U.S. Open ends on a peaceful ‘vibe’

As the U.S. Open of Surfing wound down for another year, visitors wading through the crowded Main Street on Sunday were met with a protestor carrying a sign that read “Repent, turn from your sins” and a woman wearing four live lizards on her chest.

That was about as wild as it got away from the water.

In 2013, rioters smashed windows, damaged vehicles and knocked over portable toilets before being dispersed by police in riot gear. Injuries were reported and several arrests were made.

But this year, crowds at the final day were significantly calmer.

An estimated 200,000 visitors traveled to Huntington Beach for this year’s nine-day competition and festival, from July 23 to 31, to watch the best surfers in the world compete for a title that would put them in the ranks of champion surfers Kelly Slater, Rob Machado and Stephanie Gilmore.

It was a smaller and more respectful crowd this year, according to local business owners and authorities.

“The vibe was just different,” said Police Chief Robert Handy. “I thought we got the families returning at a much higher rate, which was what we were really striving for.”

Police were on high alert to the possibility that violence could erupt at a time when mass shootings are occurring with some regularity across the country.

After the shocking spectacle following the 2013 Open, city officials and police put in place a number of precautionary safety measures.

Officials the next year promised a significantly scaled down and more tightly controlled event, with no live music stage or public skate bowl, fewer vendors and no alcohol sales and consumption allowed. Police have taken “a lot of different steps” to bolster security, Handy said at the time.

This year, the downtown saw a similarly increased police presence, including more motorcycle officers parked from the numbered streets to the hotels. As many as 46 officers were sent out to patrol Main Street and the surrounding neighborhoods, Handy said.

Additional surveillance cameras, on loan from the FBI and local agencies, were installed on Pacific Coast Highway from the pier to Beach Boulevard.

Security guards checked attendees’ bags before they entered the venue, as did bouncers working in local bars.

Police made 33 arrests for driving under the influence, cited or arrested 152 people and wrote 746 traffic tickets this year around the downtown area. This compares with last year’s 26 DUI arrests, 480 arrests or citations and 526 traffic tickets.

Handy attributed the increase in arrests partially to enhanced enforcement.

On the final day of the 2013 event, tension started to build as the crowds left the contest area and headed toward Main Street. The Easyrider bike shop took the brunt of the mayhem when rioters pulled down a stop sign and used it to smash through the shop window. A bike was stolen.

Bert Etheredge was working at the bike shop that Sunday night. Etheredge said he managed to wrest a beach cruiser away from one looter.

He said he and the shop’s owners weren’t apprehensive about keeping the store open during this year’s event.

“There’s a significant difference now because there’s more police presence,” Etheredge said. “It definitely sends a message to people about not messing up around here because the police are watching.”

Tina Oh of Beach Island Gifts Souvenirs and Activewear said she has worked at the family-run Main Street shop during four U.S. Opens. This year appeared to be calmer and more family-oriented, she said.

“It’s attracting the right crowd,” Oh said.

The estimated 40,000 people who attended the final day of this year’s competition on Sunday headed to their parked cars by walking or riding skateboard or bikes, while others lingered at downtown eateries, bars and dessert shops.

Sara Clark of El Dorado Hills joined her husband and four kids at the premier surfing event. The family hadn’t been to the competition before but wanted to watch the collection of surfing talent on display.

“It was great,” Clark said as she and her daughter ate ice cream outside of a downtown Baskin-Robbins shop. “We would totally come back.”

The summer entertainment continued through the late afternoon as strangers interacted.

Handy said the Police Department comes up with a different security strategy every year, though he declines to be too specific.

Last year, police filled multiple 32-gallon trash cans with confiscated alcohol. This year, officers filled “virtually” none, Handy said.

“People brought their kids rather than send their unruly, unsupervised teenagers,” Handy said. “We got back to the true action of the sports, and I think the people got the message.”