Awesome endeavor

Scott Morlan refers to Blackie’s Beach in Newport as his second

office.

The math teacher at Newport Harbor High School also teaches a surf

class, one that’s been in the news lately for its efforts to ban

smoking on Newport’s beaches. The effort’s part of a project amid

Morlan’s surf class that serves as more than just an excuse for a

veteran surfer to get himself out of the classroom and onto the

beach. Assistant City Editor Mike Swanson met up with Morlan at the

latter’s second office Tuesday and talked about getting butts off the

beach and young surfers into the ocean. The ultra-tan, youthful

55-year-old teacher had a hard time keeping his eyes off the waves

throughout the interview.

How did the idea of your surf class students taking the plea to

ban beach smoking to council come about? Was it primarily your idea

or theirs?

We do a lot of things in class besides just go surfing. Most kids

come into the program saying, “Cool, we’re going to get out of school

and go to the beach,” but I try to put in a lot of other components

that make it more than that. Going down and cleaning up the beach is

one of the parts they have to do so they get environmentally aware.

Most of the kids, especially beginning surfers, have never been

anywhere like the river jetty to do a beach cleanup. And we did that

right after it rained, so it was a mess. I mean, just sitting here

[at Blackie’s] you see Styrofoam, you see cigarette butts.

Big things get picked up, but these little things go right through

the sifter and are going to be here forever. The kids that sit down

here with their bags end up saying, “Well this is nuts. We can’t get

this clean. I’ve been sitting here for 15 minutes and it looks just

like when I started.” I mean, they were getting kind of angry about

it, which is my hope, so they’ll get a little proactive. Then, just

to incite a little activism, I have a gal named Stephanie Barger,

who’s with Earth Resource Foundation. She comes into class and talks

to the kids and she tries to incite a little anger and a little

activism. She asked them, ‘What bothered you?’ This year, they said

cigarette butts.

Last year it was Styrofoam. [Students last year] sought to get a

ban in restaurants of Styrofoam, in Newport Beach, starting small.

This year, the kids said, ‘These cigarette butts are nuts. Let’s do

something about it.’ And she comes in and starts doing all the prep

work and making a game plan for the kids. The kids made all the

posters, the kids do all the work, and we go down and we do a press

conference, and the kids were showcased. When people were asking me

questions, I kept saying “Talk to the kids. This is their idea,

they’re doing it themselves. Talk to them, because they’re the ones

who are concerned about this. The youth, this is their playground,

their backyard.”

We were lucky this year that there was as a precedent. It’s been

in the news in Santa Monica, San Clemente. Even my surf team kids

showed up [at the news conference] and were enjoying it, and those

kids aren’t very environmentally proactive. They go to the beach and

they use the beach and that was a lot of fun. The surf class is

beginning surfers, and they want to learn how to do this. They don’t

have much usage experience, or knowledge about the beach, so they’re

a real fertile group to have get into this stuff.

When you took the plea to council, members said they’d look into

putting it into action. Where does it stand now?

Right now, it’s in study, and we’ll see where it goes. The problem

I always have is that school ends, and zip, there go the kids.

Everyone has their own life and does their own thing, so this thing

has a life until June 17, and it goes to sleep, so if we can get

something done before June 17, you know, we’ll see. I’m really hoping

that the study comes back and that some action is taken.

I’m sure Stephanie Barger would like to see that some kind of

action is taken. I haven’t had anybody negative. Everybody’s been

very positive, coming up and signing petitions at our press

conference. I mean, the kids collected over 700 signatures.

Right now, it’s waiting to see what the study comes back with.

They’re seeing if it’s feasible to ban smoking on the beaches in

Newport. They’ve got to find out what these other cities that have

done this did. If it’s feasible, there’s no reason not to do it. I

think it would get great support. And the kids, I think it would

really empower the kids to see something they initiated come to

fruition. That’d be great. I’d love to see that for them. Last year,

we made a couple publications, but we really didn’t have much press

coverage, and this year we had quite a bit. It was really pretty

good. We’ll see where it goes.

Do people often misconceive of what your surf class consists of?

Sure, including the kids. They think it’s, ‘Let’s go to the beach

and surf.’ We’ll do that later. First we’re going to learn about CPR,

get some of them certified who wish to do that. I bring them down to

do the beach cleanup. There’s a lot of different components and

programs before they ever get to the beach. A lot of them have to

take a swim test in the pool first. For a lot them, they go to the

beach and stick their toes in the water, but they haven’t necessarily

had a lot of wave experience, so it’s a very new program for a lot of

them. And it’s a real good PE class, too. By the time they get back

to school, those kids are whipped. If they go out and they surf for

an hour, they’re pretty mellow when they get back to school. They

really are. They don’t come jumping into class and bouncing all

around. They sit down, you know, and they’re eating something, and

they’re real mellow.

Do you ever try to incorporate math principles to teaching surf

students or surfing principles to teach math students?

It’s interesting that you’d ask that. I haven’t really thought

about it in those terms. I mean, I don’t ever think, “OK, I’m going

to teach a lesson. How can I employ surfing here?”

Some things will come up, but generally I don’t interrelate the

two all that much. You know, it’s like, the size of the waves this

morning -- it was pretty big -- that’s directly proportionate to how

much fun you’re going to have that day. Stuff like that applies.

Certain ratios do take effect. But as far as parabolas relating to

waves, I don’t ever do any of that kind of stuff.

When was the first time you surfed and how long did it take before

you were hooked?

About 1960 -- summer of 1960 -- and it took me about a minute.

Went down the street, got a board. I’d seen this guy in a pool down

the street from me paddling around on his board, and that was it.

From then on, that’s all I thought about. It just took me seconds,

and I was into it. I grew up in the San Fernando Valley, and there

were three sets of parents that would trade off driving us down to

the beach. They’d drop us off, go back home and do whatever they were

going to do for the next eight hours, then come back to pick up these

dumb kids.... When we got cars, we started doing Ventura and Santa

Barbara.

Long- or shortboard?

Well, now I’m a longboarder. Used to be a shortboarder, but you

know, quite a few years ago ... it’s another direct proportion. Your

age is directly proportionate to how fast you can paddle, and so,

when the kids started outpaddling me, I was, like: “OK, I’ll fix you

guys. I’ll get a longer board.” So now I can sit outside all the kids

and still get my share of waves. I mean, high school kids, they’re

always high school age, and when you teach this age, they’re

perennially the same, and I’m adding another notch to the age bracket

every year. It gets harder to keep up with them, so it just keeps it

real simple if I get bigger boards.

What was your reaction at being asked to teach the surf class?

I brought it up. I was asked to do a surf team by a bunch of kids

who came up to me and said, “Why don’t we do a surf club, Mr.

Morlan?” I figured sure, we’ll have lunch and watch surf movies and

do all sorts of fun stuff. Little did I know what I was in for.

You start doing these competitions and you’ve got contests and

leagues, and, I mean, it’s like another whole job. As far as the

class goes, I went to the administration and said, “Look, I’ve got an

idea.” I had a deal all set to get the boards through the city. I

worked a deal that had the kids paying a little rental, because these

16-year-old kids don’t go easy on these boards. I told them I had all

the boards, we’re right here by the lifeguards, it’s a real safe

program, I mentioned all the other components we’ve already talked

about, and they said, “Yeah, that sounds like a viable course.” As

opposed to it being an excuse for me to go to the beach and get in

the water, which it was. But bottom line, it didn’t sound that way.