Entertainment MOGUL

Alberto Tomba brought his slalom act to the Southland this week-- he was on roller blades zipping around the crowd on the Strand in Hermosa Beach.

“I go swoosh, swoosh . . . I cover five miles, just like that,” he said, squinting as the sun beamed into the room of his beachfront hotel.

And, just like that, Tomba was gone, off to Vail, Colo., to step into his skis and race against the youth of America during the last stop of the Lexus Tomba Challenge, an event that offers a sport-utility vehicle for a year to the person who beats the legendary Italian skier’s time.

Though the challenge is open to anyone who pays the $20 entry fee, in three years nobody has been able to drop such a bomb on “La Bomba,” who retired as a world-class skier three years ago.

“It would be good for Lexus but bad for Tomba,” he said, “because it means I have to lose a race, right?”

Fair enough. Losing is not something Tomba takes well. That’s as clear now as it was during a brilliant career that produced three Olympic gold medals, two silvers and 50 World Cup victories-- second only to Sweden’s Ingemar Stenmark with 86--in slalom and giant slalom.

What’s also clear, as we inch closer to next winter, is that the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City won’t quite be the same without the flamboyant Italian.

Hot-blooded and hard-charging, Tomba posted his first World Cup victory in 1987 on his home turf at Sestriere, Italy, after which he proclaimed to the world, “Sono una bestia!” or “I am a beast!”

That beast remained unleashed, and uninhibited, for 11 more years.

In 1988 Tomba won the World Cup title in slalom and giant slalom, and struck gold in both events in the Calgary Olympics. In 1991 he reclaimed the giant-slalom championship and in 1992 he took the title in both pursuits--and mined silver and gold in the Albertville Games.

Tomba was as brash as he was colorful. After his initial success he boasted, “When I start to really try to win, then perhaps I will have to give my opponents a three-second head start instead of the one second I give them now.”

Before the conquest at Albertville, Tomba, asked if he had changed his training habits, answered, “I used to have a wild time with three women until 5 a.m. In the Olympic village, I will live it up with five women until 3 a.m.”

After his achievement at Calgary, Tomba reportedly offered figure skater Katarina Witt one of his medals for a date.

Indeed, his presence at the podium was a welcome sight for reporters, who relished the spice he always seemed to sprinkle their way.

Today that zest is missing on the international slopes. There are no characters as colorful as Tomba, and Italy’s greatest skier, who turned 34 last month, says he has no desire to try a comeback.

“People still ask me, ‘Alberto, why you stop to ski? Why are you retiring? You’re still in good shape,’ ” Tomba says. “I tell them my dream had come true. I have accomplished everything I want to accomplish.

“I’m not like a soccer player or basketball player,” he adds. “They stop for three years, go back to the game and it’s easy for them because they have five guys behind them. Me? This is my only machine [he pats his muscular thighs]. This is my engine. It’s completely different.”

Retirement, in Tomba’s case, is also different. He hasn’t slowed down and, in fact, seems to be going faster than ever.

He tried acting in Italy, playing the role of a special investigator called Alex the Ram, assigned to bring in a dangerous killer--who turns out to be, not surprisingly, a beautiful woman. Reviews aren’t yet in, but that’s because the made-for-TV movie has yet to find its way onto the small screen.

Tomba has marketed his own fragrance--Indecente by Alberto Tomba, “finding the one not too aggressive, because he likes to enchant and not to stun,” his manager says--as well as a calendar featuring the skier in retirement “without the ski clothes,” showing the “100% pure athlete” running, cycling, swimming, water-skiing and roller-blading, “to show the real person and his muscles.”

Tomba’s skill as a skier and his charm won him the role of UNICEF ambassador, which he has enjoyed since 1996, helping to raise money and visiting children in hospitals.

Today, Tomba is in Vail, posting the time to beat in the Tomba Challenge, an event designed to energize skiing in the United States, and one that has raised more than $400,000 for ski programs and other charities. The person posting the fastest time gets to ski against Tomba in a side-by-side race.

It’s no World Cup, but Tomba appreciates the adoration he receives, even in such small-town locales as Buck Hill, Minn., and Taos, N.M.

“They recognize Tomba from the Olympic Games and World Cup,” he says. “But when I show them me, alive--for example, they can see me and touch me-- it’s different. Watching television, all the world watches Tomba on television, but never alive on the slope close to him.

“They follow me everywhere and I like to share with them what I have learned-- I have experience for 15 years.”

Tomba’s Southland visit, in part to escape the snow for a spell, was a short one, but it was long enough for him to let on that he is basically the same old Tomba, only slightly mellowed.

He still calls his mother at least twice a day, at her insistence. His famous wine collection, in the cellar of his home in the hills above Bologna, is brimming over at 5,000 bottles, 80% of it red.

Tomba claims he is not a heavy drinker, especially while training, nor is he quite the playboy he portrayed himself to be during his heyday as a skier.

“Maybe I was kidding,” he said, when asked about his wild times with women, and about the aforementioned quote in particular. “I was kidding when I was younger. I was playing with people in the press conference just to be funny.”

Tomba was then asked one more question, whether he had a girlfriend, and with a straight face and without hesitation he responded, “In what country?”

RECREATIONAL SKIING

One need only glance east to the mountains to see that the situation continues to improve on the local slopes.

All the resorts are finally open--or should be Saturday--and the bigger ones are operating at 100%. And if the storm expected to arrive today does what it’s predicted to do, even the tree skiing will be phenomenal for the weekend crowd.

“It’s definitely midwinterlike conditions up here, and we have everything open,” said Genevieve Gunnarson at Snow Summitt.

Greg Ralph, at nearby Big Bear Mountain, added Thursday, “It was most wonderful up here this morning.”

Snow Summit, Big Bear Mountain and Snow Valley got four to six inches of powder Wednesday and were machine-blowing snow as well, taking advantage of temperatures that dipped into the upper teens Wednesday night and reached only into the mid-30s at the upper runs Thursday.

At Mountain High in Wrightwood, five to seven inches of “light, dry powder” fell, bolstering a base of 24-36 inches. Nearby Ski Sunrise has opened and Angeles Crest Resorts--which includes Mount Waterman and Kratka Ridge--are expected to open Saturday.

At Mammoth Mountain in the Eastern Sierra, the latest storm dropped two feet, and another two feet are expected from the storm that was due to arrive before dawn. Barring winds, Mammoth, which boasts a four- to six-foot base, this weekend will have all of its lifts open for the first time this season.

The Lake Tahoe region received a nice blanket as well and boasts perhaps the best conditions in the state. Rachael Woods at Alpine Meadows said the latest storm dropped 12 inches of powder so light, the moisture content measured only 7%.

“With some of the coldest, lightest powder covering a solid four-foot base, ski and snowboard conditions are optimal,” Woods said.

SURFING

After last week’s historic expedition to Cortes Bank, https://swell.com’s Swell XXL contest, awarding $60,000 to the person riding the largest wave this season, appears to have a new front-runner in Mike Parsons of Carlsbad.

“According to Pete Mel, Parsons’ biggest wave was easily bigger than the huge ones Noah Johnson and Flea caught at [Maverick’s on Dec. 22],” head judge Bill Sharp said.

Tough luck for Mel, who along with tow-in partner Ken “Skindog” Collins, Parsons and Brad Gerlach, were pulled behind jet-powered vessels into waves with faces measuring nearly 60 feet last Friday at Cortes, a seamount 100 miles off Orange County that, presumably, had never been surfed.

Mel, a world-renowned big-wave specialist, has yet to cash in on a big-money events. He was upstaged at Maverick’s, his home break, in both of Quiksilver’s Men Who Ride Mountains contests by Darryl “Flea” Virostko, but will get another chance during the third annual competition, to be held in the coming weeks.

Taylor Whisenand, director of marketing for Quiksilver, stood behind the athlete it sponsors, saying, “We consider him to be one of the world’s best surfers in 2 to 20 feet. Now [with his tow-in prowess], we consider him to be one of the best in 2- to 50-foot surf.”

SALTWATER FISHING

* Sometimes dreams do come true. Travis Gross of Dana Point saw a 300-pound tuna in his sleep and then landed one after a lengthy fight aboard the Excel at Clarion Island south of Baja California. His giant yellowfin tipped the Fisherman’s Landing scale at 344.2 pounds Thursday morning, making it the second-largest yellowfin--by less than two pounds--of the long-range season. On the deck of the Excel were 22 tuna topping 200 pounds.

* Skipper Shawn Trowbridge of the Legend can boast of an accomplishment that generally doesn’t occur until June or July. Last Sunday, in an area 115 miles southwest of Point Loma, he logged the year’s first official albacore catch aboard a party boat.

When the day was done, 22 anglers had boated seven albacore weighing 15-25 pounds, one caught on a jig and the others on sardines. They moved inshore to the Coronado Islands on Monday, where they landed 23 yellowtail.

Albacore catches are so unusual at this time of year that most captains don’t even bother looking for them, but Trowbridge was responding to catches aboard private yachts en route to Guadalupe Island and found the temperature break he was looking for.

The Legend, out of Seaforth Sportfishing in San Diego, has another trip scheduled tonight, weather permitting.