Bikers Roll Into Ventura for Annual Beach Ride Event

Before John Gomez met Sandra Argott, he was a lone wolf Harley rider. It was just him, his bike and the road.

But love changed that. The day they met, at Beach Ride 1998, she perched on his fender for a ride.

Now, Sandra has her own passenger seat and a new last name. At Beach Ride 2000, she had his hand in marriage. The Santa Paula couple had a small ceremony with dozens of friends and neighbors--and about 10,000 leather-clad, bearded, tattooed motorcycle enthusiasts attending the annual charity ride.

The couple vowed to be together in sickness and in health, for richer and for poorer. And, through it all, on the back of a Harley-Davidson.

“I don’t know if she fell in love with me or the motorcycle,” Gomez said.

“Both,” his wife teased.

In this crowd, it was clear, very little gets priority over a motorcycle. Bike lovers parked their hogs amid an expanse of glinting chrome at San Buenaventura State Beach. The full-time biker archetypes--bandannas, leather jackets and back-spanning tattoos--mingled with the professional folks who don black Harley T-shirts only on the weekends.

Groups of riders from all over the state, Arizona and Nevada turned out, convoying down the highway to arrive in Ventura for the ninth consecutive year.

The beach party attracted members of biker groups--from the Hells Angels to the Christian Motorcycle Assn.--and featured a custom motorcycle contest, a tattoo competition, music by John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers and Paul Rodgers of Bad Company, and an especially popular dunking booth, whose female targets looked underdressed in their white T-shirts and bikinis amid all the leather.

Organizer Art Naddour said he hoped the event would raise about $250,000 for the Exceptional Children’s Foundation, which provides services for developmentally disabled children and adults in Southern California.

Riding motorcycles can be dangerous, but most participants said it’s something that’s in their blood.

Gerard Pommier of Redondo Beach came close to never riding a motorcycle again but decided he couldn’t give it up.

He broke his leg after a particularly bad accident in 1997. But it’s hard to say which devastated him more, his own injuries or the damage to his bike, which he said “crashed and burned.”

“I would be out on my crutches every night putting it back together,” he said. The bike is detailed with images of angels and “the face of God looking upon you.”

For others, riding a motorcycle is a means of getting away from it all, and in some cases, taking the family with you.

Bob and Lori Schwartz of Agoura Hills showed up with their three children. Brandon, 13, rides as a passenger, but, maybe, mom said, he can strike out on his own in about a year. Matthew, 6, gets picked up from school by his father for motorcycle trips to the video store.

“When the wind blows, I just squeeze onto Dad,” Matthew said.

Chip Bell’s son, Nathan, 3, seemed to be the motorcycle enthusiast in his family. The little guy vroomed through the leather-clad crowds in a mechanized mini-Harley. Was it a pint-size version of his pop’s?

“I just ride a bicycle,” Bell said.