Waves and family are the best recipe

Sergio Avila immigrated to Southern California with his family from

Mexico when he was only 7 years old.

Soon after arriving in the country, Avila wanted a new bicycle, so

he went to work at a barbershop and earned the money for it. He began

working in his family’s restaurant when he was 12 years old. The hard

work that Avila learned as a child has transferred into adulthood --

he owns the El Ranchito restaurant on Newport Boulevard in Newport

Beach. Avila enjoys catching a good wave, which is one reason why he

fled from Los Angeles and decided to make this area his home.

The 52-year-old recently sat down with the Pilot’s Luis Pena and

spoke about his childhood, his hippie days and the present.

How did you end up in Newport-Mesa?

I always had older brothers, so I would always follow their

footsteps. I’ve been surfing since I was 12 years old. So as soon as

I was old enough I said goodbye Los Angeles -- vamanos. I liked it. I

was always a beach guy since I was young.

What are your greatest accomplishments in life?

Having a very well-united family. Having a great family. My wife,

my kids and also my siblings. Everybody has fun together, everybody

enjoys seeing each other. We go on vacation a lot together with all

the siblings, all the brothers and all of the kids -- we go skiing

and on surf trips. And I think that’s an accomplishment in itself.

If you could re-do one moment or incident in your life, what would

it be?

What would I re-do, that’s a tough one. I never had anybody ask me

that question. Probably not getting involved too much in the hippie

life. Ah, the ‘60s.

What profession other than yours would you like to have tried?

I always wanted to be a builder [and] architect. I wish I would

have done that. I like to create and build things. I always have

enjoyed that. Up to this day, I still do. I’m going to go after it,

too. What I’m doing now is a lot of real estate, but now I want to

pursue buying into lots and building them. When we ever have projects

with our architects, I like to sit down with them and do things with

them and get involved. I’m still young enough to do it. Whenever any

other family member opens up a restaurant and they have a

construction job they’ve got to do, they call me on it.

What is the greatest lesson you’ve learned in your life?

Never burn any bridges. Integrity with people. Be up front so it

doesn’t bite you in the back. When you’ve got something good, keep it

going, but also share. Teach other people on your way up there.

What do you treasure most?

I treasure my free time a lot because I love to play. I like to do

things at the spur of the moment. I don’t like to be committed. I

like the freedom. I do a lot of fun things on my free time: surfing,

skiing, hunting and spending time with my family. They offer me a lot

of restaurants to open up and I know the money is great, but I say

no, that will take my free time away and no amount of money will be

like free time.

Who was the cook in the family?

My mom was definitely the cook in the family. We copied all her

recipes in the restaurant. She was the original cook when we opened

the restaurant. To this day, we still have the original recipes. She

still checks on her recipes. She’s 80 years old and she’s still

checking on things. That’s great.

What have some of your family traditions been?

We like to get together, like on Thanksgiving, and of course

Christmas. Those are traditions that we never give up. Now, lately,

we’ve been traveling together as a whole group, the whole Avila clan.

Like once a year now we all spend time together and that’s a great

tradition. We all get together, the 24 of us, and we’ll go to a beach

resort and spend time together. We rent a huge house and spend time

together. It’s amazing putting everyone together under one roof.

What would you like people to always remember about you?

That I did something to improve this society where I am. That I

helped make things better. I help a lot of my employees out with

their papers -- immigration, finances, real estate. They always say

you’ve got to make it better. Always leave it a better place to live

socially and environmentally.

What’s one of the best unexpected things that has happened in your

life?

We were in Fiji, and everybody went to this island, and we decided

to go to a different part of the surfing area. And unexpectedly, the

best waves of my life popped out of nowhere. We had the best surf

session ever all by ourselves -- three guys out all by ourselves.

This is like one wave after another. It was fun, exciting, thrilling.

There were about 12 of us, and they only allow so many people to go

to this side of the island, and they all go left and three of us went

to the other side, where there was nothing, and then all of the

sudden we had perfect waves. Everybody else had crummy waves. We just

got a perfect surf session. I mean, I’ll never forget that.