Surfing beginner finds advice is all wet*

This week's Surf Summit, the annual gathering for the surfing industry in Cabo San Lucas, brings together some of the industry's most successful and knowledgeable players. What better place to learn how to surf?  Well,  this is some of the advice  Mandy Johnson, a spokeswoman for the Aliso Viejo-based Surf Industry Manufacturers Assn., and other beginners received from instructors and others during one morning at the beach:

"The key is to not trip on your [ankle] leash. That's a sure way to make yourself look not as cool as you want to.... Don't run into people, that's bad.... No. 1, don't freak out. Nothing's going to hurt you in the water out here."

A few minutes later, as Johnson was paddling offshore, a man emerged from the water with his head bleeding. The Times' Leslie Earnest, who was covering the convention, spotted the man, who was taken to get some stitches. Johnson later rode back to the hotel with a rash on her stomach, which generated even more sage advice from the back of the van: "Spit on it."

*An earlier version of this post got a few things wrong (but, hey, this was about a class, so we're learning too). The bleeding man was seen Earnest, not Johnson, as reported earlier. The Surfing Industry Manufacturers Assn. is in Aliso Viejo, not La Jolla. And that rash was not "mysterious," as we described it earlier. Longtime surfers know it's one of those things that can happen when you paddle on a board.

-- Jesus Sanchez