Club Sportswear

With Rockin' Fig away in Ventura protecting his No. 1 amateur ranking in senior men's last weekend, I represented us at the fifth annual Waterman's Ball in Costa Mesa. The event, sponsored by the Surf Industry Manufacturers Assn. (SIMA), raised $175,000 for three ocean preservation groups and honored filmmaker Bruce Brown. Ever since the first "The Endless Summer" 30 years ago, I've been wanting to meet this guy. He directed that movie and the newly released "The Endless Summer II."

G et a job. Every summer, parents sound the refrain, shaking accusing fingers at the tan bodies frolicking on the beach. Hey, why don't you earn some money? Be responsible. Sean Fallowfield did the responsible thing. He got a job. A real job. Not selling ice cream in the sand or renting boards. Fallowfield, a graduate of San Clemente High School and UC Santa Barbara, went to work as a commodities broker at a firm in Newport Beach. And he found out that the beach paid better.

Paper or plastic? It's an issue Dave Bock deals with daily, but it has nothing to do with the bagging of groceries. Bock is president of Leisure Time Packaging, which distributes paper and plastic bags manufactured from recycled materials to environmentally conscious merchandisers. "It's so confusing to retailers. What they're being told is paper is better," Bock said. Actually, plastic bags take up less landfill space--paper will not decompose in a landfill, he contends.

As a rule, sponsors sponsor as a means of advertising themselves, their product or their business. And then there's Reiny Giesecke. His motives are different. His group, Ryno Athletic Club, does not sponsor teams in hopes of making money or attaining vast recognition. But make no mistake, Ryno Athletic Club is one of the most generous and sought-after sponsors in over-the-line, and its two teams are two of the best in the game.

It seemed like an unfair fight. Over in the far corner, wearing the aloha shirt and jams, was the surfwear industry's annual fall fashion show, weighing in with nearly 550 exhibitors, a surfboard-shaping room, runway fashion shows and a pro beach volleyball exhibition. In the near corner, wearing oversize pants, a graffiti-tagged T-shirt and Doc Martens, was the first-ever street-wear industry show, where about 40 clothiers delivered their vision of what's happening in the 1990s.

The landlord wasn't too pleased, but what could Jack Denny do? He had to do his tie-dyeing somewhere. And the communal washing machine in the garage of his Laguna Beach apartment complex was convenient. "The landlord hated me," says Denny, founder of World Jungle Clothing Co. in Costa Mesa. "He liked what we were doing, but he wasn't happy that the washer was ruined." Garage beginnings.

Two-man pro beach volleyball has been a hit for years, and Craig Elledge believes the same will happen to his recently created four-man American Beach Volleyball League. The ABVL, which consists of five four-man teams, will be in Hermosa Beach on Saturday and Sunday for its fourth stop of the season. Matches begin at 9 a.m. each day on the courts next to the Hermosa Beach Pier. Sunday's final is expected to begin at 2:30 p.m. Elledge, who formerly helped promote the Assn.

After 20 years in the mercurial surfwear business, it takes something special to impress Tom Noble. Something like the line of surf and casual wear that Irvine's Stussy Design unveiled at an apparel industry trade show here last weekend. Stussy's line, which incorporates plaids, stripes and denim, is "not (traditional) surfwear but it's what the customers want," said Noble, president of Newport Surf & Sport, a specialty store.

Leif Hanson felt he wasn't getting enough time or respect from the coaches at the University of Hawaii, so he left collegiate volleyball two years ago to play on the beach. That's what he'll be doing this weekend on his home turf in Orange County's oldest volleyball tournament, the 33rd annual Laguna Beach Open at Main Beach. The event, which is sponsored by Club Sportswear, begins today at 9 a.m. Sunday's matches start at 8 a.m., with the finals at 3:30 p.m.

If 1992 is any indication of what the future holds for Jason Bleick, then he might not have to explain the "B" tattooed on his left shoulder blade. The Costa Mesa designer might even consider marketing a removable version of the jagged signature logo for mass consumption. With sales expected to top $2 million this year, four times last year's gross, jeans bearing the Bleick stamp could fast become hot property in the competitive denim market.