Surf City

Wet and wild with Rockin' Fig It's the big week in Surf City as the $150,000 Phillips U.S. Open of Surfing is going full steam. The shape is actually pretty good, considering a lot of times when it's mackin' like it is, it gets out of control. Long freight train lefts and bowly rights were seen much of the time outside, with some reforms going all the way through connecting to the shore break. The overcast skies in the mornings, gave way to sunshine pretty early most of the time with air temperatures in the 70s. So far, conditions have been pretty happening, and the biggest crowds for the start of a U.S. Open contest were seen, with the sands full of beach-goers getting a treat with the high level of surfing going on. The start of the contest will feature many rounds of eliminations, in this case we've already run six of the men's rounds and narrowed the field of longboarders down to the semis.

There's a rock formation northeast of Los Angeles that you know. You may not know you know it, but you do. Its most notable feature is the series of huge, triangular and jagged rocks that climb hundreds of feet into the air. And since the early 1900s it's been a frequent, popular film location. It's in a car commercial running on TV right now. It was shown on Bonanza and the movie "Austin Powers." And, perhaps most famously of all, the large rocks were used repeatedly in the original "Star Trek" TV show.

Go ahead and prove Oscar Wilde wrong. Youth does not have to be wasted on the young. Today, hundreds of our kids -- perhaps it's time to stop calling them kids -- graduate from high school, taking that first step to, take your pick: college, a job, travel, experience. Life. It can be an intimidating time after high school graduation, a hectic time. And while we don't want to add to that craziness, we do want to add to the flood of good wishes and good advice our graduates are getting now. If your plan is to hit the ground running, preparing for college and earning extra cash with a summer job, good for you. If you opt for a more mellow transition with hopes of spending the summer with friends and family, great.

Andrew Edwards The numbers are in, and Huntington Beach once again ranks as one of the nation's 10 safest large cities. Surf City was knocked out of the top 10 last year when the FBI released nationwide crime figures for cities with a population of 100,000 or more, but numbers released on May 24 show Huntington Beach had the seventh-lowest crime rate despite a slight jump in the number of crimes reported in 2003....

WET AND WILD WITH ROCKIN' FIG Summer is finally in full swing and Surf City's beaches are crowded with sun worshipers, swimmers and surfers alike. That old June gloom has broken and we have some sunny skies and muggy, humid weather. Even the water temp has climbed to the upper 60s, setting up for some trunkable days. On the Fourth of July Main Street was packed for the biggest parade west of the Mississippi they say. Out in the surf zone the waves were firing, too. A lot of surf stuff has been happening -- at the last HB Surf Series, at the Huntington Beach Pier, in the Prime Source Mortgage final, Huntington ripper Ryan Turner took the win. Other shredders participating were Danny Nichols, Timmy Reyes, Brett Simpson , Mike Hoisington, Shawn Ward and Ryan Simmons.

Mike Sciacca Tyson is a lot like any other 2-year-old. Precocious. Rambunctious. Wanting and needing constant attention. And most of his cravings were met Monday afternoon, when the double-takes and finger-pointing from the beach-going crowd must have made him proud. One by one, they spotted Tyson coming from the north on the boardwalk. It was unusual to see a 2 1/2-year-old riding a skateboard so proficiently. More unusual was the fact that Tyson is an English bulldog.

Angelique Flores From colors to cut, Main Street merchants know what the flow of fashion is this summer. Browns, blacks and grays are being replaced by aquas, yellows, baby blues and reds this summer. Anything that ties in the back is in. Popular bikini styles are the halter or triangles that "let it hang loose," said Debbie Ramirez from the Beach Store. For the bottoms, girls prefer the bikini styles with ties on the sides to make legs look longer.

Jose Paul Corona The same city that boasted no murders in the past two years has now seen three fatal shootings and one near-fatal shooting in the same neighborhood in the past six months. All three brutal deaths are believed to be gang related, police said. While this 300% jump in the murder rate may be alarming to Huntington Beach residents, police say it does not indicate a rise in crime in Surf City. "It's an anomaly, it really is," said Huntington Beach Police Department Lt. JB Hume, who is charge of the gang unit that patrols the Oakview neighborhood where all four young men were shot.

Surf City sewage gets a little extra treatment 1Surf City's ongoing battle with county sanitation officials to step up treatment of sewage being released off the city's coastline culminated in higher treatment standards being put in place in July. The Orange County Sanitation District's 25-member board, which includes Councilwoman Debbie Cook, voted to increase the treatment levels of the 234-million gallons of wastewater released into the ocean each day. Joined by other coastal cities and a group of tenacious activists, Surf City's leaders had lobbied hard for the stepped-up treatment.