Dawn Patrol:

How many Orange Coast College students does it take to wax a surfboard? Only one, but he gets two credits.

When I first heard that one, it was about USC football players and changing a light bulb, and I hope Laird Hayes will forgive my bad joke. When he’s not busy as a side judge for the NFL, giving one of his quarterback and receiver camps, or coaching the OCC men’s soccer team, you’ll find him at the beach Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday mornings, teaching the class I wish had been offered when I was at Coast: PE-161, Surfing, two units. Nice!

Class begins promptly at 8 a.m., regardless of weather or surf conditions, at the grassy area just south of Newport Pier. Everyone is expected to hit the surf. If there are no waves there is paddling. If it’s storm surf or you’re on the “disabled list” a beach cleanup might be substituted. Pool and ocean swimming tests must be completed as a prerequisite for enrollment. An orientation by the Newport Beach Lifeguards is also given.

Laird’s class is different from most surf camp or lessons programs. It’s about surfing as an awareness and life experience, not just achieving immediate wave riding success. Students can go at their own pace, and there is time for other important aspects of surfing like studying the varying swell and tide patterns, learning wave selection, and attaining an awareness of ocean and coastal conservation. Laird even brings five of his own boards, all different shapes and sizes, so students with only one board can learn about equipment selection.

“This is about more than standing up on a board,” Laird said. “I want the students to see the surfing experience as something that will enable them to open new doors and accomplish things in other areas.”

To that end, attendance, punctuality, courtesy, and surfing etiquette are all important parts of the course. Laird lets some of the advanced surfers compete for waves with the pack north of the pier, but keeps the beginners on the south side where it’s normally not crowded. But he still gets the occasional complaint from local grumblers who see the class as an invasion of their spot.

You won’t meet a nicer group of young men and women, nor a more eclectic one from OCC. A single father, a young woman from Santa Ana who had never been in the ocean, students from Maine, the Czech Republic, England, South Africa, Brazil, and Peru. And there’s class veteran “Otis,” now in his fourth semester. A repo man by night, he likes the peace and solitude he gets out in the lineup.

One of the requirements for passing the course is writing a paper on what the class has meant to the student. Laird says one recurring theme is “surfing as something more than learning to ride a wave.”

Laird summed it up best when he told me, “The class will be out in the water and a group of dolphins will swim by – how are you going to put a price on that kind of experience?”

JOHN BURTON’S surf column appears Fridays.