Waxing Philosophical in Shadow of San Onofre

The latest alert from Homeland Security didn’t do it.

The possibility of an Independence Day attack doesn’t seem to be doing it.

And the unsettling announcement of a plan to distribute radiation-fighting medicine tablets isn’t doing it, either.

Attendance is stubbornly up at San Onofre State Beach, a surfer’s paradise in the shadow of a nuclear power plant, and nothing short of Al Qaeda terrorists riding sharks is going to keep anyone out of the water.

“You can’t just waste the rest of your life being upset about things,” said Bob Kennedy, who makes surfboards for a living and signs them Bob-O. His straw-hatted buddy swigged Tecate beer and agreed there is no percentage in fretting about the unknown. The whole point of coming to the beach is to leave your worries behind.

More than 100 surfers were in the water at lunchtime Monday. Lifeguard Evan Price said that on many days, there’s a line of cars waiting to get into the state park at 6 in the morning. Attendance is running 20% over last year, added ranger Doug Harding, and last year was bigger than ever.

I wandered down the shore in the direction of the domed power generators, which resemble giant igloos, and came upon swimming pool contractor Mark Woodrome. He was playing hooky from work to sneak in a surf, same as he’s been doing for 28 years.

“It’s a crackup,” Woodrome said of the state plan to distribute potassium iodide tablets to more than 400,000 people who live within 10 miles of San Onofre, just in case there’s a terrorist attack on the power plant.

If the plant gets hit, Woodrome said, nothing in the medicine cabinet is going to save you. “Besides, we probably face a greater radiation threat out here from the sun.”

Reminds me of a line from my brother, a stand-up comic, regarding irrational fear about anthrax. We’re addicted to triple bacon cheeseburgers and Krispy Kremes, he says. Anthrax won’t kill us, but 10 push-ups might.

Woodrome happens to be correct about potassium iodide. It can protect against only one of several types of radiation exposure. Beyond that, the tablet is no more effective than ducking under a desk. But if you do hit the floor, as we used to do in schoolroom drills, and take potassium iodide, do you double your chances of survival?

Science does not yet know the answer. But there is a positive side-effect from the mere distribution of potassium iodide: it creates the appearance that the government is doing something substantive to protect us.

And appearing to be on the ball is a top political priority since revelations that the FBI and CIA were roughly as professional as F-Troop in handling Sept. 11 warnings.

As I strolled the beach at San Onofre, Marine helicopters from Camp Pendleton circled overhead and, speaking of threats to innocent civilians, I considered diving for cover.

In Afghanistan, U.S. military aircraft had just strafed another village and might have inadvertently killed dozens at a wedding party, possibly mistaking celebratory gunshots for enemy fire.

One backfire from a surfer’s pickup truck and we might all have been goners.

“I’d take a pill if it would help, but I can’t live in fear of anything,” said Lois Kinsey, who stood on the beach waiting for a friend. Kinsey called herself a “hair designer” and makeup artist at the St. Regis resort “and globally.” She wore a “Terminator” shirt and said she did some of the hair in that movie, but not Arnold’s.

“There’s no stress out here,” she went on, gazing across turquoise water and sunlit foam as if worshiping at a religious shrine. “God is not my boss and he’s not me, but there’s a source of strength that’s in nature.”

At the south end of the beach, NBC’s “Today Show” was taping a story on Southern California surfing legend Mickey Munoz. He’s the guy who donned a wig many years ago and walked a board, doubling for Gidget in the movies.

Munoz caught a few waves and then paddled in to get the on-air talent, newswoman Ann Curry, for her first surfing lesson.

Before heading back out, Munoz told me he’s been surfing at San Onofre for 50 years and doesn’t intend to be driven away by unspecific threats from unknown evil-doers.

“There’s a ‘be-here-now’ aspect to catching a wave,” says Steve Pezman, publisher of the Surfer’s Journal.

You could say we’re all on that board now, and maybe there’s something to be learned from the regulars at San Onofre.

Light a sparkler tomorrow. Throw a burger on the grill. Ride the big one.

And Happy Fourth.

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Steve Lopez writes Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Reach him at steve.lopez@latimes.com.