ALCOHOL COMMISSION STEPS UP EFFORTS TO CONTROL DRINKING AT SPRING BREAK

SOUTH PADRE ISLAND [TX] -- To most Spring Breakers, no matter which
side of 21 they fall, their week away from school means activities
centered around alcohol.

"There wouldn't be a Spring Break if there weren't any alcohol," says
Gilmer Ray, a 22-year-old senior from Howard Payne University.

The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission is well aware of that mindset,
and doesn't like it. So as Spring Breakers from around the state and
country began crowding Texas shores last weekend, so did extra TABC
officers bent on keeping booze out of the hands of minors.

"We could probably use every agent employed by the agency along the
coastline, but there are other needs across the state," said Lt. Sonja
Pendergast of the TABC.

Should minors decide to imbibe anyway, they could be subjected to
TABC's zero-tolerance approach, which could mean community service and
a suspended driver's license.

"I think that acts as a large deterrent," Pendergast said.

As part of the TABC's efforts to curb underage drinking, the agency
works with retailers to help them identify minors who try buying
alcohol. Among the signs they're told to watch for: lack of facial
hair, high school rings, and parking on the side of a store where a
group of teens can secretly pool their money and send in one person.

Those clues may seem like common sense, but "a lot of people don't
think about it," Pendergast said.

Some companies are helping in the anti-alcohol crusade by offering
activities centered around other things. They'd probably have better
luck selling long-sleeved swimsuits.

For example, at the Surge Beach Zone -- a slice of beach behind the
Radisson hotel sponsored by the citrus drink maker that features
sport-oriented events such as tug-of-war and street hockey -- a group
of beer-drinking college students sat next to the obstacle course.

"Spring Break without alcohol, baby, wouldn't be Spring Break," said
Glenn Jones, 19, a sophomore football player from the University of
Texas at Kingsville who was on South Padre "looking for fun and
excitement and a lady."

Jones, who sports a tattoo of his name on his right bicep and one of a
lion on his left pectoral, said he's not worried about the TABC
crackdown on underaged drinkers.

After all, he notes, he's not the only one. "You've got people here
who are 15 and drinking," he said.

Along with drinking often comes rowdiness and destruction of property.
Up the coast a bit in Port Aransas, near Corpus Christi, residents are
still scarred by the time in 1988 when some Spring Breakers overturned
a car on the beach and roughed up the driver. The U.S. Coast Guard had
to be brought in to restore order.

Since then, the island has stopped advertising itself as a Spring
Break destination for students. Many condominium owners also have put
in expensive and restrictive rental terms on their properties to keep
students out.

On South Padre Island, property destruction by rowdy students is on
the decline said Cindy DuBois, spokeswoman for the South Padre Island
Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Cautious hoteliers have helped tone things down by outsmarting
partiers and removing things that could be broken from the hotel rooms.

"The amount of damage has been greatly reduced," she said. "(Spring
Breakers) really don't have as bad a reputation as they used to
regarding property destruction."