Regulars and Tourists Alike Surf the Point

You know it’s summer when it’s noon and the “dawn patrol” is still hanging out by the surf.

There--surfboards propped against tailgates, an easily ignored sprinkle of rain falling--this informal cluster of surfers teases each other, heckles their wave-riding brethren and generally takes it easy.

Because that is what the summer is all about at Surfers Point in Ventura.

Mark Scott was there at 6 a.m. Friday and is back at lunchtime. The waves are glassy and not too big. The water isn’t too crowded, though many of the wave riders are beginners.

It’s when Ventura gets its beach tourists, when business is busiest at the surf shops, says Aaron Johnson, a clerk at Ventura Surf Shop.

But that is all right: Surfers Point is laid back.

“It’s glassy. There are dolphins out there every day,” said Scott, a vending machine operator when he isn’t on one of his daily surfing excursions.

“I do a little meditation. I watch the sun come up.”

A camera on the Holiday Inn shows the waves on the Internet, allowing surfers to check the action before they hit the shore. Other sites give regular surf reports.

And after some light showers through Saturday, the weather is expected to lighten up a bit, but remain gray.

No problem. For now, Scott and his surfing friends simply talk surfing and wait for good waves.

Nicky Zadravec, known as “The Germanator” for her native country, moved here for the waves and spends the day on the beach until she heads to her afternoon job at an Oxnard deli.

“I’ll make sandwiches for the rest of my life to pay for the wax and to surf,” she said.

Ken--who goes by only one name--rolls out of bed late on his day off and brings along his dog Jimmy, also known as Seabiscuit, for a dip in the surf.

He doesn’t get to spend as much time here as he would like--job obligations.

“Work and surf: They don’t mix,” he said.

Surfers Point is known as a low-key spot. It is only 40% hassles compared with Malibu’s 100% hassles, said Terri Swig of Moorpark, who surfs with her son Bryan, 22.

He doesn’t wear a wrist leash with his board, the mark of a confident surfer. His mother does. Bryan is the kind of surfer who drives her crazy, one who occasionally lets go of his board by accident.

There are cliques out here on the beach: the regulars, like Mark Scott and his friends who practically live at the beach; the young guys like Bryan Swig; and professional people like Terri Swig, a teacher’s aide at Moorpark High School, who don’t spend their lives at the beach.

The last category includes Steve Koepenick of Carpinteria, a marketing executive who called in “surfing” today. He is 45 and has spent 32 years of his life as a surfer.

“You can be having the worst day of your life, and you go in the water and it feels like the whole day was fun,” he said.

Thursday was a homecoming of sorts for Jeremiah Kosten, who grew up in Ventura but moved to Brooklyn. He came home to visit his family, but admits with a little prodding, that it was primarily for surfing.

“The best days are good waves and good friends,” he said.