Pier Pressure

It’s hard to stand out in a crowd in Huntington Beach. On an ordinary summer day, the competition of colorful characters may include a bald man sporting a parrot on his chest as a kind of living accessory . . . or maybe even something wacky.

Call it Surf City style--a kind of sun-induced celebration of individuality.

True, that celebration can get out of hand on the Fourth of July, when police in riot gear have been called in. Yet most days, this is a place for peaceful mingling of the stylish and the strange, the casual and the creepy. People here tend to start rather than follow trends in surf and casual wear.

“People from around the world want what they’re wearing in Huntington Beach,” says Marcus Avritt, CEO of Mindless Reaction, a Huntington Beach surfwear company. “This is the place where new trends for the surf industry seem to come out.”

Designers for Orange County’s many surf and activewear companies get inspired just by walking around downtown.

“It’s a great showcase. You’re seeing not only what the local kids wear but what the inland kids wear, because the freeways end up there,” says Mike Schillmoeller, a local who started a surf-streetwear company called Counter Culture out of Huntington Beach. “It’s definitely a melting pot. The hotels, the Surf City background, the new downtown--that brings in all types.”

People-watching has become as much of a sport as surfing in Huntington Beach. From Ruby’s on the pier to a couple blocks inland along Main Street, the downtown district offers an unending fashion parade of individuality and attitude.

On a recent June afternoon, business people in shirts and slacks--no suits--mix it up with beach-goers and shoppers.

A platinum-blond woman dressed all in black except for her rubber-soled tennis shoes waits for her short latte at Starbucks. A guy stops by on his bicycle wearing a ski cap, cargo shorts and nose rings--a get-up that looks almost conservative in this town. A dark-haired woman sports a ‘50s-era floral-print sweater with ‘70s-era striped jogging pants, ‘90s single-strapped sandals and ‘40s pink sunglasses.

Some manage to look both casual and cosmopolitan. Outside the Sugar Shack Cafe, a chic brunet in her 30s sits at a table in a short chartreuse trench coat, black sandals and Paloma Picasso sunglasses.

“You’ll see different mixes of people here,” says Andrea Hernandez, a 19-year-old Huntington Beach resident as she sits outside Jamba Juice, where she works and eyes the passersby.

Teenage girls tend to travel in packs down Main Street on their way through the shops or to the beach. Marlena MacDonald, Brittney Figueroa and Cassandra De La Cruz, all of them 15 and all of them locals, visit downtown several times a week during the summer to see their friends and go to the beach.

“We come here and walk through the shops--like I haven’t done it tons of times before,” says Brittney, sporting a long striped polyester knit skirt and white nylon top. “It’s a cool place.”

Both locals and the tourists are drawn to downtown by the funky clothing and surf shops. Huntington has about a dozen surf shops.

Huntington Beach Surf & Sport and Jack’s Surfboards stare each other down from across Main Street. Both shops are influential in the surfwear industry; manufacturers watch to see what items from their line do well in the stores, figuring if they sell here, the rest of the country will catch up.

“Every new company selling surfwear comes to check out the surf shops in Huntington Beach,” says Mike Abdeo, owner of Jack’s. “They see how the kids here react to a look, and from there it spreads all over.”

Of the small clothing boutiques, the smallest is an aptly named beachwear store called the Closet. The shop occupies a former stairwell, a space so narrow it’s hard for two people to squeeze past each other when browsing through the racks of T-shirts and shorts that line one wall.

“I’m going to bring in surfboards here,” says Joe Bard, the store’s manager, undeterred by the lack of real estate. “We’ll hang them above people’s heads.”

At American Vintage Clothing, surrounded by the smell of incense and clutter of old objects including assorted flags, curios and a chandelier, three teenage girls succumb to a fit of giggling as they try on some old vests.

“I’m stuck. I can’t get out of this one. It’s too small,” one says.

Downtown has changed since redevelopment began at Main and Pacific Coast Highway about six years ago. Now it has more of a “village atmosphere,” says Diana Baker, president of the Conference and Visitors Bureau.

Downtown is more conducive to hanging out and having coffee or shopping.

“There are probably more coffeehouses in two blocks than most cities have in two miles,” says Baker, who counted half a dozen along Main Street. “And there’s more surf shops than anyplace else. People come from all over to shop in those stores.”

A second phase of redevelopment that recently got underway will include a make-over of the entry to the pier and the third block of Main Street inland from Pacific Coast Highway.

With or without redevelopment, the surf remains the top attraction, luring people both near and far.

Huntington Beach has more than eight miles of beaches; it’s home to international surf contests, including the G-Shock U.S. Open of Surfing on Aug. 4-10.

Baker occasionally fields calls from out-of-state visitors who aren’t hip to Huntington Beach’s ways:

“They’ll say, ‘I understand you have surfing. What days of the week can I watch?’ I try not to laugh.”