Beach Beckons as Summer Sets Slowly in West

This has all the ingredients of a prime beach weekend--clear skies, steaming temperatures, warm ocean water and the allure of a three-day holiday.

As the Labor Day weekend began Saturday, thousands of beach-goers followed a time-honored ritual. They loaded up their cars with children, coolers, sunscreen and beach umbrellas and headed shoreward to salute the unofficial end of summer.

Up and down Orange County’s coast, they soaked in the rays and splashed in the surf, seemingly oblivious to the autumn realities of school, new jobs and cooler weather ahead.

“Life is good,” read a beer-touting banner fluttering from a plane far above Huntington State Beach, which drew an estimated crowd of 35,000. Down the coast, about 40,000 swarmed into Laguna Beach, officials said.

Mark and Diana Rogers survived a 90-minute traffic jam from Yorba Linda to join thousands of others at Huntington, Boogie boards in tow.

They emerged from the ocean in early afternoon, dripping and grinning.

“The waves are just great. The water’s real warm,” reported Mark Rogers, 28. In the weeks ahead, he will finish school and start job-hunting, while his wife prepares to quit her job to work on her master’s degree. But on Saturday, on the sandy reaches of Huntington Beach, the upcoming upheaval all seemed very far away.

“We’re not thinking about it,” said Diana Rogers, 30.

Fourteen-month-old Jessica Stacy celebrated Labor Day weekend with a beginning of a different sort--her first trip to the beach.

She stood rooted to the sand in her blue-and-white sunsuit, entranced by the surf, a baby bottle clutched in her sand-encrusted hand.

“She’s discovering the beach. She’s discovered sand, sand everywhere,” said her mother, Sharon, who fled 100-degree-plus temperatures in Moreno Valley to relax with her husband and two daughters beneath the bluffs at Crystal Cove State Park.

Another beach newcomer, 16-month-old Christine Forcillo, was damp-haired and wide-eyed after her first encounter with a wave.

“One big wave came and bit her,” explained her mother, Heather, 27, of Irvine.

Crystal Cove lifeguards reported an unusually busy day of rescues as a strong currents drew some swimmers out to sea.

“I think the heat’s taking a lot out of people. They become fatigued a lot faster,” said lifeguard Mike Starkweather.

Temperatures soared across Orange County, with a high of 93 reported in Anaheim, 91 in the Lake Forest area, 83 in Dana Point and 75 in Newport Beach. Santa Ana’s high of 92 was well above the city’s 30-year average high of 84 for the date.

Heat-related technical problems left about 200 Southern California Edison customers without power, said Jerry Dominguez, the company’s regional manager.

The most extensive outage, caused by an underground cable failure about 10 a.m., affected 115 homes in a Laguna Hills neighborhood near Ridge Route Drive and Moulton Parkway. Power was restored to most customers in the 10-square-block area by 4 p.m., Dominguez said.

Another 100 customers had no electricity after transformers in Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley broke down in what Dominguez described as “very minor” power outages lasting several hours.

Even close to the water, the air was torrid.

“It’s pretty hot. I get in, get out and I’m dry in five minutes--I mean dry,” said Crystal Cove lifeguard David Beekman, 28, of Burbank.

The heat also took its toll inland at Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park, where camping areas were half-full Saturday afternoon.

“It seems our attendance is down and the temperature is up,” said park ranger Stan Bangtston.

Beach attendance varied in the county, with crowds reported to be average or slightly below average for Labor Day weekend at several.

“I was expecting it to be a lot busier than it is,” said Reanna Roe, a park aide at Bolsa Chica State Beach.

Some wondered if the heat was keeping people at home, while others cautioned that bigger crowds are expected today and, especially, Monday.

“Monday will probably be pretty crazy. Labor Day and the Fourth of July are the big ones,” said Scott Armstrong, park aide at Doheny State Beach in Dana Point.

The weather ahead should be ideal for outdoor sports, with mostly clear and slightly hazy skies and slightly lower temperatures expected today and Monday, according to WeatherData, which supplies weather information to The Times.

Low clouds and fog may hug the coast in the early morning, burning off later in the day.

High temperatures are expected to range from the 70s near the coast to the 80s inland, reaching into the low 90s near the foothills, said meteorologist Curtis Brach.

“It’s going to be beautiful,” he said.