The Other 'Surf City'
By
Ruth Carlson
Sentinel correspondent
"Santa Cruz is Surf City."
That's what Dean Torrance, famous for the hit song "Surf
City," told me on a recent visit to Huntington Beach.
OK, what the member of the Jan and Dean band actually
said was, "If Santa Cruz invites me back to perform at the
Boardwalk, I'll say they're Surf City, and when I get back
home to Huntington Beach, I'll deny saying it."
Dean and city officials are celebrating the recent
federal ruling allowing Huntington Beach the right to
trademark the name "Surf City USA." Santa Cruz may have lost
this round of the good-natured feud over which town is the
real Surf City, but the publicity has been a win-win. Both
Santa Cruz and Huntington Beach officials say the public
battle has boosted tourism. It worked for me. My husband
Rich and I took a road trip to see what this southern surf
city has to offer tourists.
HB, as the locals call it, is part of the OC Orange
County, but until recently it was the poor cousin to spots
like Newport Beach. I say recently because housing prices
have tripled in the last decade. Marketing the surf name may
be helping.
Everyone in town is on board with the Surf City theme,
from restaurants to shops to hotels. When we checked into
the new Hyatt resort/convention center on the PCH Pacific
Coast Highway, our key was enclosed in a picture of a 1950s
Woody. This luxurious, yet casual, hotel has couches outside
next to fireplaces. You know it's warmer in SoCal when you
see outdoor living rooms. A stone massage in the Hyatt's
Pacific Water Spa eliminated my kinks after the long drive.
If you don't want to shell out the big bucks, take a tip
from the locals ... a nominal day fee gives you access to
the saunas and pool.
Revived, we took a short walk to HB's downtown.
The bad news is that Huntington Beach doesn't have the
quirkiness of Santa Cruz; the good news is that it doesn't
have the quirkiness of Santa Cruz. There was only one street
performer who sang the same line incessantly, "I will
survive, I will survive". That was annoying, but it was
refreshing not to have anyone bug us for spare change.
"We're the Midwest by the sea," explained Nathalie Kotsch,
founder and manager of the Surf Museum, who claims the city
only has one homeless person in town. When she proposed a
surf museum in the mid-'80s, she says city officials laughed
at her. Wondering why she persevered with the project, I
asked if she surfed.
"A surfer would never create this museum," she said with
a laugh. "They'd have to work too hard." Hidden on a side
street, this tiny museum tries hard, but it can't compare to
the location of the Santa Cruz Surfing Museum at Steamer
Lane.
Walking around downtown you might accidentally step on
Wingnut's hands. The star of the movie "Endless Summer II,"
who lives in Santa Cruz, has a concrete square with his
signature and handprints on Main Street. Close by, another
famous Santa Cruz denizen, wetsuit inventor Jack O'Neill,
has a square on the Surfing Walk of Fame, modeled after the
Hollywood Walk of Fame. Guess it's not enough to steal our
name, now they want to claim our surfing legends, too!
As for shopping, there are two large surf stores, Jack's
Surfboards and Huntington Surf and Sport. Boutiques probably
can't compete with the huge South Coast Plaza shopping mall
in Costa Mesa only 10 minutes away. Rumor has it movie stars
hang out in the dive bars downtown, but although I searched
high and low purely research, I never saw George Clooney.
The closest I came to a celebrity was talking to the
charming Dean Torrance.
As luck would have it, Torrance was holding a reception
at the Hyatt hotel's art gallery when we visited. While his
partner Jan was recovering from his tragic car accident in
the '60s, the singer became a graphic designer to make a
living. He is using those skills today to create retro-style
paintings with colorful beach scenes. Although he was doing
a brisk business selling paintings that evening, his art is
a hobby,
"I make maybe enough to buy stamps," he quipped.
Torrance became involved in the trademark controversy
when a reporter wrote that one of the men famous for the
song "Surf City" lived in Surf City. I reminded him of his
concert at the Boardwalk when he said, "Sorry Santa Cruz,
you're not Surf City," and the crowd booed. He said Santa
Cruz has not invited him back since, and he'd love to return
and make things right. For the record, his parents
honeymooned in Santa Cruz and he thinks the Boardwalk is
pretty cool.
When my sister Carrie, a real housewife of the OC, joined
us at the party, Torrance suggested we get a picture of "two
girls for every boy," a lyric in the "Surf City" song, which
was actually written by Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys.
The next day a junior surfing championship was taking
place on the beach, which holds a surfing or volleyball
event just about every weekend. The waves couldn't compare
to the swells in our town, and the scenery lacked mountains
and trees. But if you like long walks, Huntington Beach
boasts eight miles of sand, said to be the largest stretch
of uninterrupted beachfront on the West Coast.
Santa Cruzans know HB is not Surf City USA, but it's a
fun getaway. Sometimes you have to leave to appreciate your
hometown.
Ruth Carlson is a Santa-Cruz-based
travel writer. Contact her at ruth@ruthcarlson.com.
HB Insider Spots
1. Car shows: My brother-in-law Andy wakes up at dawn
each Saturday morning to catch an informal car show. It
started in a Huntington Beach parking lot but has since
outgrown the space and is now held in nearby Newport Beach.
'The rich guys want to show off their expensive cars so they
take them out of their garages once a week and drive them
along PCH to this event,' says Andy. This unadvertised event
is only known through word of mouth and yet lines of vintage
and rare cars cause an early-morning traffic jam as they
make their way to a strip mall called Crystal Cove
Promenade. The two coffee shops do a brisk business serving
car fanatics who come from all parts of the OC to see rare
Bugattis, Ferraris and Lamborghinis. (Crystal Cove
Promenade, 7772-8112 East Coast Highway, Newport Beach, 7-9
a.m. every Saturday.) Muscle car fans should check out HB's
Donut Derelicts. Every Saturday at 6:30 a.m., hot rods take
over another strip mall parking lot ... this one tucked
behind a Chevron station at the corner of Magnolia and Adams
in Huntington Beach.
2. Wingnut's tips: Dawn patrol coffee and muffins at Java
Junction inside HSS (Huntington Surf and Sport-300 Pacific
Coast Highway, (714) 841-4000), breakfast at the Sugar Shack
(213 Main St., (714) 536-0355) and best burgers ever at
Ruby's Diner at the end of the Pier
3. Happy hour: A real OC Housewife, my sister Carrie,
enjoys happy hour on the beach at Duke's, named after the
legendary surfer and Hawaiian King Duke Kamehameha, (317
Pacific Coast Highway, (714) 374-6446) and the margaritas at
Chimayo on the Beach (315 PCH, (714) 374-7273).
4. Market: A farmers market and art fair takes place most
Fridays from noon to dusk on the plaza next to the pier.
It's a great place to pick up an organic lunch to eat on the
beach.
5. Surfin' Sundays Concert Series. Free live music at the
International Surfing Museum, 411 Olive St., 1-3 p.m.
Sundays. Contact the museum at (714) 960-3483 for more info.
For more information on any of these activities or
places, visit www.surfcityusa.com
