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Hot-rodding over the dunes in jazzed-up Jams

The only thing in sport this year to challenge surfing as a youth cult is "duning," a term that means driving buggies over high waves of sand like these 100-footers in Southern California's Imperial Valley. Duners get their buggies from a variety of sources, but their uniform comes from an ex-Hollywood stunt man, a surfing and wheels enthusiast named Dave Rochlen.

Four years ago Rochlen created a nationwide fad when he transformed the oversized bathing trunks (nicknamed "baggies") the kids were wearing at Makaha and Newport Beach into a million-dollar fashion idea called Jams. He took the loose fit and drawstring idea of pajama pants and made them in a heavier, wildly patterned fabric. Since then his firm, Surf Line Hawaii, has expanded to include the colorful, comfortable, Sanforized cottons photographed here on the Glamis Sand Dunes. In tune with the booming popularity of duning, Surf Line has added racing prints such as the hot rods on Cheer Critchlow's shirt (right) to the surfers' florals and stripes. Lowell Johnson (above left) jumps his buggy wearing a one-piece pit suit with a motorcycle pattern. Surfers Garth Murphy, Mary Ryan, Cheer, Rusty Miller and Fred Ryan (left) admire a Mini-T that has a molded fiber-glass body mounted on a Volkswagen chassis. Their bright Jams, beach pants, bikini and shirt give vivid expression to Rochlen's maxim: "Clothes are fun; color is great."

TWO PHOTOS

BOB GOMEL

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION

BOB GOMEL