Things Grow Rowdy in New-Home Waiting Line

By ANTHONY PERRY

June 21, 1988 12 AM PT

The Sheriff’s Department has accomplished what many thought was impossible: cooling down the overheated North County real estate market, at least temporarily.

Responding to homeowner complaints about noise, screeching tires and eggs being thrown, a deputy last week decided that “home sitters” waiting in line for the sales office to open on Phase 2 of the Willow Creek subdivision in Olivenhain should be dispersed.

Chuck Smith, vice president of Corky McMillan Construction Co., which is building Willow Creek, agreed that dispersal was the wisest move and told the sitters to leave, after taking their names.

There were 18 sitters, one fewer than the number of lots in Phase 2 of the development, where homes will cost up to $300,000.

No one is sure how the mini-uproar started.

Some say two sitters quarreled over who was ahead of whom in line--a designation that could mean a choice lot rather than a more humdrum one. Others say teen-agers began harassing and pelting the sitters and their recreational vehicles.

Smith believes the latter. After all, he notes, home sitters are professionals--people who make a living camping out in real estate lines for would-be home buyers with more money than time.

“Of the 18 names we took on Olivenhain Road, 16 were professional campers,” Smith said. “These people know how to behave on a camp-out.”

Still, Smith said, McMillan is rethinking its sales procedures with an eye toward avoiding further camp-outs.

Surf’s Up for the Timid

As its father, Rick Ireton is rightfully proud of The Wave, a three-dimensional, multicolored, 14-foot-high, 22-foot-long fiberglass replica of Hawaii’s Bonsai Pipeline. Complete with stationary surfboard.

You can catch The Wave on the boardwalk near the Crystal Pier in Pacific Beach, where it settled in this week for a summerlong stint after a short tryout at Moonlight Plaza in Encinitas.

Ireton sees The Wave as the answer to everyone who ever dreamed the California Dream but never lived it. Just hop up on that board, assume the pose, and, for $5, you can get a Polaroid picture of yourself riding the wild surf.

“This is for everybody who wanted to be a surf kahuna but lacked the experience or guts or whatever,” Ireton said. “People get real goofy looks when they hop up on that board. If they wear a swimsuit and we take the picture in the right light, people back home will never know it’s not real.”

Ireton, a surfer, conceived The Wave while building machines to create artificial waves for water theme parks.

Now he’s vice president of G & G Designs in Solana Beach, which does commercial cabinetry and sets for television news shows.

“Ultimately, I would like to see The Wave in a surf museum,” Ireton said. “Already The Wave has imitators, mostly at surf shops. I just hope the market doesn’t get saturated too quickly.”

A Hot Maiden Voyage

Nothing makes a firefighter happier than a brand-new fire truck.

So it was with high hopes that Carlsbad Battalion Chief Stewart Gary and his men went to Cloverdale in Sonoma County to ferry home a fully loaded, state-of-the-art $168,000 truck from Beck Fire Apparatus, the Ferrari of fire truck manufacturers.

At first, everything went fine. Men and truck were whizzing along the freeway, gathering admiring glances.

But somewhere south of Fresno along Interstate 5, the rig became The Fire Truck From Hell.

A trucker pulled alongside, pointing frantically to smoke and sparks pouring from one of the fire truck’s back wheels. A brake was dragging on the pavement, and part of the chassis was aflame.

“Whenever I bring home a truck, I make sure to have some water aboard in case we discover an emergency,” Gary said. “This time the emergency was us.”

With the brake fire doused, the truck set off again. Not for long. A few miles down the road, it sputtered to a halt, either for lack of fuel or because of a short in the diesel shut-off mechanism.

Firefighters walked 2 miles to the nearest gas station to buy some diesel fuel. Finally, the truck, still under warranty, limped into Carlsbad several hours late. It now awaits a trip to the repair shop.

“A trip like this is supposed to let you know if the rig has any bugs,” Gary said. “It did.”