Balboa Pier

A few curious beachgoers craned their necks as director Dan Murphy wrapped up filming a shiny new Infiniti sedan parked on the Balboa Pier. Using a large crane-like piece of filming equipment called a jimmy jib, Murphy used the pier to shoot footage for a commercial for Toyo Tires, a luxury and sports car tire manufacturer, on a recent morning. Murphy has used Newport Beach to film several car commercials over the years. “A lot of my clients are based back East, and they love the footage of the beach and the piers,” Murphy said.

On Wednesday, not only can you get a burger, fries and a shake, but you can also do it for a good cause if you go to Ruby?s Diner in Newport Beach. From 4 to 9 p.m. at the Ruby?s Diner at the end of the Balboa Pier, Newport Beach firefighters and lifeguards will help raise money for the Haiti earthquake relief effort by assisting restaurant employees with taking orders and serving food. To donate, people should bring in a flier from the city?s website and give it to the cashier when they pay their bill.

Amateur angler Jon Apothaker reeled in a lot more than a prize catch when he hooked a 5-foot-long black sea bass at Balboa Pier. The fisherman could face up to a $1,000 fine and/or six months in jail for unintentionally landing a member of the protected species off the pier Jan. 3. Apothaker’s struggle to reel in the massive fish attracted a crowd of spectators, and several videos of the incident have popped up on the Internet since....

Like all the tricks you get with skateboarding and the water element of surfing, but can’t find a balance of both? Head down to the Balboa Pier in Newport Beach this weekend, and you might find just what you’re looking for. While people are soaking in the sun and enjoying the beach life this weekend, a group of amateur and professional skim boarders are hoping the public finds their way down to the pier, where they’ll be...

From the outset, the Balboa Pavilion in Newport Beach seemed destined for a special place in local history. A 1907 article in the Los Angeles Times gave the center quite the introduction for readers: “Among all the resorts along the Southern Pacific Coast, Balboa Pavilion at Balboa Beach is one of the most enjoyable spots within a day’s journey of Los Angeles. Situated on the edge of Newport Bay with the Pacific just across the sand spit, it has the attraction of variety as a headquarters which is unsurpassed.

There are probably few days at the Balboa Pier that feel as family-oriented as the annual Monster Mile race. The parking lot is jam-packed with cars and SUVs, the sand is lined with enough adults holding cameras that you would think they were shooting a surfing competition, and the pier is loaded with cheering parents. They’re all there for the same reason: to cheer on their and others’ kids as they go about completing a monster of a task, running a mile and swimming a mile up the beach.

Newport Beach had two five-star beaches in 2008, the highest ranking the Natural Resources Defense Council gives, according to its annual report released Wednesday. The two beaches in the city that were most popular, by the Newport and Balboa piers, both proved to have consistently low bacterial pollution, responded to pollution dangers quickly and tested their water frequently enough to earn the nonprofit organization’s highest marks. For at least the last three years, both beaches — which hundreds of thousands of visitors frequent a year — were within health standards nearly 100% of the time and posted advisories when their beaches were closed.

Hundreds of spectators came to the Wedge on Friday with their cameras and kids in tow as one growling wave after another lashed the shore and body surfers tried to mount the towering columns of water. The spectators inched forward until the waves chased them back. Large swells were greeted with collective gasps as some beachgoers whipped out cell-phone cameras to snap pictures. “It’s just mesmerizing. We can’t take our eyes off of it,” said Clovis resident Sara Sanchez, who was visiting her mother in Newport Beach on Friday with her two children, Conner, 11, and Lucas, 7. The family saw the large waves breaking at the Wedge from Balboa Pier and came down to the beach for a closer look.

A city crackdown on surreys, the fringed-topped, four-wheeled vehicles that are a common sight on Newport’s Oceanfront Walk, has brought business to a screeching halt for local bike shops who depend on revenue from renting the crafts. “I rent them to families, people from Europe, France, Spain, all sorts of people,” said Dale Head, who has owned Easyride Bicycle Rental and Sales since 2003. “This is going to drive two businesses into bankruptcy.” Newport Beach has had an ordinance on the books barring surreys from the Oceanfront Walk since 1997, but it was never enforced.