A Place of Respite, Where Some Just Like It Warm

If you must work outdoors in the summer, Mat Riggs’ job is the one to have.

For more than two weeks as temperatures crept into the 90s in some parts of Southern California, he prepped Huntington Beach for the annual U.S. Open of Surfing, putting up grandstands, steel risers and signs a few feet from the ocean with a breeze to keep his workspace cool.

Once the contest kicked off Friday, Riggs patrolled the grounds in his uniform -- T-shirt, shorts and sandals -- fixing any problems that popped up.

Barring those, however, he was free to enjoy the show.

“I’m a surfer myself, and on our breaks we get to surf,” he said Sunday. “There are beautiful women and beautiful people ... and Huntington Beach is a great place to work.”

Yes, but doesn’t he mind the heat?

“Well,” said Riggs, who works all over the country, “putting up steel in 115 degrees at Lake Havasu is brutal, so 80 degrees in Huntington Beach is gorgeous.”

But not everyone Sunday was as lucky as Riggs.

Although not record-setting, high temperatures still gripped Southern California with an uncomfortable combination of high humidity brought on by Hurricane Emily.

Pierce College in Woodland Hills registered 99 degrees, and Palmdale and Lancaster reached 98, said Bill Hoffer, a spokesman for the National Weather Service.

“July is a hot month, period,” Hoffer said. “For some people, it feels like death. To others, it’s wonderful.”

Organizers of the surfing competition consider July’s heat a blessing.

The surfing championship hires as many as 300 people, said Jennifer Lau, the event’s director, who usually works in a real office operated by the Cleveland-based International Management Group, which coordinates the contest.

“What better choice could you have for an office than to be out here on the beach?” Lau said.

Milan Spasic, 42, an Oceanside-based cameraman hired to film the event, agreed. “I love it,” he said during a break in the action. “Being on the beach, feeling the sand between your toes -- there couldn’t be a better place to work.”

And Bryan Hollingshead, a makeup artist usually employed in studios, said he was enjoying a day of doing mini-makeovers for audience members under a white tent on behalf of Target stores, which was sponsoring the women’s competition. “What could be better?” asked Hollingshead, wearing white flip-flops with white pants and shirt. “The weather’s beautiful, the sun’s out and we’re at the beach.”

Not everyone, however, fully endorsed working on a Sunday.

Security guard Mario Castellanos, 18, said he balked at having to rise at 5 a.m. “I didn’t really want to work today because I had to get up early,” he said.

Fernando Casas, a 38-year-old auto mechanic from Lawndale, said he had come on his day off to pitch a hammock under the Huntington Beach Pier. “This is great,” he said, during a break from a snooze.

What about the competition? “I open my eyes when I hear cheers,” Casas explained.

Hoffer of the National Weather Service said flash-flood warnings Sunday night were likely to last until next weekend, and there would be no break in the heat.

Downtown Los Angeles and Anaheim were expected to reach a high of 85 today and then head in opposite directions over the week: Anaheim is expected to reach 87 on Wednesday, downtown L.A. will cool down to 82.

Scorching temperatures in Palm Springs will rise from 103 today to as high as 108 on Friday, according to the National Weather Service.

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Times staff writer David Pierson contributed to this report.