Rad Judgment

Professional surfer Shane Beschen knows he has a dream job. Who wouldn’t want to be paid a nice salary to travel around the world to surf? Who wouldn’t want to trade places with Beschen?

“Yeah, but in a year, they may want to trade back,” he said.

Beschen, you see, is frustrated because he believes that the best surfing isn’t being rewarded on the Assn. of Surfing Professionals World Championship Tour; that judges give the highest scores for quantity, not quality; that the winning surfers are those who pack many simple moves into rides, not those who complete one difficult, spectacular maneuver.

“A lot of times on the WCT the winners of the events haven’t done the most exciting surfing of the contest by any means,” said Beschen, who lives in San Clemente. “They’ve just gotten the best waves and gone through the motions over and over.

“I just would love to see that the guys people on the beach are talking about because they did the raddest stuff were the guys that were also winning.”

Beschen, known for his acrobatic style, would like to be one of the surfers winning, but his quest for change isn’t merely selfish. The system stifles creativity, he said, and hurts the sport. He worries that competitive surfing is slipping behind skateboarding, snowboarding and other extreme sports.

“I love surfing so much that I want to see it where it should be,” Beschen said. “On Sundays sometimes I turn on NBC and I’ll be watching roller-blading and I instantly ask myself, ‘Why don’t we have something on there?’ ”

Beschen has had these concerns for years, but his frustration came to a head in 1999, his seventh year on the WCT, and he said he stopped trying to win. In many contests he went for the big aerial maneuver even though he knew it would cost him the victory.

“When you believe in something so strongly, it’s hard to deny that belief and go surf the way you know you should to win the heat,” he said.

“This whole past year I was dealing with that within myself. It became more of a principle thing. I didn’t want to play the game.”

The strategy cost him in the rankings--he dropped to 24th in the world after finishing second in 1996, eighth in ’97 and fourth in ‘98--but helped his peace of mind.

“I just tried to take the emotional part of competing out of it,” he said. “Because when you give your heart and soul to something and honestly feel like you’ve been burned, it takes a lot out of your soul. It pretty much crushes you.”

Beschen considered skipping the WCT in 2000 and joining an alternative tour. However, such a tour hasn’t materialized, so Beschen is planning to surf the WCT again this year and hoping for change.

And change is on the way, according to Peter Whittaker, the ASP’s chief operating officer. Whittaker said judging criteria is being revamped and a new system will be in place when the 2000 season starts in March on the Gold Coast of Australia.

“We do recognize that surfing has moved ahead and that the criteria has to move with it,” Whittaker said. “We understand Shane’s concerns, but ASP is taking steps to move along with progressive surfing.”

SURF WATCH

Speaking of surfing, ESPN and ESPN2 will show the 1999 Triple Crown of Surfing in the next several months. The schedule:

Saturday--G-Shock Hawaiian Pro, 7:30 a.m., ESPN2; Jan. 30--Rip Curl Cup, 11 a.m., ESPN2; Feb. 10--Rip Curl Cup, 1:30 p.m., ESPN; Feb. 12--Rip Curl Cup, 7:30 a.m., ESPN2; Feb. 29--Pipemasters, 12:30 p.m., ESPN; March 11--Pipemasters, 7:30 a.m., ESPN2; March 14--Pipemasters, 7:30 a.m., ESPN2.

TOUGH CLIMB

A good thing about mountaineering slide shows is you get a glimpse of life on the edge with no danger of falling. Noted alpinist Jim Bridwell, who will share slides and memories of his ascent of the formerly unclimbed east face of Bear Tooth in Alaska at the North Face at Triangle Square in Costa Mesa at 7:30 p.m. Monday, felt the fear for you.

Bridwell, 55 and a serious climber for 38 years, said his 4,600-foot climb this summer of the 10,040-foot peak outside Denali National Park was exceedingly difficult.

Bridwell and four partners spent about 17 days on the wall, climbing up a nearly vertical rock face covered by a thin layer of ice. As they went higher, the ice turned to a coarse snow that barely supported the climbers’ weight.

“This was one of the first times in years and years,” Bridwell said, “that I was in a bad place. I was fairly scared for some moments.”

Details about the slide show: (949) 646-0909.

GET FIT

A Snails’ Pace running shop is beginning its three-month fitness program Tuesday.

The program meets Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6:30 p.m. and Saturdays at 7 a.m. at the Huntington Beach Pier Plaza. It runs for 13 weeks and aims to get participants ready to walk or jog a 5K or 10K in April.

The fee is $99. Details: Richard Scott, (714) 842-2337.