Surfers flood Newport

High tides and big surf left the Balboa Peninsula slightly soggy

Friday morning, and city workers spent the day guarding against

flooding over the weekend.

The lakes and puddles that greeted Hiram Carrington surprised him

when he went for a jog early Friday. He lives on Balboa Boulevard

near 12th Street.

“It’s kind of unusual because I’ve never seen the waves come that

far,” he said. “It’s kind of scary, I guess, for people that are

homeowners right on the boardwalk.”

City workers knew the big surf was coming, but when combined with

an extra high tide, the effect was greater, said city equipment

operator Jim Eifler.

“What we’re doing now is I’m building berms because it’s supposed

to be higher tide tonight and bigger surf,” he said, adding that

water levels were expected to be high through Sunday.

Besides the berms, workers were making ditches along the shoreline

to channel the water away from beachfront homes.

It’s not unusual for the city to put sand berms around the Balboa

Pier and parking lot, but Eifler was building them all the way up to

Island Avenue, where a long pool of water remained on the beach from

Thursday night.

In his 16 years of working for the city, Eifler said, he’s only

once seen the water get as high as it did Thursday, and building the

berms so far west is a first for him.

By midday on Friday, the spray from the crashing surf was visible

from the boardwalk, but the high water didn’t faze Fran Barrett, who

lives on Oceanfront across from the pier parking lot.

She pointed out the salt residue left by water that flooded part

of the parking lot Thursday night. Eifler said the city had put up a

sandbag barrier, but someone had moved some of the bags and water ran

all the way into Balboa Boulevard.

Barrett said she liked hearing the waves, and she wasn’t concerned

about the minor flooding.

“It’s just expected when it’s high tide,” she said.

Despite the hype, some surfers were disappointed with the waves.

It might have been better on directly south-facing beaches, but it

was too windy near 34th Street, said Mark Delcrognale, who came from

North Tustin to surf Friday morning.

“Blown out, red tide, water’s cold,” was his summary of the

morning.

Kevan Kraushaar was equally unimpressed, and he hadn’t even been

in the water yet. He and three friends drove all over Orange County

looking for good surfing, and they finally stopped, somewhat

grudgingly, in Newport.

“It’s just not as good as we hoped,” he said.

But the waves by the Balboa Pier were bigger and more daunting, at

least to Scott McManus, who was visiting from Las Vegas with some

friends. He said he planned to go sailing that day, but he didn’t

intend to swim.

“We won’t be going into that right there, for fear of not coming

back out in one piece,” he said.

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers government and politics. She may be

reached at (714) 966-4626 or by e-mail at

o7alicia.robinson@latimes.comf7.