Mira Costa High School principal Ben Dale.

by Andrea Ruse

Former Redondo Union High School assistant principal Ben Dale has been named principal of Mira Costa High School.

Dale, donning a tie striped with the Mustangs colors of green and gold, was officially welcomed to the Manhattan Beach Unified School District at last Wednesday’s Board of Education meeting. The board unanimously accepted Superintendent Michael Matthews’ recommendation for the position after what he called a “highly competitive application process.”

“We were impressed by his ability to lead, but also by his ability to listen, his ability to work with people, his ability to be a part of a team,” Matthews, who started with the district July 1, told the school board. “And those he had worked with spoke very highly of him.”

Dale began his first day as Mira Costa’s principal last Thursday.

The highly coveted position opened up in May, after former principal Julie Ruisinger announced her resignation in order to become the principal of a school in Austin, Texas.

Dale said he began mentally preparing himself to lead what he called “the best school in the nation” after learning of Ruisinger’s impending departure a few weeks before the announcement was made public.

“If you’re an educator and want to be around the best, you look forward to working with the best,” he said in an interview Monday. “At Mira Costa, that includes students, teachers, athletics, academic supporters and the community.”

Dale, 43, resides in Redondo Beach with his wife, Michelle, a Lt. Colonel in the United States Air Force, and three of their children – a fourth grader, second grader and preschooler –  who all attend Redondo schools. The couple also has a daughter who is a senior at Silverado High School in Las Vegas and an adopted daughter who attends Brigham Young University in Idaho.

Dale is originally from Houston, and grew up in Texas and New Mexico. He received his bachelor’s degree in Spanish in 1994 from Texas A & M University. In 1996, he began teaching Spanish and coaching football and basketball at Little Rock High School in Palmdale before being promoted to Vice Principal in 2003.

He knew by then that he’d found his calling.

“I found it especially rewarding to be assigned a young person and to lend expertise and support and have them come out different or more challenged,” Dale said of his passion for education.

Dale received a teaching credential from Chapman University in Fullerton and an administrative credential from California State University Bakersfield, where, in 2004, he also completed his master’s degree in Education Administration.

In 2004, he moved to the South Bay, after he was hired as an assistant principal at Redondo Union High School. In 2007, he went to Marina High School in Huntington Beach as assistant principal. He is currently working on his doctorate in Educational Leadership at California State University in Long Beach, which he plans to complete in 2012.

At Costa, Dale’s first item of business will be to listen and observe.

“This school is obviously already doing things right,” he said. “I want to allow the experts to tell me all about Mira Costa and what works and what doesn’t work.”

Then will begin the process of connecting with students, which Dale knows can be difficult for the head of a high school.

“I’m not afraid to be a nerdy administrator that’s trying to talk to kids,” he said. “Some principals can be held back by that, because they want to be seen as cool. I’ve already come to terms with the fact that I’m not cool so I have no hesitation to go up to a group of kids and talk to them.”

Not all of Dale’s past students agree about his un-coolness.

Ben Dale (right), pictured here performing with his Country-Western band “Truckstop,” was named Mira Costa’s new high school principal. Photo by Bronwyn Dale

In 2004, he formed the Country-Western band “Truckstop” with other 40-something education administrators. Dale was the lead vocalist and played rhythm guitar. The group even played a gig in 2006 at Suzy’s Bar and Grill in Redondo Beach to a crowd that included Redondo Union students.

“It’s almost like he puts on an act at school,” then-sophomore Alisa Bronstein told the Easy Reader. “He has such a different personality when he is on stage and away from school…He is actually a really cool guy.”

The band released its first album, “On the Run” in 2007 and in January plans to release its second album, “18 Wheels: Live at the Orange County Fair,” recorded at a gig on a 12-stop tour last summer.

“For a bunch of over-40 wannabes, that’s a lot,” he joked. “We had to take a lot of naps.”

On August 7, Truckstop will perform at the Orange County Fair in Costa Mesa on the Hangar Stage at 1:30 p.m.

Until then, Dale will be focusing on filling the big shoes he has stepped into.

“My biggest challenge will be whether the principal is good, since this school is already doing all the right things,” he said. ER

by Andrea Ruse

A boy buried under three feet of sand on the beach Sunday was rescued by the combined efforts of local authorities and beach-goers.

The 11-year-old Perris boy had been trapped for three to five minutes when lifeguards and roughly 20 bystanders frantically worked to dig him out, authorities said.

“The critical window is four to six minutes before irreversible brain death occurs,” said Manhattan Beach Fire Battalion Chief and Los Angeles County Lifeguard Dave Schenbaum. “He was seconds away from turning out to be a fatality.”

Lifeguards, the MBFD and the Manhattan Beach Police Department responded to a call at 6:51 p.m. of a possible entrapment near Eighth Street and the waterline.

The boy, who was visiting Manhattan Beach with a large group of friends and family, had dug two holes roughly 10 feet apart. He was trying to dig a tunnel between them when the surrounding sand collapsed and trapped him in a kneeling position with his head down.  

Lifeguards were alerted by a bystander who had been told by the boy’s sister that she thought her brother was buried in the sand, according to Schenbaum.

“About 20 parents — mostly from the Eighth Street local crowd — all ran over and started digging together,” Schenbaum said. “It was an effort between the lifeguards and local South Bay parents who were down at the beach.”

After he was pulled from the sand, the boy was unconscious and not breathing, but had a pulse. Lifeguards began cardiopulmonary resuscitation breathing, assisted by a local doctor who opened the boy’s airway, according to L.A. County Lifeguard Section Chief Terry Yamamoto.

Although he remained unconscious, the boy started breathing on his own before he was transported to the trauma center at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance where paramedics left him “awake, alert and breathing on his own,” Schenbaum said.

By Monday, the boy was “awake and doing well,” according to a statement issued by MBFD.

A Los Angeles County ordinance prohibits the digging of holes and tunnels on county beaches, according to Schenbaum, since sand can easily cave in on itself.

“There is no structure to sand,” Yamamoto said. “You never know which way the sand will fall and whether there will be an air pocket or not.”

Yamamoto said that while children sometimes dig too deep, problems more often arise from horizontal, rather than vertical, digs. He said that parents should keep a close eye on children when they are digging on the beach.

“Fortunately, there were people around who helped in this situation,” said MBPD Lt. Bryan Klatt

In March, a 29-year-old Hawthorne man suffocated to death after accidentally plunging head-first into a hole in sandy soil at a construction site at Hermosa Beach’s South Park.  

“I give kudos to the public,” Yamamoto said of Sunday’s incident. “They did a great job notifying the lifeguard and helping dig and pull the kid up when they found him.” ER

Veronica Zelle, creator of Sweety High.

by Melanie Sakai

Four high school girls walk down a hallway at a campus that looks suspiciously like Manhattan Beach’s Mira Costa High School.

Tracy, Paige, Shandra, and Sissy – your typical high school cheerleader, actress, musician and activist –discuss how to save the latest victim of education budget cuts: the arts program.

Tracy volunteers to ask her dad to fund the new school play, which Paige was keen on auditioning for. But a teacher passing by encourages the girls to use their popularity for good by organizing some sort of benefit to save the program — a musical event featuring a local band.

“We could, like, save the school,” Sissy says. “Which is on par with saving the world.”

But none are real students and this isn’t a South Bay high school.

This is Sweety High, a fictitious school portrayed on a tweener social media site with the same name, launched by Manhattan Beach resident Veronica Zelle in February.

Geared towards girls ages nine to 14, the site is an online community, featuring social networking and media sharing, including several interactive web shows.

“We aren’t competing with Facebook and MySpace,” Zelle said. “We can’t compete. But we are offering a different, more age appropriate experience.”

According to Zelle, many young girls commonly lie about their ages to meet age requirements on popular social networking sites. Although many are simply looking to join online communities where they can interact with friends, such sites open the door to cyber bullying, inappropriate content and online predators, she said.

Zelle, who formerly worked in the television industry, hopes to offer tween girls the online experience they are looking for, but without the danger. She began writing “Sweety” — the show about Tracy, Paige, Shandra, and Sissy — for television, but converted it into a web series after the latest writers’ strike in Hollywood hit. Zelle wrote, produced and directed the series, which makes up the backbone of the website.

For additional inspiration and insight into the world of adolescent girls, Zelle met with many of her teenage neighbors and their friends — her “foundation girls” — to find out what they wanted in a social website.

“She asked us what we, when we were in middle school, would have wanted in a website,” said recent Mira Costa graduate Heather Hedges. “We all talked about making it girly and fun, but also a safe space.”

The result of these meetings is a website that is “for girls, by girls.” It has a high school theme where registered users have cyber lockers in which they can post pictures and interact with other users. Girls can also create yearbooks, enter contests, join discussion forums, get signed CDs from major recording artists, and upload and watch original content on the “Tube and Tunes.”

“It’s not just a social networking site,” Zelle said. “It’s an entire world in one place.”

The biggest difference between Sweety High and other social networking sites is its safe nature, according to Zelle. Parental verification is required to register and users must take a safety registration class after signing up. The content is highly moderated to prevent cyber bullying. Girls are also encouraged to become “Savvy Sweeties” by watching safety PSA videos posted on the site and taking a quiz about Internet safety.

Zelle hopes the site will encourage users to be smart and safe, as well as provide a place where girls and parents don’t fear online predators or cyber bullying and where girls don’t feel the need to lie about their ages.

“When given the alternative, girls will take the option where they don’t have to lie and they don’t have to worry about bullies,” she said.

“I have some parents tell me that they are okay with their kids being on Facebook because they also have a Facebook so they can monitor what their kids are doing,” she added. “But I say to them, ‘Would you take your daughter to a bar? Just because you are with them doesn’t mean you can control what they see and hear.’ Young girls are exposed to some scary stuff on Facebook –stuff that they don’t need to be looking at.”

Sweety High also encourages young girls to be creative, develop talents and express themselves without the fear of getting ridiculed.

“When a girl posts a video on the site of her singing or something, she is flooded with feedback,” Zelle said. “But it’s all good feedback and positive encouragement from the other girls.”

The site’s name comes from Zelle’s desire to help girls “stay sweet” during crucial teenage years when it is easy to go down a dangerous road.

She employs older girls like Hedges to be role models for the younger users.

“The girls who are featured on the site are really smart and responsible girls in real life,” Hedges said. “They aren’t just on there because they have pretty faces. They really are representative of what the website is all about.”

The website will soon launch a “Big Sister” program that will allow users to be paired with older girls who will act as role models and mentors. Sisters will be able enter contests and upload original content together, as well as talk about Internet safety.

Thousands of girls on the site from all over the country are registered as users on Sweety High, to which new web series, programs, and features are continually added.

Zelle attributes its success to her ability to understand what young girls want.

“I really do think I have an arrested development,” she said. “Sometimes I’m only around 15-years-old. But it works because I can speak to young girls, and understand them. I’m not an old middle-aged man sitting at a computer telling young girls ‘this is what you are going to get.’”

Due to this ability, Zelle has earned the nickname “teen whisperer.”

“I can’t say enough good things about Veronica,” Hedges gushed. “You talk to her for 10 minutes and she will spout off five or six great ideas that you know she can make happen. She really is Sweety High. She’s the heart and soul of the site.”

Zelle hopes to reach young girls around the world within the next five years.

“We’re going to have Sweety domination,” she said.

For more information on Sweety High visit www.sweetyhigh.com ER

Charles Saikley instructs Lindsey Tomasson at his volleyball academy. Photo by Olivia Kestin

by Mirelle Eid

“Higher, higher…diagnose where the ball is before you hit it…better!”

Coach Charles Saikley, 33, calls out across the 4th Street volleyball courts to 14-year-old Cecelia Allen, a student of the Charles Saikley Volleyball Academy. It’s 5 p.m. and the summer sun still burns down relentlessly as coach and player practice drills.

Saikley is wearing bright red board shorts, sunglasses, and a tiger’s eye necklace. He dons socks that reach just below his knees to cover the blisters that accompany days of volleyball lessons on the scalding hot sands of Manhattan Beach. Next to the volleyball net are Saikley’s daily essentials – a beach umbrella, a gallon jug of water, and a mesh bag full of volleyballs.

He sets ball after ball to Cecelia while encouraging her to “strike using her torso” as opposed to her back and to “absorb the ball” before she goes to spike it over the net. He instructs with a gentle authority and praises her when she masters a move.

His patience and knowledge of the game make him a natural coach.

“He taught me everything from scratch,” says Cecelia, “I thought I knew everything but he incorporated drills here and there that have improved my game so much. I started taking lessons with him last summer and since then I’ve gained so much confidence and a much better sense of what to do on the court.”

Cecelia plays club volleyball and since working with Saikley has begun playing in beach tournaments as well.

As the youngest son of the late volleyball legend, Charlie Saikley Sr. – known locally as “the godfather of beach volleyball” –  the traditional beach sport of the South Bay has always been a large part of Saikley’s life.

“I started going to tournaments with my dad when I was five years old,” Saikley says. “He was tournament director so he’d take me with him to help set up the nets and court lines. I took classes, participated in countless tournaments, and became immersed in the culture.”

The Academy is, in a way, a tribute to his father.

“My dad did the work of three or four men – it was a lot – so me and my brother Jay are trying to carry on that legacy and do what we can to continue what our dad started,” Saikley says.

His passion for the sport translates into his dedication as a coach. On average, Saikley gives four or five two-hour lessons each day. Between lessons, he brainstorms new drills to streamline his students’ skills.

“Within the first 30 seconds of a lesson I can tell what kind of player I’m working with,” says Saikley.

He never comes to a lesson with a set agenda.

“I’ll gauge how the student’s feeling that day and adjust the practice to work with their individual skill level,” Saikley explains.

Volleyball, for Saikley, is as much a way of life as a sport. He is constantly encouraging positivity both on and off the courts while also instilling confidence in his players.

“A-T-T-I-T-U-D-E,” Saikley spells out affirmatively. “A positive attitude is what makes a great athlete.”

Saikley takes issue with the fact that shorter players are often the last ones chosen for teams. He considers himself a shorter player and bases his lessons around skill as opposed to height.

“Over time the game has sort of been changed to favor taller players when volleyball is actually a sport that anyone can be great at, no matter their height,” says Saikley.

The Academy offers lessons to people of all ages and skill levels. The youngest group, Tiny Hot Shots, is comprised of 6- to 8-year-olds. Parents tag along and participate in the lesson so they can practice the fundamentals of the sport with their kids at home or on the beach.

“The focus is primarily on children, but I give lessons to people in their forties and fifties as well,” Saikley says. “I’m willing to teach anyone who really wants to play.”

For more information on the Charles Saikley Volleyball Academy or to schedule lessons, visit www.csvba.com or contact Charles directly at (424) 789-9982 or e-mail him at CHARLES@CSVBA.com.

by Lisa Duckers

Residents will begin paying garbage-hauling fees based on the amount of trash they generate, the City Council decided Tuesday. In addition, the city’s trash hauler will have to set aside more waste for recycling and other green measures.

Currently the City Council charges a flat fee for trash removal, but the council decided to implement a two-tiered structure as it prepares to seek bidders for a new municipal trash hauling contract. Companies will be asked to compete for the new contract in August.

A higher fee for a larger trash load is expected to provide a financial incentive for residents to reduce waste, and to recycle.

Each single-family household will be able to use 35-gallon, 64-gallon or 96-gallon carts. A 35-gallon cart will cost $4 a month, a 64-gallon cart will cost $6 a month, and a 96-gallon cart will cost $8 a month. Most residents currently use 64-gallon containers.

Blue recycling carts and green waste carts will continue to be distributed to residents and serviced at no additional cost.

The current contract, held by Waste Management and set to expire in May 2011, charges residents a flat fee of $13.74 a month.

“This is a very important part of the contract in terms of reducing waste,” Councilmember Portia Cohen said of the two-tiered fees.

The current trash contract calls for the hauler to divert 38 percent of the garbage into recycling and other green measures, with 7.7 percent used to transform waste into energy.

The council set a new diversion requirement of 44 percent. That will require the city’s construction and demolition program to help meet a diversion goal set by state lawmakers, but is also expected to attract more trash hauling competitors than would a higher diversion target.

“Our overall diversion rate city-wise is already more than 50 percent,” Mayor Mitch Ward said. “By increasing the main hauler diversion rate from 38 percent to 44 percent, the overall city diversion rate will go up even higher, and more materials will be recycled.” ER

by Mark McDermott

Two 26-year-old men were stabbed repeatedly by a 13-year-old boy wielding kitchen knives after the pair intervened in what they mistakenly believed was a property theft, according to police.

The incident occurred on June 27 on 1100 block of 10th Street shortly before 2 a.m. According to police reports, the men observed, from a balcony, three juvenile boys pulling what appeared to be an incapacitated woman out of a car. The boys helped carry the woman into a neighboring residence, and then one of them returned to the car and appeared to be looking through the vehicle.

One of the men came down and confronted the boy, apparently believing a theft was occurring. The two began to argue and the boy ran back into the residence and returned with two kitchen knives. He attacked the man, and then attacked the man’s friend, who’d tried to intervene.

By the time Manhattan Beach Police Department officers responded to a call that came in at 1:58 a.m., both men had suffered numerous knife wounds and the boy had been subdued by another neighbor. Police discovered that the boy had simply been helping his aunt from her car into the house.

MBPD Officer Stephanie Martin said that the incident is an example of why people should call the police instead of intervening in a possible crime.

“The adults perceived something was going on that wasn’t, then they exchanged words,” Martin said. “Obviously, I would never say there is any excuse for this kind of action – but if you see something happening, call the police. We always tell people don’t go down and intervene. There is a fine line between people wanting to help and knowing what they are dealing with. Here is clearly an example – these guys had the right intentions. They thought they were helping or possibly preventing a crime, and then they were dealing with an individual who didn’t appreciate what they were saying. It escalates verbally and he arms himself and it ends this way – two people in the hospital and he’s in jail.”

The boy was arrested and charged with assault with a deadly weapon. The man who’d confronted him suffered multiple stab wounds, including lacerations to his left armpit, a nearly 5-inch cut across his bicep and several cuts to his back. His friend sustained multiple stab wounds to his back.

“It could have been worse, absolutely,” Martin said. “They were serious wounds, but thankfully they were not life-threatening.”

Martin reiterated that residents should always call the police first.

“You just don’t know how it’s going to turn out,” she said. “You don’t know who you are dealing with…We don’t want people to be vigilantes and take law into their own hands. We want people aware, but what they perceive taking place isn’t necessarily what is happening. Get on the phone, call 911, and give us a chance to get there so we can figure out what is going on. We have the protection. We have the tools.” ER

Volcom's Richard Woolcott acknowledged taking an unfair advantage of his fellow CEOs by practicing for the contest. Photo by Dave Gregerson (20foot.com)

by Kevin Cody and Mike Purpus

It’s doubtful that a Congressional subpoena could have compelled, without a fight, appearances by the CEOs of the surf industry’s four largest manufacturers.

Bob McKnight’s Quiksilver, Paul Naude’s Billabong, Bob Hurley’s Hurley and Richard Woolcott’s Volcom account for nearly half of the roughly $7 billion in annual U.S. surf industry sales.

But despite gray skies and small, mushy waves, the four goofyfooter oligopolists all assembled Sunday morning on the sand at Rosecrans Avenue in Manhattan Beach to compete where they got their starts – in a surf contest.

Each CEO was accompanied by a trusted gunslinger from their stables of professional surfers. McKnight brought Australian Julian Wilson, the 2006 18-and-under world champion who is featured on the cover of the current Surfer magazine. Hurley brought Yadin Nicol, another hot young Australian aerialist. Naude and Woolcott bet their companies’ reputations on local talent. Naude enlisted Dane Zaun, a member of Mira Costa High School’s 2008 U.S. Championship team. Woolcott had former Palos Verdes High standout, turned big wave charger and “Drop Zone” video star Alex Gray.

Core credibility

Quiksilver's Bob McKnight stays low and stable, the way he runs his company. Photo by Dave Gregerson (20foot.com)

Publicly traded surf manufacturers tread a thin line between success and sell-out.
“I organized Quiksilver so that the enemy, Tommy Hilfiger, Nike, Guess, Old Navy and Gap would quit sucking the life out of the surfer, stealing our vibe with checkbook marketing,” McKnight stated before his company eclipsed the enemy.

Sunday’s CEO surf contest was orchestrated by Spyder Surf shop owners Dennis Jarvis and Dickie O’Reilly as a not so subtle challenge to the CEOs to prove they haven’t lost their souls.

Spyder’s motto is “We live it.”

“I reminded them about why we all got into this business, and how much fun it used to be. I said, ‘Let’s have a fun day at the beach, even though South Bay surf is always crappy in the summer because the Peninsula and Catalina block the south swells.’”

Jarvis picked Rosecrans, at the north end of Manhattan Beach, even though his two Spyder stores are in Hermosa Beach, because as bad as Manhattan is in the summer, Hermosa’s summer surf is even worse.

The format, devised by South Bay High School Surf League director John Joseph and Arbor Snow and Skate’s Charlie Ninegar, called for 20 minute, man on man heats.

The first prelim heat was Wilson versus Zaun. Heat two was McKnight versus Naude. Heat three was Woolcott versus Hurley. Heat four was Gray versus Nicol. The prelim winners would compete in the finals for first and second. The losers would compete for third and last.

A towering canvas

Hurley's Bob Hurley cranks up the competition. Photo by Dave Gregerson (20foot.com)

The contest began to take shape four months ago when Jarvis and Dickey began remodeling their Pacific Coast Highway shop. They were looking for a creative way to make use of the store’s new, 22-foot-high signature tower.

“Surf artists are incredible. So I went to our four major brands and said, ‘I’ve got an idea for something that’s better than just putting your stickers all over my windows.’”

His idea was to turn their artists free on Spyder’s new tower.

“I wanted something that says surfing is more than a sport, it’s a lifestyle and that’s why we do it,” he said.

Jarvis is a former pro surfer whose relationships with McKnight, Hurley, Naude and Woolcott date back three decades to when he was a 13-year-old shop rat at ET Surf and they were pedaling board shorts out of the trunks of their cars.

“Dickie and I were in a meeting with the Volcom execs and Woolcott, and he said, ‘Okay, I’m in. But we want to be the first to paint the tower.’ I said, ‘You’re a ripper. Why not a contest and the winner gets to be the first.”

At Sunday’s contest, the CEOs each insisted he was just there for a good time and to show support for Spyder, and by extension, all the other small surf shops struggling with the recession.

By mutual agreement the press wasn’t notified. The only spectators were the competitors’ reps, their women and kids, and judges Jarvis, O’Reilly,  Ninegar, Havoc TV’s Brian Robbin and former Mira Costa surf coach Kevin Sousa.

“I’d do this any Sunday. It’s just like surfing with my neighbors in front of my Newport Beach house at Orange Street,” said Hurley, while watching McKnight and Naude jockey for position in their first heat.

“Of course, we each want to win,” added the former shaper who went on to head Billabong USA from 1983 until 1998 when he founded Hurley. Four years later, he sold Hurley to Nike for an undisclosed amount, estimated to be in the $100 million range.

Fun and games

Billabong's Paul Naude keeps an eye on what's ahead. Photo by Dave Gregerson (20foot.com)

“Crush and rule,” quipped McKnight as he exited the water from his heat. The famously competitive businessman, who co-founded Quiksilver USA in 1976, declined to expand on his comment.

“The Waterman’s Ball,” Naude answered when quizzed about what the two had talked about between waves. The former South African pro finished third in the Pipeline Masters the year McKnight started Quiksilver.

While the other competitors affected a soulful calm, Woolcott, the youngest of the CEOs, made no effort to disguise his intentions.

“Dude, I’m going to smoke them,” the former NSSA nationals champion told Jarvis while stretching before his heat against Hurley.

Asked what made him so confident, Woolcott answered under his breath. “I’ve been practicing.”

Woolcott picked a 5-food-4 Estrada fish and sat inside, where he tore apart the shore pound.

The other CEOs waited outside for set waves, and waited and waited. The strategy might have worked on longboards, but in keeping with their core images, they all rode shortboards.

McKnight looked like Alec Baldwin trying to hustle waves instead of chicks on his Channel Island thruster. Glimmers of past greatness were erased  by less than elegant dismounts. Hurley hustled, but couldn’t pump enough speed into his 5-11 thruster.

In the CEO finals, Naude clung to his outside set strategy on his Pavel quad and was shutdown by the rising tide. Woolcott kept playing in the shore pound, and on wave count alone, out scored Naude 8 to 2.

Even with Gray struggling to find waves in his final against Wilson, Woolcott was able to make good on his boast and bring home bragging rights and first shot at the Spyder tower for Volcom. ER

The 2009 Charlie Saikley Six-Man Volleyball Tournament in Manhattan Beach. Photo by John Post

by Andrea Ruse

A website recently popped up promising a Six Man volleyball tournament next month with a beer garden, a bikini contest and a live concert on the beach.

Attendees are encouraged to bring costumes, loud music and a party attitude. The number of teams and players in the tournament will be unlimited, and entry costs for each team will be capped at $500, regardless of the level of its players. 

“Don’t let the tradition die,” reads a tagline posted on each of the site’s pages.  

In May, the Manhattan Beach City Council voted to restrict alcohol, limit the number of players and take other steps to remove the party from the city’s treasured Charlie Saikley Six-Man Volleyball Tournament. 

A couple of longtime players, however, decided to keep the party and take the volleyball with it to Long Beach. 

Beach volleyball Olympian and former World Champion Sinjin Smith — owner  of Sinjin Volleyball — and pro volleyball player Albert Hannemann are putting on the first-ever Six Man Reunion tournament at Marina Green Park in downtown Long Beach. The event’s website claims it will be “reminiscent” of Manhattan’s tournament, which drew a crowd of 60,000 people last year, according to the city. 

“I don’t know how the City of Long Beach feels about it, but that’s cool for them if they want to have that type of event,” Manhattan Beach Mayor Mitch Ward said. “Our focus in Manhattan Beach will be on volleyball, itself.” 

Rumors that the Six Man Reunion would ultimately supplement or altogether replace the Manhattan’s Six-Man event were dismissed by both city officials and Smith. 

“Some people got the idea that we want to compete with the Manhattan Beach Six-Man,” Smith said. “That is not the case. It’s all about a fun event and creating opportunities for people who won’t be able to play in the Manhattan tournament.” 

The Reunion tournament is scheduled to take place August 6, 7 and 8, the weekend after the Manhattan Beach Six-Man. 

“We originally had it scheduled for the same weekend, but we changed it out of respect for the Manhattan Beach Six-Man and the Saikley family,” said Bill Sigler, a Hermosa Beach resident who is promoting the Reunion tournament. 

Pre- and post-tournament party schedules are listed on the tournament’s site, which slates the event as a “New Beach, Same Game, Better Party.” 

City of Manhattan Beach recreation services manager Mark Leyman said that there is no affiliation between the two events. 

 “The [Reunion] tournament doesn’t mean anything as far as the city of Manhattan Beach is concerned,” he said. “The only issue the Saikley family or the city has is the use of the name ‘Six-Man.’” 

According to Ward and Leyman, the city was not asked for permission to use the name. 

“It’s basically a group of guys down there who want to have a tournament and are trying to capitalize on the name,” Leyman said. 

Smith said in an interview Tuesday that, while it is not uncommon for tournaments to have the term “six man” in the name, he’d be happy to discuss renaming the Six Man Reunion. 

“I’ve spoken with some people in Manhattan Beach who don’t want any confusion,” he said. “They’ve cherished the event for so many years and would prefer to see it called something else.” 

The two-day Six-Man was first held in Manhattan Beach in 1957 as part of the International Surf Festival. In 1964, Manhattan Beach recreation supervisor Charlie Saikley took over its organization and remained the tournament director until his death in 2005 when the event was renamed in his honor. 

Fewer than 1,000 people attended the first year’s tournament. Over the past decade, however, its growth has reached viral proportions along with increasing complaints by residents of rowdy behavior by attendees. Last year, 60,000 attendees crowded the beach during the event’s Saturday portion, spilling over into downtown and residential areas. 

In May, the City Council scrambled for ways to turn the Six-Man back into an athletic-minded event and implemented several restrictions, including a zero-tolerance alcohol policy, increased fencing and the banning of boom boxes, multiple tents and large water coolers. The city also considered banning the wild costumes that have become a part of the event in recent years, but voted to continue allowing them. 

“The decisions made by the City Council were based on advice from the police chief,” Leyman said. “I think they were good decisions based on the number of people attending the event and other factors to keep the event focused on volleyball.” 

To offset the extra $93,306 needed to cover enhanced enforcement, team entry fees were increased from $600 to $1,100 for regular open teams, $1,000 to $2,500 for sponsored teams and $400 to $500 for masters teams. Fees secure 12 team spots with $100 extra per additional player. 

“Lots of teams either didn’t sign up because they didn’t want to pay or were afraid the restrictions would be too much,” Sigler said. “It might not be worth it to guys, who just like to go out and have fun, to each drop two hundred to three hundred dollars.” 

Sigler said that crowd problems could be exacerbated since many players who can’t afford to play in the tournament may increase the number of rowdy fans. 

“They would still end up going down there,” Sigler said. “But now they’re not playing.” 

Sigler said that the Long Beach tournament should help limit the rowdiness of the Manhattan Six-Man. 

“I’m all in favor of it,” said Manhattan Beach Mayor Pro Tem Richard Montgomery. “If they want to take some people down there all day and leave the die-hards up here, maybe our tournament will scale down and be more about the players than the fans, take it back to how Charlie Saikley wanted it and give the residents some relief.” 

Sigler called the Six-Man — which he has played in since 1994 — “the most amazing tournament on the planet.” 

“The Long Beach Six-Man is an alternative for those who don’t want to spend the extra money or who want to do something different,” he said. “It’s not trying to replace the Manhattan Beach Six-Man by any means. It just gives people another option.” 

Nonetheless, Leyman would like to see the name changed. 

“There is only one Six-Man and it is what Charlie Saikley started in Manhattan Beach 45 years ago,” he said. ER

Surf Food Stand server Angela Covington and owner Ben Yeshzkia. Photo by Janet Oshiro

by Janet Oshiro

Say goodbye to sandy sandwiches.

A new concession stand has opened along The Strand at 41st Street. 

The small building, previously known as Alfredo’s, is now the Surf Food Stand.

Surf Food Stand has been open only three weeks but has already expanded its hours from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Owner Ben Yeshzkia started with a 9 a.m. opening time, but quickly realized he was missing early morning clientele.

“We talked to the local surfers who said that if we were open for breakfast, that’s when they can surf,” Yeshzkia said. “And they want to get here before work. This is ideal for them because they don’t have time to go home and change –  even if they were to see an awesome wave, they could run out, catch it, and come right back.”

Surf Food Stand’s quick change in hours was indicative of how the restaurant intends to operate: Yeshzkia hopes to run a concession stand made for the people and by the people. 

“Obviously it’s our opening season and we’re just working with everything that comes along,” Yeshzkia said. “It’s a learning process.”

Next to the order window are surveys and a suggestion box.  Customers can fill out surveys anonymously, answering questions such as “Did you enjoy your food?” to “If we open at 6 a.m., would you have breakfast here?” Customers are also encouraged to suggest a new name for the concession stand.

“We want to make the community involved, and that’s why we made the survey,” said Kenzie Larson, a worker at Surf Food Stand. “We’ve asked everyone what would make them want to come here. We take their advice into consideration. We have little girls that come up and say ‘Can I have this smoothie with four different flavors?’ And it’s like, ‘Sure, anything you want!’”

Yeshzkia said he has spent two years renovating the building and is far from done.

“You couldn’t tell from the outside because it still looks like a shack, but we’re working on it and we’ve made sure the entire inside is very clean,” Yeshzkia said. “I want people to feel like they’re going to a nice restaurant. Eventually I’m going to bring the cleanliness that’s inside, out.  I want people to feel like this is more than a hamburger place.”

But the stand will still be beach casual.

“People don’t have to worry about dressing up fancy,” Larson said. “They can just come down here and enjoy it. The surfers can just take their wetsuits off and sit down and relax, and not have to worry about their appearances or the right etiquette.”

The food is made to order and fresh fish is always available. The menu has everything from a breakfast burrito to fish tacos and soon will begin serving more Mexican and Middle Eastern food. Although chicken nuggets and burgers are offered, vegetarian options and salads have also been added to the menu.

“We’re trying to be health conscious, and have some alternatives for the people who don’t want a hamburger,” Larson said.

Yeshzkia feels that this should be a place for both tourists and locals to come, relax, and enjoy.

“It’s for anybody,” he said. “We have such a vast menu because we want to find things that everyone will like.”

Surf Food Stand also offers a kid’s meal and recently obtained an espresso machine. 

In order to truly embrace locals, the stand offers a 10 percent discount to not only the surrounding surf camps kids and lifeguards but any city employees.

“I want people to feel like they’re coming to a resort,” Yeshzkia said.  “They deserve to have it here. We’re building it through the years. This season we’re figuring out what people think and what they want to have and see when they come here.  We’re willing to invest a lot into this.  It’s going to be more than just your regular stand by the ocean.”

Visit  the Surf Food Stand at 41st Street along the Strand or call ahead to order at (310) 939-7000. ER

A Day at the Beach volunteer teaches the child he “adopted for a day” to boogie board. Photo courtesy of the P.S. I Love You Foundation

by Andrea Ruse

Patricia Jones sits down at her kitchen table, which is littered with dozens of photographs arranged haphazardly under its glass top.

She searches carefully over each picture, tracing her finger across the table.

“Where is it?” Jones wonders aloud, while a blue-eyed toddler with tight blond curls runs in from the backyard followed by a dark haired girl at least a year younger.

Neither child resembles Jones — nor each other, for that matter — but it is clear she is their mother. She excuses herself to attend to the kids, and then returns to search among the images of family, friends, children and volunteers from the P.S. I Love You Foundation, which she founded in 1998.

In June, PSILYF celebrated its 10th anniversary of providing educational and motivational programs to thousands of at-risk kids throughout Los Angeles County.

Next Saturday, July 24, PSILYF will host its 10th annual Day at the Beach in Manhattan Beach. Over 250 inner city kids will be paired with adult volunteers who “adopt a child for a day” of surfing, games, face painting, music, food and friendship.

Jones, 46, finally finds the photo she is looking for and plucks it from underneath the glass table top.

It shows a striking, blond white woman — Jones — standing on a porch with her arms around four smiling black children ranging from one to 10 years old. The photo was taken more than 10 years ago.

Her eyes shine as she names and points to each child as if talking about family.

“This is it,” she says. “This is where it all began.”

A day at the beach

In 1999, Manhattan Beach Mayor Pro Tem Richard Montgomery adopted a child.

For a day, that is.

Two boys from L.A.’s inner cities show off their face paint and game medals at last year’s Day at the Beach.

During PSILYF’s first annual Day at the Beach, Montgomery was paired with one of 15 at-risk children and spent the day shadowing a boy he taught to boogie board and body surf.

“It was a blast,” Montgomery recalled. “Lots of these kids have never even been to the beach.”

Montgomery received a letter a few weeks later from the boy thanking him for the experience.

“It’s a long day and you’re probably more worn out than they are,” Montgomery said. “Their motors never stopped. But no matter how tired you are, when they say ‘Thank you’ at the end, it makes it all worth it.”

The idea stemmed from the family in the photo Jones keeps tucked in her kitchen table.

By 1996, Jones had spent a decade earning a lucrative salary as a medical sales rep. She owned a condo in Hermosa Beach and was on the verge of another promotion.

During a sales call to a hospital she had visited for 10 years, she learned that long-time employee Millie Taylor — with whom Jones had become well-acquainted — no longer worked there. No one could tell Jones why Taylor had left.

“After 35 years at the hospital, nobody there even knew what had happened to her,” Jones says.

Millie Taylor and Jeff Jones. Photo courtesy of the P.S. I Love You Foundation

She asked for Taylor’s phone number and made a call. Jones learned that Taylor’s daughter and granddaughter were both serving prison sentences for a crime they committed together, leaving behind a grandson, age 10, and three great-grandchildren, ages three, two and one.

“She had to quit to take care of four kids, with no time for a job,” Jones says. “But she was doing it. I thought, ‘If she could do something so grand with her life, then what am I doing?’”

Immediately, Jones drove to Taylor’s North Long Beach address. She started taking the kids three nights a week into her home to give Taylor some relief. She also started subsidizing their rent, food and medical bills.

Word spread quickly of Jones’ generosity and soon letters came in from various organizations requesting money for causes. Jones began to organize support from friends.

“At our first board meeting, 10 of my friends showed up,” she says. “At our second board meeting, none came back. But 10 new ones came. Everybody has a different passion. You just have to find what yours is.”

Imprints

By 1998, Jones and a growing number of volunteers established PSILYF as a non-profit organization. The name “P.S. I Love You” was chosen as a tribute to Jones’ mom who always wrote the phrase on lunch bags Jones took to school during her childhood in Connecticut.

While developing new programs, Jones remained involved in the lives of Taylor and her grandkids. She learned that the kids didn’t know what some simple things were, including broccoli and yogurt. She was prompted to hold the first Day at the Beach after finding out that none of the kids had seen the ocean, though all were raised in Long Beach. Jones invited an additional 11 children from a shelter.

“We thought, ‘If [Taylor’s grandkids] haven’t seen the ocean, maybe there are other kids who haven’t seen it either,’” she says.

Within a few years, the event became so popular that attendance reached 250 kids and 320 adult volunteers.

“At that point, the city said, ‘No more kids,’” Jones says.

Each child arrives to Day at the Beach knowing that an adult is waiting to spend the day with him or her. Volunteers and kids play in the ocean, get buried in the sand, paint faces and compete in games, including a popular three-legged race.

The event is funded through private donations and corporate sponsorships. Larry Miller, owner of Sit ‘N Sleep Mattress Store, partially sponsors the event each year and personally adopts a child. Kanoa Aquatics provides free surf lessons every year, while Massage Spot offers kids’ massages and Fresh Brothers Pizza provides food for the event.

Day at the Beach volunteer Monika gives her kid one of the many toys donated for the event. Photo courtesy of the P.S. I Love You Foundation

At the end of the day, each child goes home with a boogie board, a new beach towel and a T-shirt. Jones hopes that each has also made a new friend and positive memories to compete with often painful ones.

“There is a connection lacking in families today,” Jones says. “It’s not a lack of love, but parents are in survival mode in the inner cities.”

She described a letter written by volunteer Richard McConnell after he participated in the event.

“He said that at one point, his kid looked up at him and said, ‘This is the greatest day of my life,’” Jones recalls. “Then [McConnell] said he realized, ‘This is the greatest day of my life too.’”

By 2000, PSILYF had developed several educational programs and community events aimed at teaching love, respect and tolerance to at-risk youth.

“You knew in this mentoring, you could help mold them,” Jones says. “Like an imprint on play dough.”

Jones removes another photograph from underneath the glass. It shows a man in his early twenties, an older version of Taylor’s grandson who was 10 years old when his mom went to prison.

“This is Christopher,” she says proudly.

(Left to right) Jeff Jones, Xabu, Connor Jones, Patricia Jones, Jermain, an unidentified family member, Christopher, and Sean. Christopher is the grandson of Millie Taylor. Xabu, Jermain, and Sean are her great-grandchildren.

When Christopher’s grandmother Millie died several months after Jones married in 2001, he moved into the home of Jones and her husband, Jeff, and attended Redondo Union High School.

“This six-foot-two black kid took over the baby room at 16 years old,” Jones laughs.

After Christopher graduated, he continued living with the Jones family for a few years and attended college.

“He basically runs Day at the Beach now,” Jones says.

In 2007, PSILYF hosted an event called Princess for a Day, where volunteers met with seven at-risk high school girls and helped them get ready for prom.

When the girls asked Jones whether she planned to have children, she casually replied that she might adopt. Within the next couple years, Jones and her husband adopted their first child, a boy.

Two and half years after the Princess for a Day event, Jones received an unexpected call from one of the girls.

“First she asked if I remembered her,” Jones recalls. “Then she said, ‘Did you really mean what you said about wanting to adopt? Because I’m pregnant.’”

Dear Oprah

Several months later, Jones and her husband added to their diverse, extensive and ever-growing family by adopting a baby girl from the student she met at the PSILYF event.

When Jones reflects on all that’s happened since the day she discovered that Taylor had stopped working at the hospital, the chain of events seems to somehow make strange sense, much like the random arrangement of photos under the glass table.

“I don’t know how I got into medical sales,” she says. “But now I know why I was there.”

Day at the Beach kids and volunteers take a moments’ rest from playing beach games.

In addition to community events, PSILYF provides three state-aligned, 12-week courses focusing on principles of self-acceptance and awareness, leadership and teamwork and tolerance of others through yoga, sports, geography and history programs. Volunteers are trained by Jones to teach courses, mostly at Title One elementary schools and shelters.

The classes incorporate journaling, mood cards and positive mantras to give kids healthy ways to express emotions they often struggle with.

One class wrote letters to “The Oprah Winfrey Show” about how much they learned from the yoga course.

“If you take the class, you’ll know what I mean,” read one boy’s letter. “Speaking of mean, I haven’t been mean since I started taking this class.”

In a sports class, an autistic student who became angry and didn’t want to participate learned to be more comfortable with himself by the course’s end.

“I learned the most important thing is to never say ‘I can’t’ because you can do anything,” Jones recalls him telling the class.

“Every kid wants that peace and calmness,” she adds.

The programs are funded through donations and grants. U.S. Auto Parts provided a $25,000 last December.

The corporation’s CEO, Shane Evangelist, teamed up with PSILYF this year start a program that will allow U.S. Auto Parts employees at the company’s Carson headquarters to spend a couple hours every other week mentoring children in schools on company time. Employees will be able to teach company-sponsored yoga classes or offer one-on-one mentoring during students’ lunch breaks in a program called “Love for Lunch.” The company also plans to offer a high school internship program at U.S. Auto Parts to at-risk youth in Carson through PSILYF.

“I wanted to help my employees by giving them an opportunity to give back,” Evangelist said. “Most families that work have kids at home and simply don’t have the time to volunteer when they are not at work. This way, they can give back without taking time away from their own families.”

The company will assess the program by tracking student behaviors, grades, and school attendance, as well as employee happiness and productivity.

“These programs will let kids know that someone else cares, while improving their self-worth,” Evangelist said. “They will also give our employees a higher sense of worth by giving them the opportunity to give back to the city we work in. I think that will make them happier and more productive, allowing us in turn to have higher employee retention. It’s a win-win for everybody.”

If successful, Evangelist wants to work with PSILYF to bring the program to other communities.

Jones walks upstairs to retrieve one of the many letters mailed to PSILYF from kids, volunteers, teachers, parents and shelter employees. It is from the executive director of a shelter who took a group of kids to last year’s Day at the Beach.

“The following week after this amazing event, one of our families was moving into their new home,” the letter read. “We always sit down with each family just before they leave and this time, the older boy asked us to guess what we thought he would be when he grew up. After several incorrect guesses, he announced, ‘When I grow up, I want to train to be a P.S. I Love You volunteer.’”

This year’s Day at the Beach will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. between Sixth and Ninth streets in Manhattan Beach. Registration to adopt a child is closed. To register for the waiting list or as a staff volunteer, contact Patti Nernberg at (310) 806-1965 or at ezhangin@yahoo.com. For more information or to make a donation, visit www.psiloveyoufoudnation.org. All proceeds go directly to fund PSILYF programs and events. ER