Mike, Pat and Terry Curren had grown restless waiting to play on the only sand volleyball court at Old Mission Beach near the lifeguard tower at Redondo Court.
To kill time on that day roughly 75 years ago, the teenage brothers invented their own game.
Utilizing a baseball bat and softball, a few beer cans and the shining sun on the sand to mark the boundaries, the Currens came up with a few rules. Fellow beach boy Ron LaPolice set the court’s dimensions — 20 steps from home base to the line, a playing surface 22 steps wide — and before long the chief objective of hitting the ball became the name of the sport they launched: Over-the-Line.
“It was pretty primitive back then,” Terry Curren said this week, ahead of the 71st OMBAC Over-the-Line World Championship on Fiesta Island. “We don’t know exactly how it developed; it just happened. But we had a lot of fun. Mike was a great athlete. Pat was an amazing surfer, and I was a wannabe lifeguard.”
Well, significantly more than that.
Terry Curren missed the first OTL tournament — he was stationed at a U.S. Army base in Thule, Greenland, 750 miles north of the Arctic Circle — but has been a constant presence since. The 90-year-old retired general contractor is more than just a living part of OTL history; he’s now the tournament’s heartbeat.
“Mike was the greatest guy ever. We all miss him dearly,” said OMBAC president Steve Mutt, 64. “But I also realized that Terry is the most important guy on the island, and I build the event around him. He’s the silent guy. He doesn’t like to take credit for what he provides.”
First family of OTL
All the Curren boys surfed, but Pat was exceptional, becoming one of the greatest big-wave surfers in history.
“Pat was an absolute freak,” said J.D. Dahlen, who ed OMBAC in 1958 and founded Bully’s East and Old Town Mexican Café. “He would go out whenever or wherever no one else would.”
Pat’s son was exceptional, too. In 1985, Tom Curren became the first American to win the Association of Surfing Professionals World Title. He won again in ’86 and ’90. His 33 ASP event titles are second only to Kelly Slater’s 56.
Pat Curren made waves in the surf industry in the early 1960s when he developed the Elephant Gun, a big-wave surfboard made out of balsa wood that revolutionized the industry. The board was Pat’s idea, but he needed Mike’s mathematical mind to complete his vision.
“A moment of inspiration, a bit of math and a 6-pack of beer created the Elephant Gun,” said Helen Duffy, Mike Curren’s girlfriend during the final 42 years of his life.
Mike Curren was a civil engineer and California licensed surveyor for 60 years “until he decided to cut back at age 84,” Duffy said.
He was also an excellent OTL player. Mike Curren won the first-ever Over-the-Line World Championship in 1954 alongside teammates Billy Rice and Jay Gutowski. In fact, Curren and Gutowski won the first five OTL World Championships.
In 2009, Mike Curren was the first inductee into the OTL Hall of Fame – along with Chuck Cromar, Camille Medina, Ron LaPolice and Pops Matson, author of “The Greatest Game: How to Play OTL.” Terry Curren ed them in the Hall in 2023.
Mike Curren, known first as “Father OTL” and, later, “Father Time,” died Dec. 30, 2022, at age 92. Brother Pat died three weeks later at age 90.
“Michael was the catalyst to make it all happen,” Duffy said. “Mike really held this whole thing together for all these years. He and Terry were responsible for all this fun thousands of San Diegans soak in every year.”
Terry Curren literally wrote the book on Mission Beach. Written in 2007 by Curren and two-time OTL champion Phil Prather, “Mission Beach” details the history of the area and the peninsula that used to be called New Mission.
The richest man in San Diego at the time, John D. Spreckels, built Belmont Park and the Giant Dipper Roller Coaster in 1925 as a way of enticing people to buy lots and houses in New Mission Beach. Now, it is known as South Mission Beach. OMBAC’s “headquarters” are the Beachcomber and The Pennant – two adjacent bars that used to be fishing shacks and a butcher shop in the 1950s.
On to OMBAC
The Currens were founding of OMBAC, which has been putting on the OTL World Championship since its inception. The volunteer organization sponsors dozens of events and gives to hundreds of charities throughout the year. The money OMBAC raises benefits disabled athletes, Special Olympians, youth organizations, first responders, emergency aid, medical research and even parades.
OMBAC stages a beauty contest each year at the OTL World Championship, and the winner of the Miss Emerson Contest becomes the spokeswoman for the group at hundreds of events throughout the year.
Sabrina Mitchell was crowned Miss Emerson last year.
“Before I was a part of this club, I knew about OMBAC but I had no idea what they were all about,” she said. “The charities, helping people, making San Diego a better place to live, to experience what I did over the past year was incredible.”
Because of Mike Curren’s influence, OMBAC is also heavily involved in rugby. The OMBAC Rugby Club has been a powerhouse since the 1960s.
“There were others, but he was the man!” Dahlen said. “And Mike was a hit wherever we went. London, Down Under – it didn’t matter. Nothing nefarious, just fun-loving things.”
On that note …
There are a lot of strange, wild and unprintable tales about the OTL World Championship.
“Some of them are even true,” Mutt said.
In the 1970s, ABC wanted to feature OTL on “Wide World of Sports.” With a catch.
“They wanted us to change the team names,” Terry Curren said, “and we said, ‘No way!’ ”
About 10 years ago, ESPN sent reporter Pam Oliver and a crew to explore the possibility of airing the sport on the network.
ESPN eventually balked. Too risqué. (Mutt didn’t help matters when, tongue in cheek, he told ESPN people that they couldn’t take any pictures or video because he was in the Witness Protection Program.)
Then there was the time the legendary “Voice of OTL” Don Peterson announced that (an unprintable team name) would be “Next up on Court 19.”
Players dressed as Saddam Husein, Muammar Gaddafi and Fidel Castro soon arrived at the court. Their opponents turned out to be the Navy Leap Frogs, who promptly jumped out of a plane and fell to earth, landing precisely on Court 19. The Frogs shed their parachutes, grabbed their gear and played.
“The Frogs quickly made short-change of them,” said Mutt. “And the crowd went crazy!”
Mike and Terry Curren set up the whole scene along with former OMBAC President Chuck Millenbah.
Flood — and a near drought
There have been hiccups along the way. A condominium construction project deconstructed the 1958 tournament. The coronavirus pandemic canceled the 2020 event.
In 2015, a biblical rainstorm flooded Fiesta Island and postponed the finals for several weeks.
A year before the rain, OMBAC faced — of all things — a drought. The city had recently banned alcohol on the beach, including at Fiesta Island. At the last minute, then-Mayor Kevin Faulconer lifted the ban specifically for the OTL tournament.
OMBAC, OTL and the Currens persevered.
What began in Old Mission Beach moved to South Mission Beach and then to Mariner’s Point. OTL finally settled at Fiesta Island in 1974.
“We had a guy with heavy equipment,” Terry recalled, “and when no one was looking, we bulldozed the place and cleared out enough area to put in about 50 courts.”
The area is sacred ground now to OTLers and fun-seekers throughout the country. At its peak, as many as 1,300 teams competed in the World Championship. They find out where and who they play next at the Mike Curren Memorial Bracket Board.
Terry Curren will be there Sunday when the tournament crowns 10 champions in men’s and women’s divisions.
He won’t ask for any credit. Well, there is one thing …
“I only have one thing on my bucket list. I want to throw out the first pitch at a Padres game,” he said. “I may be 90, but I can still bring it better than those youngsters they bring in.”
71st annual OMBAC Over-the-Line Championship
When: Tournament concludes Sunday. Games start at 7:30 a.m. and run all day.
Where: Fiesta Island
ission: Free
Rules: Over-the-Line officials enforce a “No B’s” rule: no bicycles, bowzers (dogs), babies, boas, bad attitudes or battles allowed. There is also no glass, kegs or styrofoam coolers allowed. No drones. No public nudity. Because of crowds, noise and salty language, tournament organizers recommend against bringing children.
