nearby, Nick Gardia, 8, stood with his face and belly plastered with wet sand, the victim of an errant pass.

“We’re playing football, and the ball keeps hitting me in the mouth,” he said, laughing. “But I don’t mind, as long as [the sand] doesn’t get in my eyes.”

Their boss told them that they were not needed Tuesday, and Demian Wood and his fellow construction workers did not put up much of an argument--they went straight to the beach near the Pierpont neighborhood where they all grew up.

“The breeze is strong, the waves are OK and it’s not too crowded,” said the 26-year-old Wood, lying on his back and facing the sea. “And I’m off from work. What more could you want?”