Crowded but quiet on the sand

It was hard to pick out an empty spot of sand between 22nd and 24th streets near Newport Pier on Saturday afternoon. With inland temperatures hitting scorching highs, Southern Californians started the holiday weekend with a day of relief at the beach.

The sand was dotted with brightly colored umbrellas, towels and sunbathers. Long lines formed outside an ice cream shop on the boardwalk, and people of all ages navigated the busy area on beach cruisers.

Boardwalk Sports, a rental shop at the base of the Newport Pier, couldn’t keep boogie boards on the shelves, store supervisor Israel Marques said. The shop was renting the boogie boards as fast as people could turn them in, Marques said.

A 75-degree high in Newport Beach on Saturday wasn’t record breaking, but merely a continuation of an usually long, hot spell, National Weather Service forecaster Philip Gonsalves said.

“It is a pretty prolonged warm spell, especially for June,” Gonsalves said. “It’s not unheard of; it just doesn’t happen that often.”

Howard Clabourgh of Upland drove 40 minutes to Newport Beach to spend Saturday at the beach with his wife and two granddaughters.

The temperature at the water’s edge in Newport was slightly cooler than the heat in Upland, Clabourgh said.

“The beach is the cleanest I’ve seen it in a long time,” Clabourgh said, commenting on the clear water and trash-free sand. “This is enjoyable.”

The optimal beach-going conditions created a snarl of traffic at the entrance to many of Newport’s beaches. A line of cars extended on Ocean Boulevard for those wanting to get into the Corona del Mar State Beach parking lot and traffic backed up even more on the Balboa Peninsula.

Although a sizable crowd turned out Saturday to hit the sand, it was a relatively calm day for Newport Beach lifeguards. By 5 p.m. Saturday, lifeguards reported making 14 rescues, an unusually low number for a hot summer day.

“It’s kind of quiet. It’s not as crowded as we expected,” Lifeguard Battalion Chief Rob Williams said.

The hot inland temperatures driving people to the beaches are likely to continue into next week, Gonsalves said. Highs are predicted to be in the 80s and 90s away from the beach for some time.dpt.02-beaches-CPhotoInfo651SI7MG20060702j1qy6incMARK DUSTIN / DAILY PILOT(LA)Sunbathers and swimmers crowd the beach just up the coast from Newport Pier on Saturday afternoon. More warm temperatures and big crowds are expected.