With His Looks, It’s No Contest

Used to be, every 12-year-old grom with a beat-up shortboard paddled out dreaming of becoming the next Kelly Slater, the next No. 1, the next world champion.

These days, they’d just as soon be the next Danny Nichols.

Nichols, a 21-year-old from Huntington Beach, has made a name for himself through surf magazines and videos, pretty much ignoring the contest circuit.

Nichols is a leading member of surfing’s new wave. His sponsor, Billabong, sends him to the world’s most exotic spots for photo shoots and when he’s not in Bali or Indonesia or Australia or Costa Rica, he’s working behind the counter at Huntington Surf and Sport.

“People say to take it to the next level, you have to surf in contests, but for me personally, I really have mixed feelings about it,” said Nichols, who graduated from Huntington Beach High in 1997. “This has been such a good experience for me. I’m doing what I love to do and I’m fortunate to be getting paid for it.

“I really think you’re better off shooting photos and videos and working in a surf shop. And the sponsors should love it. I market the product and I sell the product.”

Clearly, it’s a lifestyle every young surfer would envy, but Nichols has at least two advantages over many of his peers: He’s uncommonly good-looking and has the uncanny ability to bust big skateboard-like maneuvers off the face of a wave.

Note: Nichols’ inexperience as a competitor was quickly exposed during the U.S. Open this week. He failed to advance past the Round of 160.

BLASTING OUT OF THE PAST

It’s a good thing Brad Gerlach woke up feeling lousy Thursday morning.

A glassy, south swell sent some nice overhead peaks tumbling onto the beach south of the Huntington Beach Pier, but they didn’t rev up the 34-year-old longtime Huntington favorite.

Gerlach said he didn’t sleep well Wednesday night and was feeling out of sorts as he paddled out for his heat in the Round of 128. For the first 9 1/2 minutes, he failed to catch a wave. Then he paddled into a nicely formed wave near the pier, disappeared into the tube and reemerged down the beach with an 8.0, the highest-scoring wave of the heat.

“I just sort of decided to get tubed because I didn’t know if I could do any turns,” he said.

Gerlach, who finished No. 2 in the world in 1991 after losing a tight battle for the title to Australian Damien Hardman, managed to snag a tiny wave as time ran out to earn a meager 2.85, just enough to propel him into the next round.

In the afternoon Round of 96, he blew away his competition, winning by more than six points.

Note: Some things never change. Gerlach says he has no regrets about leaving the tour and no intention of trying to get back on it. He’s living a perfectly happy Nicholsesque life, doing photo shoots for his sponsors.

WHAT, NO BEER?

Lost in the reshuffling of the WCT schedule, which took place after the newly formed World Surfing Professionals--a players’ union of sorts--took control at the Assn. of Surfing Professionals executive board meeting this week, was the event in Lacanau, France.

It probably wasn’t an oversight, considering pro surfers seem to unanimously hate the place, which is the next stop on the tour, beginning Aug. 15. The waves aren’t very good, but that’s apparently just the beginning of the problem.

“I don’t feel very comfortable there,” said Sunny Garcia, No. 1 in the world and in the hearts of the WSP members who elected him president. “Having to deal with the French people is impossible.

“I wouldn’t say that France is that bad, it’s just that the French people are rude and you have to deal with them 24-7. And you get tired of eating baguettes.”

No one should tire of tasting the local wines. Many of the world’s most celebrated vineyards are about a half-hour drive from Lacanau.

Note: The surfers didn’t drop the other tour event in France, where the people are still French and the waves might be worse. But then that contest is held on a nude beach in Hossegor.

WHAT’S IN A NAME GAME?

Oxnard’s Tim Curran, ranked No. 19 in the world, doesn’t mind the fact he’s often mistakenly connected with three-time world champion Tom Curren. Curren, who won world titles in 1985, ’86 and 1990 and WCT events at Huntington Beach in 1983, ’84 and ‘88, is still considered by many to be the greatest surfer of all time.

“I get that all the time and I think it has helped me out,” Curran said. “It helped me out tons in the beginning because it was so easy to remember my name.”

When a reporter recently began a question to Curran with “Your father was very successful here . . ., “ Curran smiled and recounted a recent golf outing in Camarillo where he was paired with a guy who said he knew a lot about surfing and knew who he was.

“He said, ‘You’re so much younger than I thought.’ And I’m like, ‘I’m 22,’ and he’s all, ‘Wow, you’ve been around for a long time,’ and I said, ‘Yeah, I’ve been around since I was 16.’ You know, that’s a long time to some people.”

On the 18th hole, they shook hands and when the golfer said, “It was nice playing with you, Tom,” Curran corrected him.

“He said, ‘Oh my God.’ He didn’t have any clue who I was. It was cool. Tom is a legend and I was Tom for a day. It felt good.”

Note: The real Tom Curren made an appearance--as a competitor--Thursday. It was a short one, however. Seeded into the Round of 96, he finished fourth and did not advance.