JUDGE GARDNER -- The Verdict

The recent big surf brings up memories of the 20-foot surf at the

Balboa pier during the 1920s. This was before we knew about surfboards or

bodyboards. Bodysurfing was the sport, and there were two main places we

went -- Long Beach and Balboa. Specifically, the Balboa pier.

Surfers are notorious for inflating the size of waves, but we had a

foolproof system of measurement. When you were on a big wave and you

looked to your right at the pier, if you saw water running down the face

of the pier you knew you were on a 20-foot wave because the Balboa pier

was a 20-foot pier.

One day I was riding a big wave and looked to my right to see if I had

a 20-foot wave or just a puny 18-footer. Kent Hitchcock, a local marine

photographer, was sitting on the railing of the pier as I went by, and

ham that I am, I grinned into his camera as he took a shot of me. When

developed, he put that picture in the window of his shop in the Balboa

Inn building where it remained for years with the caption: “Bob Gardner

riding a 20-foot wave at the Balboa pier.”

Far be it from me to to let the truth stand in the way of a good story

-- particularly one that has me on such a huge wave. However, while that

was a big wave, it’s doubtful that it was really 20-feet because there

was a flaw in our foolproof measurement system: The Balboa pier didn’t

rise 20-feet out of the ocean. I presume the 20-foot pier concept grew

from the fact that the pilings were 20 feet long. However, when built

into a pier, a lot of that twenty feet was buried in the sand.

Both of those prime bodysurfing spots are gone now. The Long Beach

surf disappeared when they built the breakwater, and Balboa was destroyed

when all the sand from the big dredge was dumped on the beach, changing

the bottom. I hear there is a movement in Long Beach to sink the

breakwater and bring back the surf. Anybody interested in a little sand

removal at the pier?

* ROBERT GARDNER is a Corona del Mar resident and a former judge. His

column runs Tuesdays.