World Champion of the Over-30 Set : South Gate English Teacher at Top of Class in Bodyboarding

John Shearer snapped on a pair of black swim fins and waded a few steps from shore near the Manhattan Beach Pier. A shadow cast by the afternoon sun sparkled off the ocean as a stiff on-shore breeze pushed the foam that licked at Shearer’s feet.

A world bodyboard age-group champion, Shearer had seen better peaks. The surf could not get much worse than this day. He squinted into the setting sun at wind-blown tops to which there was little form. But beggars can’t be choosers when you work all day for a living, he said. At least it was not flat, as it was a few blocks south in Hermosa Beach.

The 33-year-old teacher threw his wet-suit clad body onto a Mach 7-7 board and paddled through the water. Seconds later the man nicknamed “Mr. Chips” had his first wave.

“Yes,” agreed Shearer when asked, this was a dog day for surf. But riding this stuff, he said, makes him an even better performer.

“My policy is to just go out,” he said of a daily routine of late afternoon practice. “Some days I’m happy to just get what I can get. Other days the waves are great.”

Used to Paint Houses

In just a couple of years of competitive bodyboarding, Shearer, a former house painter who teaches English at South Gate High School, has won 10 championships as an amateur in contests for men over 30 years old. He has also won a number of bodysurfing titles, including the 1985 world age-group division for amateurs.

His name first came to prominence in bodyboarding last September when he upset favorite Pat Moorhouse of Huntington Beach to win the National Bodyboard Championship at the Oceanside Pier. He remains, however, little known outside of surfing publications because bodyboarding is a fledging sport, overshadowed by its big brother, the professional surfing tour. He has not attracted the interest of clothing and surf-wear sponsors, like many of the stand-up surfing pros. And, because of his age, Shearer feels he will not receive much attention. The pro division of bodyboarding, composed of much younger competitors, many of them teen-agers, captures most of that interest.

“But I hope to be involved in this sport for as long as I can,” he said, “Maybe as a judge. I hope to compete . . . well into my late 40s.”

Grew Up Near Beach

Shearer grew up in a beachfront Cape Cod-style house with a view of the Manhattan Beach Pier. When he married his childhood sweetheart, Carmen, two years ago, he moved into an apartment a few blocks away in Hermosa Beach.

“He cried when he left this house,” said Carmen, a lithe brunette who also surfs.

The Shearers return to his parents’ house whenever they can to enjoy the beach volleyball courts below or just catch what waves are available. Someday, John said, he hopes to build a unit on the back of the lot above the garage and that will become a home for Carmen and him.

On this weekday afternoon, John Shearer demonstrated his ability. He was no sooner in the water than he caught his first ride, a mushy lift of maybe 2 feet. He nearly beached himself.

Seconds later he was back at the break line of a weak southern swell, slicing through the always challenging impact zone (the water where a wave crashes down at its most forceful point).

Joe Wolfson, known as “Dr. 360” for his role in popularizing acrobatic moves in pro bodyboarding, saw talent in Shearer the first time they met.

“John is a great water man,” Wolfson said. “He is very deceptive, soft-spoken and easygoing. He doesn’t look strong, but he is and he rarely makes mistakes.

“He has the ability to analyze what’s happening in the water. He is very intelligent.”

For the next hour Shearer performed El Rollos and spins, slicing the faces of countless waves. His energy seemed endless. From the shore the moves looked so easy. They are not as simple as they look, the Shearers say.

“John works hard to make them look easy,” Carmen said. “He makes it look so fun. There are no waves out there and he makes it look like there are.”

Wolfson, who taught Shearer many of the moves, agreed: “John is the class of (his) age group.”

On an El Rollo, for example, a mandatory maneuver in contests, Shearer does a 360-degree roll-over while gliding toward the shore in white water. Shearer says he never stops kicking his legs. But from the beach, the move looks effortless because his lower body is hidden in the foam.

“He’s really something,” said a teen-age admirer in a wet suit, hugging a bodyboard at the break line. “He’s good.”

Thirty seconds later the youngster glanced into shore and searched for Shearer, who had taken off in the direction of the pier on an extreme left-breaking shoulder.

“Where is he?” asked the youth.

“Probably shot the pier,” was the response. About that time Shearer’s head popped up on the shoreline 50 yards up the beach, an amazing ride for the mushy conditions. He had not shot the pier (riding between its pilings, a hotshot trick being done more and more). But the ride, nonetheless, captivated a half-dozen young admirers.

“John is funny that way,” said Carmen. “Wherever he goes he seems to draw a crowd. People in the water want to know how he does it.”

Popularized in song and culture in the 1960s, the beaches of Redondo, Hermosa and Manhattan have a reputation as surfing meccas. But in fact, says Shearer, the area does not consistently generate good waves like beach breaks farther south in Orange and San Diego counties. Practicing here, though, he said, has made him a better rider, since, the theory goes, if you can catch a ride in the South Bay, you can ride anything anywhere.

“I always look for one or two waves that are good,” he said. “After working in the city all day, there’s nothing better than jumping in the water.”

At South Gate High, Shearer hides his beach-boy background behind horn-rimmed glasses and conservative attire of a short-sleeved shirt, slacks and loafers. The look seemed tailored more for the mathematics department, but Shearer led ninth-graders through a reading of “Romeo and Juliet.”

On the walls were posters of bodyboarders from around the world. Shearer has been in many of those places. He and Carmen have traveled extensively in Mexico and Central and South America. They own property along the west coast of Mexico and surf there whenever possible.

While visiting Carmen’s parents in Ecuador, the Shearers chartered a boat to the Galapagos Islands, where John, paddling through a herd of seals and water iguanas, found some waves that were “definitely exciting.”

“I got four waves,” he said. “Then I got out. It got pretty wild and I figured no one was going to rescue me. The nearest lifeguard was 3,000 miles away.”

The inside of the Shearers’ apartment is adorned with personal bodyboarding memorabilia, right down to snapshots on the refrigerator door of a bearded John and Carmen slicing up waves in Baja California.

About half a dozen bodyboards, prizes from victories, are stacked behind the front door of the multilevel unit. One, a top-of-the-line Morey Mach 10, is encased in plastic wrapping. Shearer won it a week prior by finishing first in a contest at Zuma Beach.

Prize money in professional bodyboarding is small in comparison to the pro surfing tour and nonexistent for age-group champions. But an amateur champion usually receives a gift, most likely a T-shirt, board or wet suit. Shearer is not hurting for gear.

“You might say John has a quiver of wet suits,” Carmen said.

As the sport increases in popularity, John Shearer said, he thinks he will have to work even harder to win.

“I’m shocked to see how good it’s getting in my division,” he said. “Some of the pros are getting older and they might jump over into the division when they hit 30. That might reduce my reign.”

But for now, Mr. Chips is definitely at the head of his class.