Catching Up With ... Scott Morlan

Richard Dunn

The days of Scott Morlan driving a dozen or so kids around in an

old, beat-up van in search of the best surfing breaks reflect a more

innocent time in our society.

Back then, in the early 1970s, each kid had a square piece of carpet

on which to sit as they swayed back and forth on the van’s floor at every

stop.

“We begged and borrowed to get surfboards, then begged and borrowed to

get a van,” said Morlan, who began as a swim teacher at the YMCA in

Newport Beach in 1971, then convinced the organization to start a surf

program.

Morlan would stuff the first surf program members into the van and

drive to the next great surf spot. “There were 10 to 15 kids, and they

would slide up and back (in the van),” Morlan said. “It would be highly

illegal in today’s world.”

Morlan showed surf movies and operated surf contests, in which the

winners got a surfboard and runners-up a wetsuit. Once, Morlan drove

about 20 kids, and four moms, to Angel’s Camp in Baja, Mexico, where

beautiful waves crashed against wide-open sandy beaches.

That summer, 30 years ago, is still one of the most memorable for

Morlan, who turns 53 in September and is going strong as Newport Beach’s

foremost surfing guru.

Following that initial summer at the YMCA, Morlan was hired by the

city of Newport Beach as a surf instructor and has been doing it ever

since.

“What a wonderful job,” said Morlan, whose full-time duties at Newport

Harbor High include teaching math and the highly respected AVID

(Advancement Via Individual Determination) program, as well as surf

coach.

“If you need a second job, like most teachers, that’s the one to have

... my office is the beach.”

In the spring, Morlan teaches a surf class at Newport Harbor. In the

fall, it’s the Sailors’ surf team. The students are taught much more than

simply how to catch the best waves.

In addition to environmental issues, students learn awareness of

surfing dangers, like not drifting toward the pier, and cardiopulmonary

resuscitation (CPR). The Surfrider Foundation, Project Wipeout and the

Earth Resource Foundation are actively involved in the Newport Harbor

surf programs.

There are also beach cleanup days for the students and Newport Beach

history lessons with Nancy Gardner, who started the Surfrider Foundation,

and her husband, the venerable Judge Gardner.

“Each year it gets a little better and a little bigger,” Morlan said.

At Newport Harbor, surfing is now a lettered sport, competing in the

Sea View League with Laguna Beach and Los Alamitos, while Morlan

emphasizes education and balance in the students’ lives.”It started off

as this maverick sport, with surfers (having a reputation) for throwing

parties and causing trouble, but there’s not that problem anymore because

we try to hold the kids accountable,” Morlan said. “They’re neat kids.

Some of them are working hard on their grades to be on the team because

(academic achievement is mandatory). For some, their life is surfing and

school is hard, but we’re trying to get balance in their lives.

“When you don’t get an education, it really screws you up. I really

push the kids. We have a lot of really super students ... kids who have

taken care of business, and, now (they) have options.”

Morlan, who lives in Costa Mesa, has been teaching surfing for so long

through the city of Newport Beach that second-generation students enroll

for lessons.

“I meet 300 new people a year,” Morlan said. “At school, I have

students tell me, ‘Oh, my mom had you.’ Once I start to get

grandchildren, then I’ll probably hang it up.”

Morlan, who teaches all of the city’s surf classes, grew up in the San

Fernando Valley, surfing the South Bay beaches, then attended UC Irvine

in the late 1960s and has been in the area ever since.