Surf City

Eleven of the 12 candidates for Huntington Beach City Council offered their divergent views Thursday at a forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Orange Coast and the American Assn. University of Women. The forum addressed almost every hot topic involving Surf City, from the senior center to pension reform and property taxes. All candidates except for Bruce Brandt were in attendance during the forum, which took place at City Hall's council chambers, the place where three seats are up for the taking this November.

With all the surf culture icons gathered by the Huntington Beach Pier on Sunday morning, it may take the creator of the universe to steal the show. Of course, that's the intention. At the fifth annual Blessing of the Waves, an interfaith service sponsored by the Diocese of Orange, Tom Morey - the inventor of the Boogie Board - will represent the Baha'i Faith. Singer-songwriter Summer Watson, who has toured California and Hawaii to promote the Toes on the Nose clothing brand, will play a solo acoustic set. For that matter, Dean Torrence of Jan & Dean - whose song "Surf City" gave Huntington Beach its official nickname - has recorded an audio greeting to help publicize the event and plans to attend for the fifth year in a row. When the songs and speeches are all done, the crowd will stand at the water's edge to sing a final song: "God Bless America.

Tim Ryan counts himself a friend of development. Since his appointment to the Huntington Beach Planning Commission, the City Council candidate has not voted against a single project. "I didn't vote no on anything," said Ryan, a consumer attorney who works in Huntington Beach. "The interesting thing is, these projects, they've been vetted to death. You have so many regulations out there. " Ryan, who led all candidates in fundraising at the end of June, said he deeply cares about Huntington Beach - a community that has offered him a good life - and wants the chance to give back.

The calendar says this weekend is the last weekend of the summer. The first day of fall is Sept. 22, which also happens to be my 50th birthday. Anyway … what better way to spend the last weekend of the summer hanging out at the beach doing beachy things? The city of Huntington Beach will host the Surf City Days - sponsored by Dukes - on Saturday and Sunday with all kinds of activities and contests both in and out of the water. The highlight of the event is the "Surf Race to Victory," part of the SUPCross Series.

Next year, as in the past, the HB Reads program will spotlight a group of people who are often invisible in everyday life. This time, though, they won't be miles away in Sudan or Afghanistan, toiling on a migrant farm or secluded in a special-education class. The citywide reading program, which selects a book every year with a diversity and human-rights theme, has turned its attention for next year to victims of bullying - a group that may include countless members of the readership, even if they don't let their credentials show.

It has been billed as the place to be, worldwide, for action sports enthusiasts. Year in and year out, it hasn't failed to live up to that claim. The Nike U.S. Open of Surfing launches nine days of continuous action Saturday at the Huntington Beach Pier. Many of the world's top surfers and action sports athletes are in Surf City for an event that last year drew record crowds to the pier, plus a record more than 3.6 million webcast viewers. This year, the Open, which runs through Aug. 5, is coming up bigger and better, said James Leitz, vice president of IMG which owns and produces the U.S. Open of Surfing.

While Vic was out on the ocean this past weekend, searching for pelagic birds on a trip with Sea and Sage Audubon, I went to photography boot camp. Ralph Velasco, a noted local travel photographer, teaches this great refresher course periodically at Calumet Photo in Santa Ana. Ralph also leads frequent photography trips to exotic locales worldwide. He offers local trips as well, with a day trip to San Diego by train coming up on July 29, and a night shoot of Newport Harbor on July 31. If you visit his website at ralphvelasco.com , you'll find other trips and lectures.

"If you are lucky enough to drink wine by the sea … you are lucky enough. " That is the motto of SeaLegs Wine Bar, a new hip spot in Huntington Beach. "By the sea," in this case, means just a few blocks up the street. This attractive and inviting newcomer features a two-story wall of wine fronted by a row of crystal chandeliers over the bar, which might give you the impression that this place is really swanky, but as handsome as it is, it's still very casual. Dining options include a nice menu of small plates and one or two specials for the evening.

Thursday night promises to be an epic one at Huntington Beach High School. School's out for the summer but students and fans of surfing, along with boosters of the campus's surfing team, will catch a wave into the HBHS auditorium for a star-studded fundraiser to help the team defray costs of an upcoming trip to Australia. Quiksilver, the Surf City-based apparel company and one of the event's sponsors, will bring in three of its athletes - surfers Dane Reynolds, Balaram Stack and Reef McIntosh - for a Q&A session with TransWorld SURF's Chris Cote, followed by the screening of "No Agenda," a new 35-minute surfing action film, organizers said.

The small gray sign points out at passing cars on Newland Street, bearing a name and a few dates that imperfectly summarize a life of service. For future generations, the text will provide the basics: Bauer Park, named after Ralph H. Bauer, mayor in 1997 and a councilman from 1992 to 2002. A historian may be needed, years from now, to add that Bauer helped to create Huntington Central Park and half a dozen schools, that he helped to unify the city's religious leaders, and that his work on behalf of human rights led humanist authors from around the world to visit Surf City.