Leave it to California: this weekend, they had the traditional Blessing of the Waves out in Orange County.

It was totally gnarly, dude:

About 400 people gathered at sunrise Sunday to thank God for a gnarly ocean and to hang ten on some righteous waves.

The Roman Catholic Dioceses of Orange hosted its first annual Blessing of the Waves, inviting ocean-minded people from all faiths to find common ground at Surf City’s shores. They hope to make the blessing an annual event.

“You get a different perspective when you are in touch with creation and the ocean, and share that with the people around you,” said Huntington Beach resident Fran Buzinski, 75, who attended the event.

A conch shell was blown to start the event and representatives from Muslim, Jewish, Catholic and Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints faiths prayed for the participants and ocean.

“All the world sings to you … we sing to you, oh God, who makes all things one,” said Carol Weinfeld with Temple Beth David in Westminster.

Two Catholic priests sprinkled the audience with sea water and burned written prayers in a small fire as part of the blessing. Sunday’s event followed Saturday’s feast of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of ecology.

About two dozen surfers stood solemnly in front of their boards during the ceremony as a backdrop to the event, and two bands played religious songs and surf tunes.

“Regardless of religious tradition these days, it is all about ecology and global issues,” said Victor Cao, 22, who was lead vocalist for the Catholic band UnderSky.

The service concluded with a ceremonial swim where surfers sat on their boards in a circle past the surf break.

And, if that weren’t enough, another local paper had this item about priests who not only serve — they surf:

He may not be able to walk on water, but when the mood strikes, Father Matthew Munoz can ride one gnarly, tubular wave all the way into the beach.

So Sunday at dawn, on the crystal-white sands of the town where the U.S. Surfing Championships were born nearly a half-century ago, Munoz and some two dozen fellow wave riders paused to thank God for all the joy the oceans have provided them.

Then, after the surfer’s ceremonial blowing of a conch shell for good luck, the pastor of Orange County’s Saint Irenaeus Catholic Church shouted out a hearty, “Let’s surf!”

Clutching a board with an image of the Virgin of Guadeloupe inlaid into both sides, he led his flock and others in a race toward the water, diving in and paddling just as hard and as fast as he could toward the break.

The occasion was the Blessing of the Waves, a spiritual but at the same time decidedly lighthearted event organized by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange.

One of the event’s organizers, Father Christian Mondor, helped kick off the proceedings by thanking God (or “The Big Kahuna” as he also addressed him) for righteous waves and a killer ride for all the surfer babes and dudes assembled before him.

“May they hang 10 on thy oceanic bounty and, if it be in accordance with thy gnarly plan, may they not wipe out,” he concluded, reading from a tongue-in-cheek poem written by Los Angeles Times reporter Dana Parsons.

The audience broke out laughing when Munoz began his blessing by announcing: “I’m not Jesus. I need a surfboard to walk on water.”

Photo: by Mark Martinez, Orange County Register