Tans Color the Last Lazy Days of Spring Break

The teenage team just lay there, practically motionless, seeming to milk every last minute of freedom on the beach on the last weekday of spring vacation.

Actually, they were engaged in intense competition. They were serious, and they had a plan.

“We’re trying to get tanner than everyone who went to Havasu,” Stefanie Fellows, 16, explained earnestly.

That, she and her three friends from El Toro High School said, meant strategic placement of towels to catch the full force of the sun’s rays and, of course, liberal application of baby oil (SPF minus 30). The first few days, priority went to faces and stomachs; Friday afternoon they flipped over, in unison, to sear their backs.

“This is the first day we’ve actually flipped,” Fellows said. “We angle everything just right. When the sun rotates, so do we.”

The four were among hundreds of teenagers and young adults at Orange County beaches Friday, savoring the 15-mph breeze and upper-60s temperatures, which are expected to continue this weekend with inland highs up to 80 by Sunday.

Lifeguards were far from relaxed, however. The surf stirred a strong rip current off the Newport coast, where more than 200 people had to be pulled from the water this week. One man was pummeled by the 4- to 8-foot surf Friday near Balboa Pier and strained his neck.

“There are lots of people here who are unfamiliar with the ocean currents,” said Eric Bauer, a Newport Beach lifeguard. “They figure it’s like a swimming pool.”

That misimpression was generally short-lived. One 15-year-old Claremont girl was minding her own business, standing in 3 feet of water near Newport Pier, when a stingray stung her.

“It hurt really bad--like a knife,” said Anna Thompson, pointing to a red welt on her foot as fellow students from Claremont High School looked on admiringly.

She confessed that much of the sting was relieved when she saw one of the rescuing lifeguards.

“One of ‘em was cute,” she said.

Though spirits were generally high among youths on the shoreline Friday, there was some trepidation about Monday. For example, those in the Claremont crowd said that every one of them faced the possibility of flunking math.

Down the beach, Anne Hutchinson, 15, wondered how she was going to whiz through the 500-page “The Once and Future King” in time for English class.

“It’s a big book,” she said, clearly daunted.

But Monday, for all the misery it would hold, was still a weekend away. And forecasters were predicting clear skies, after morning clouds burn off, and light breezes.

“It’ll be beautiful,” Bauer said. “I’m sure there’ll be lots and lots more people.”