The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 19

SECTION METRO MONDAY AUGUST 30, 1999 cct Skater's Death Is a 2nd Tragic Warning ORA GELQUN1YWEATHER Accident: Matthew Purvis, remembered in a wake Sunday, died after a longboard spill eerily similar to a friend's in 1997. without helmets." Purvis' death also was a grim reminder to Panetta's stepfather, Frank Chiulli. "I was shocked," he said. "These are two kids in the same graduating class. You would have thought that one would have learned from the other." Longboards, the extra-long skateboards Purvis and Panetta rode, have surged in popularity in recent years, in part because of their surf- and snowboard-like feel.

Skaters seek out hilly roads and parking structures where they can ride the 3- to 5-foot wooden planks with wheels. Speeding down normally crowded roadways in the dark with a buddy's car both blocking traffic and lighting the way is an added thrill. "Since they are a longer board, they can go a lot faster" than conventional skateboards, said Blair Mardian of World Core Surf and Sport in San Clemente. "It's easier to keep your balance on the longboards, and you can carve on it, so it's more like snowboard-ing and surfing." Purvis, a junior at Loyola Marymount, had been riding only for about six months, said friends and family. He had ridden and fallen several times before on the hill where his fatal accident occurred.

At a wake for Purvis on Sunday night, friends and family put together a collage of pictures. They played his favorite band, the Grateful Dead, over radios at the mortuary. Later, they made wreaths of seaweed and tossed them in the ocean at Strands, his favorite spot, at Salt Please see SKATERS, B5 There, while his friend lit the way with his headlights, Purvis shot down the roadway, lost control and flew from his board, fracturing his skull. Like Panetta, he, too, had not been wearing a helmet. A week later, on Aug.

26, Purvis died of massive head trauma. On Sunday, his mother, Bonnie, was at a loss to explain why her son had not heeded the tragic death of his Santa Margarita Catholic High School friend. "I think it was the 'Ah, it's never going to happen to me' kind of thing," said Bonnie Purvis from her Rancho Santa Margarita home. "It's sad because I walk around and see kids and they look like Matt, and they're out there skating By JASON KANDEL SPECIAL TO THE TIMES In his date book, Matthew Purvis kept a prayer card from the funeral of his friend Phillip Panetta, a 19-year-old skateboarder who crashed while careening helmetless down a Mission Viejo hill in the dark two years ago. The prayer was a talisman, a warning and a memory for Purvis.

But it wasn't enough. About 9 p.m. Aug. 18, Purvis took his skateboard to the top of a long, steep hill on Lincoln Boulevard near Loyola Mary-mount University in Westchester. rCfl! ALEX GARCIA Los Angeles Times A pair of black-necked swans wise to the ways of beating the weekend heat keep to the cool shade of a pond at the Santa Ana Zoo.

TODAY'S FORECAST some low ciouas are in siore mis morning, then becoming mostly sunny and cooler with localized breezes. Patchy low clouds return tonight with fair skies. Highs will run from the 70s to 80s; lows tonight, upper 50s to mid-60s. TEMPERATURES Pollution Battle Continues on Multiple Fronts Environment: High-tech equipment, low-tech 'fruit launch' to be used in search for source of beach contamination. May Today Sunday Today Community UrnHigh UrnHigh Community UrnHigh lowHigh Anaheim 63 87 59 82 Lake Forest 5989 5787 Dana Point 69 74 66 72 Long Beach 60 83 59 81 Fullerton 6287 6085 Newport Beach 61 74 5972 Garden Grove 6182 66 80 Orange 6387 6677 Huntington Bell 62 72 65 77 San Clemente 5673 61 77 Irvine 65 83 58 88 S.J.

Capistrarto 67 85 59 81 La Habra 6886 6782 Santa Ana 6084 5882 Laguna Beach 5887 5681 Tustin 5790 6579 Laguna Niguel 6379 6579 Yorba Linda 67 94 64 91 1 1 I i iff pv(A i I MhT.iriiiii iimmnt hmm Orange County temperatures are supplied by NBC4 WeatherNet and WeatlwData SUN, SEA AND SURF TODAY Sunrise 6:24 a.m.; Sunset 7:20 p.m. TIDES (Newport Bay entrance) AM Low: 0.7' 5:56 AM High: None PMLow: 1.3' 6:31 PM High: 5.1' 12:17 MARINE FORECAST Inner Waters: Southwest winds, 10-15 knots, through tonight; 2-foot seas, 4-foot southwest swell. Mostly sunny today after some a.m. low clouds. Fair tonight.

Outer Waters: Possible small-craft advisory. Northwest winds, 10-25 knots; 4-foot seas, 6-foot northwest swell. Fair to partly cloudy after a.m. low clouds and fog. Water Temperature: 60 to 64 degrees By KAREN ALEXANDER TIMES STAFF WRITER Still unable to isolate the source of bacterial contamination that has closed the waters off Huntington Beach since July 1, city and county agencies will try a host of measures today aimed at both stemming the flow of pollution into the ocean and determining its source.

And Huntington Beach Mayor Peter M. Green said he would ask county health officials this afternoon to consider reopening the beaches north of the pier, where bacteria levels have tested in the range that is not un-healthful for swimmers. "We do not want the beach open until it's safe for everybody to enjoy," Green said. But the mayor said he hoped county officials would make a distinction between those areas that are polluted and those that continue to test clean. i A meeting Sunday of more than 20 frustrated local officials, however, focused strictly on confronting the menacing bacteria levels, spawning a number of strategies both high-tech and low; On the high-tech end, county officials, with help from the U.S.

Coast Guard, will use sophisticated airborne equipment on loan from the Orange County district attorney's office to scan the ocean for clues. The equipment, used by the environmental crimes unit, detects temperature and chemical variations in water. On city streets, waste water from Please see BEACH, B7 Photos by RICHARD HARTOG Los Angeles Times Maria Theresa Diaz, left, and Maria Meier embrace after the church's final Mass, led by Father Agustin Escovar, below. 'So Much Joy' Longtime Parishioners Reminisce, Pray St. Isidore Will Not Close TODAY'S SURF County Surf Period Swell (ft) (seconds) Direction Orange 2-3 715 ws San Diego 2-3 715 ws Los Angeles 2-4 814 ws FOUR-DAY FORECAST tuesday wednesday thursday friday Some low Sunny after A few low Early low clouds, then patchy low clouds, then clouds, then sunny and clouds sunny sunny locally breezy High: 70s to High: High: Upper High: 70s to mid-80s Mid-70s to 70s to 80s low 80s Low: mid-80s Low: Upper Low: Upper Mid-50s to Low: Upper 50s to 50s to low low 60s 50s to low mid-60s 60s 60s Complete Weather Details B6 On Sunday, the Salases, who have lived their whole lives in Los Alami-tos, celebrated their anniversary in the midst of deep uncertainty.

"Once this breaks up then everybody probably will go their own separate way," Simon Salas said. "I made my first Communion here," Helen Salas said. "And all our children were baptized here," her husband said. St. Isidore's future is in peril for several reasons, the most serious of which is financial.

The Diocese of Orange has determined that the foundation of the mission-style church requires earthquake retrofitting, at a cost of as much as $300,000 an expense that diocesan officials say is too great. The diocese also does not have enough Spanish-speaking priests to Please see CHURCH, B4 By LISA RICHARDSON TIMES STAFF WRITER For what may be the last time, the flock of St. Isidore Roman Catholic Church in Los Alami-tos gathered Sunday for 9 a.m. Mass. Inside the chapel, parishioners squeezed shoulder to shoulder in the pews and knelt on the carpeted floor of the foyer and in the aisles as they prayed that their little house of worship, which some had attended all their lives, would remain open.

Barring that, they prayed that God would give them the strength to bear seeing it close. Side by side in a pew, Simon and Helen Salas, both 74, reminisced, at once shy and proud, about their wedding. Exactly 56 years ago to the day, the couple married in the chapel. iiiiii lift 1. A 71 'fir HUBLER is on vacation.

Orange county highlights More Headaches to Come Safety Work Finished, Knott's Puts Coaster Back on Tracks Theme parks: The wooden GhostRider had been closed since a piece of wood came loose last week, injuring five. niun i i.jii- iii WW. glljiHfemuW.iHI 2: wl zr ISr ks ft -I if m. iim mmm fc-Tiwi 2, fcni rnni Electric Guitar Promoter Dies Francis C. Hall, who helped popularize electric guitars, dies at age 90 in Laguna Beach.

He partnered with Leo Fender and later headed Rickenbacker Guitars. A16 Safety Zone "California ranks second among all states in the annual number of fatal crashes involving a sleepy driver. The best remedy? A nap. B2 Huntington Studies Gun Range Huntington Beach might build an indoor gun range, but a consultant recommends limiting recreational shooting. B3 Girl Dies in Car Accident A 1 5-year-old Riverside girl is killed and two people are injured when their car hits a tree in Santa Ana.

B4 Editorial Fannie Mae's plan to help low- to moderate-income families buy homes in Orange County is especially welcome. B8 How to contact us B3 Lottery B4 Five people were struck by a 3-foot piece of wood that snapped loose beneath the train and flew into the air. The most serious injury was to a 58-year-old visitor from Japan, who was hospitalized overnight with a 4-inch gash on his head. Park attendees were disappointed earlier in the day when they were turned away from the still-closed ride. That reaction turned to elation when park employees began waving visitors into the mine-shaft-like entrance to one of the most popular rides at the Buena Park amusement park.

John and Sharon Igel of Long Beach decided not to ride the GhostRider but only because the wait stretched to 45 minutes soon after the attraction reopened. "It's a little piece of trim wood that came off the ride," John Igel said. "It's not basically unsafe." Please see KNOTT'S, B4 By E. SCOTT RECKARD TIMES STAFF WRITER Pledging that an accident that injured five people "can't happen again," Knott's Berry Farm reopened its signature GhostRider roller coaster Sunday after installing a double-reinforcement of spikes and metal straps. Billed as the longest wooden coaster in the West, the GhostRider reopened at 3 p.m.

after a final battery of tests to check that the repairs hadn't created new stresses that could jar riders or the structure of the 115-foot-high thrill attraction. The tests, in which data from electronic gauges were printed out like the results of an EKG, showed the ride delivered only "a nice, appropriate rattle and roll," said Richard Brown, a biodyn-amics consultant hired by the park after last Monday's accident. DON BARTLETTI Los Angeles Times That traffic nightmare on the northbound 405 near Harbor Boulevard last weekend was due to Caltrans repaying. Work will resume nonstop Sept. 10-13 northbound from Harbor to Beach Boulevard.

Sept. 18-20, work moves to the southbound side, starting at Beach and working south..