A California Beach Town Reinvents Itself, Again
In Huntington Beach, Calif., volleyball games are part of the scene.
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA’S iconic Huntington Beach Pier is essentially a boardwalk peninsula, an ambling parade extending a third of a mile into the Pacific: fishermen, seal watchers, teenagers swinging shopping bags, retirees taking measure of a distant oil rig, boyfriends informing girlfriends they could totally dive into the water if they wanted to. Then, every so often, they all stop talking and look over the side.
That’s where the heart of this Orange County city resides, an ever-present pod of surfers bobbing patiently on either side of the huge wooden structure. The surfing never stops, but periodically an especially fine wave is met by an especially fine rider, and everyone admires the show. As well they should — these wet-suited specks in the water are what sunny Huntington Beach, incorporated a century ago this year, has built its latest identity around.
What was once simply a surf city in the U.S.A. has rebranded itself Surf City USA, after a heated legal battle with Santa Cruz over the coveted title. With the reinvention has come a flurry of development, designed to capitalize on the city’s reputation as a surf capital. May saw the opening of the Shorebreak, a chic 157-room boutique hotel with a surfing theme, just across the road from the postcard-perfect waves themselves.
The Shorebreak is the cornerstone of a larger commercial development, jamming stores into two blocks near the city’s most vibrant intersection: Main Street and the beach itself, an eight-and-a-half-mile stretch of gleaming, “Baywatch”-caliber sand. The city is trying something tricky: to build a four-season travel destination around an activity that mostly involves floating on molded foam. Of course it’s the lifestyle associated with surfing that defined the place for so long.
For years this was a community of little bungalows with wet suits drying on the railings, of jobs at the drugstore and summers spent barefoot. To visit Huntington was to witness another take on life itself, where the pace was slower, where professional aspirations were often eschewed for simply hanging 10 as much as possible. It wouldn’t last. Bob Bolen, a local resident, said he started surfing here 50 years ago. From 1960 until 1980 he ran a popular surf shop in what was then a sleepy beach town. Finally he saw the writing in the sand. “There started to be more money in real estate than surfboards,” he said.
Mr. Bolen now runs Huntington Beach Realty. The walls of its casual office on Main Street are crowded with surfboards and mementos of surf competitions past. (A customer can exit with either a new board or a new home.) But beneath the laid-back décor is a deeper truth about this midsize city: It’s seen wave after wave of transformation. “This place is a chameleon,” said Mr. Bolen, who also designs and shapes boards. He said he remembered a time when town officials tried hard to discourage surfing, keeping boarders off crowded beaches or requiring that surfboards be made shorter and shorter. Some officials thought surfing “brought the wrong element,” Mr. Bolen said. “Now we’re ‘Surf City USA.’ ”
The element brought today is the kind you might have thought existed only on TV. The young people drifting in and out of the stylish clothing stores and coffee shops around Main Street make for fine gawking, with their plentiful hair product and impossible tans. A perfectly good afternoon can be spent copying their moves: volleyball on the sand (the nets are set up), picture-taking on the pier, a stroll at the restored Bolsa Chica Wetlands a few miles north, casual dinner, a beach fire at one of the countless fire pits and finally shouting to be heard at Sharkeez, one of the rowdier bars in the area, where every other person looks as if he could have starred on “The O.C.”
Those who come to Surf City for the surfing will find it astonishingly easy — at least the setup part. Boards and wet suits can be rented on the beach at reasonable rates, and surf lessons are offered there, too. (If you’re staying at the Shorebreak, “surf butlers” will attend to these needs for you.) When you’re done shredding, pay homage to your forebears at the nearby International Surfing Museum. The action shots are wild, but even better are the memorabilia documenting the very beginnings of the sport, in a dramatically different America. (For more local history, stop in at M. E. Helme Antiques, in a historic building first owned by one of the city founders.)
Old-timers point out the irony of a surf town where the real estate is too expensive for a surfer’s lifestyle and where slick surfing apparel shops have nudged out the original quiet funkiness of the place. But a person can lose his mellow worrying about lost mellowness, and, anyway, Huntington has always been reinventing.
Before anyone was catching tasty waves, they were raising horses and barley, as part of a Spanish land grant. What was Shell Beach in 1890 became Pacific City in 1901, then Huntington Beach just a few years later, a gesture to Henry E. Huntington and his Pacific Electric Railway, which was extended here. The would-be resort town became an oil town in the ’20s, and was not a surfer’s mecca until decades later. Now it’s back to a resort town.
How do you preserve a city’s slow-paced, small-town, wave-loving appeal, while scaling up so that more people can enjoy it? That’s what city planners are asking themselves, and it’s worth a trip to see how they’re answering it. On another level, meanwhile, there is the charm of seeing lives lived differently from how most of us live ours. The veteran beach bum and the studly lifeguard still call the place home, as do the bicyclist carrying a surfboard under one arm, and the middle-aged woman walking her Pomeranian while puffing on a joint at noon. Few of these people wear shoes, and the deeper message of Huntington Beach abides: You don’t have to wear shoes, either.
WHERE NOTHING IS FAR FROM THE BEACH
WHERE TO EAT
Zimzala (500 Pacific Coast Highway; 714-960-5050; www.restaurantzimzala.com), part of the Shorebreak Hotel, serves coastal Mediterranean cuisine in one of the more stylish settings in the vicinity. A risotto of diver scallops is $26.
Duke’s (317 Pacific Coast Highway; 714-374-6446; www.dukeshuntington.com) has a Hawaiian surf theme and serves seafood (and steaks) on the beach beside the pier. Roasted firecracker ono is $24, subject to availability.
Sugar Shack Cafe (213 ½ Main Street; 714-536-0355) is an old, family-run favorite for breakfast and lunch. Get a table on the patio and watch the Main Street strollers.
Pete’s Mexican Food (213 Fifth Street; 714-960-8797) is a spartan, hole-in-the-wall place offering quick, simple surfer fuel. Most dishes are less than $10.
WHERE TO DRINK
Sharkeez (211 Main Street; 714-960-5282; www.sharkeez.net) is worth a visit if you’re the sort who wonders what spring break in Daytona Beach is like. Loud and cheesy but eye-opening and open late.
Huntington Beach Beer Company (201 Main Street, Suite E; 714-960-5343; www.hbbeerco.com) is a second-story brew pub with a more civilized glass of beer.
WHERE TO STAY
Shorebreak Hotel (500 Pacific Coast Highway; 714-861-4470; www.shorebreakhotel.com) offers a boutique atmosphere within a minute’s stroll from the pier. Rates start at $199, but check for specials.
Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach Resort and Spa (21500 Pacific Coast Highway; 714-698-1234; www.huntingtonbeach.hyatt.com) is as fancy as Huntington gets, with pools and fountains and a walkway to the beach. Rates start at $255, but check for specials.
The 17-room Sun ’n Sands (1102 Pacific Coast Highway; 714-536-2543; www.sunnsands.com) is perfect for those seeking easy ocean access and the kind of old-school beach motel charm where Dinty Moore stew is sold in the office. Rates start at $99.
SURF AND STYLE
Zack’s (405 Pacific Coast Highway; 714-536-0215; www.beachfoodfun.com) is right on the sand, near the pier, and rents whatever beach equipment you’ll need, by the hour or the day: surfboards, $12 an hour or $35 a day; wet suits, $5 or $15 a day; bikes, $10 or $30.
Huntington Surf & Sport (300 Pacific Coast Highway; 714-841-4000; www.hsssurf.com) sells all manner of surfing and skating apparel, in addition to actual boards. Look the part without actually playing it!
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