Brands walking on wild side. (Up Front).

LOCAL surfwear and other apparel makers scramble to sign the hottest young athletes.

You know, the ones doing those jaw-dropping flips on skateboards, surfing insanely big waves in tropical waters or catching major air on snowboards.

Their reasoning is simple: exposure.

"Athletes have played a key role in exposing our brand," said Scott Bowers, vice president of sports marketing for Foothill Ranch-based Oakley Inc.

But exposure can come with a bite. Those same riders launching from deserted snow-covered cliffs to land on perfect powder thrive on walking on the wild side.

"From time to time they can all be emotional," Bowers said. "We've gone as far as bailing athletes out of jail or paying for trashed hotel rooms. It comes with the territory."

Welcome to the fast world of action sports.

Companies sell an edgy lifestyle, with hip street fashion or cool skate garb. They attract athletes with the same edge.

"We always have a rebellious crew," said Arty Hargrove, national sales manager for Costa Mesa-based Black Fly Industries Inc.

"We have run into situations where the results have been less than spectacular, and each situation is different," added Beau Brown, teams marketing manager for Lake Forest-based Sole Tedmology Inc.'s Etnies sneaker brand.

Bad-boy image

Companies are quick to point out they don't condone violence, vandalism or excessive substance abuse. Still, it's in their world.

"We have some guys on each team that have that wild streak," Brown said. "That's why they are where they are in their sports. We don't sponsor tournament chess players."

Take Black Fly, which is infamous for playing up its bad-boy image.

The sunglasses maker said it picks athletes for talent first. But it also expects them to have an "edgier attitude than your household name athlete," Hargrove said.

"That's not to be a destroyer," he said. "Though that tattooed snowboarder or skateboarder has that in him anyway, because he knows what kind of image we have here."

Mischief was at its "worse' in the company's heyday -- the mid-1990s.

The stories are wild: people demolishing hotel rooms, knocking over tradeshow booths, downing large quantities of liquor and being carried out of industry confabs.

'We've spent well up to $5,000 to repair a (hotel) room, and that's from the owner ruining the room. Jack's famous for that," Hargrove said.

Hargrove was referring to Black Fly founder and co-owner Jack Martinez, who's notorious for throwing raging parties where "people get thrown out of windows, phones are ripped from the wall or sofas are lit on fire."

Black Fly was among several entities named in a lawsuit over the death of Keenan Milton, a skateboard star and team rider for Torrance-based Chocolate skateboards and Tarzana-based DYS Shoe Co.

Milton drowned at a 2001 Malibu house party after being hit on the head by a partygoer who jumped from a balcony into the pool. The Milton family said Black Fly was one of the party's sponsors. The company refutes the claim and said it was later dropped from the suit.

Even Black Fly has its limits, at least when it comes to team riders trashing hotel rooms.

"It's funny a couple of times. But after that it gets old," Hargrove said. "We've definitely not put the company credit card down for that reason. As for telling them 'No' -- we're not their parents."

Other brands, such as Huntington Beach-based Quiksilver Inc. and Irvine-based Bill-abong USA, keep cleaner images, as do their athletes.

"For us, I don't know if it gets higher than an expensive phone bill," said Rachael Greff, assistant team manager at Quiksilver's Roxy girls' apparel brand. Girl riders tend to be "much more mellow" than guys, she said.

Still no two riders are alike. Take Roxy riders Veronica Kay and Chelsea Georgeson. Both women are on WB's "Boarding House: North Shore" reality show, which follows top surfers on the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing tour.

Kay is more of a model and spokeswoman who surfs and likes to party. "At worse case, it's harmless fun," Greff said. Every brand has a "strong statement" they make and certain brands "are more punk than others" and may get away with a "bratty rider," Greff said.

Quiksilver and Roxy are more about finding riders who are strong people that kids can look up to. Plus, she said riders get fined on professional surf tours for bad behavior.

"Our girls have better ways of spending their money," Greff added.

'I've seen it all'

Robert Gerard, partner of Irvine law firm Friedman Peterson Stroffe & Gerard PC, knows all about fines. He hands them out as the rules and disciplinary judge for the Association of Surfing Professionals surf tour.

"As far as behavior goes, I've seen it all," he said. "From drunken brawls at surf-industry functions, which result in well-known athletes and industry executives winding up in jail, to fistfights between media representatives and athletes in airplanes, to athletes being videotaped accidentally by the media smoking pot before an event."

Gerard has represented both athletes and sponsors, such as Billabong, in his career. He's also fished a few surfer friends out of jail.

Most recently, he said he fielded at least 12 complaints about champion surfer Sunny Garcia's fistfight with fellow pro surfer Liam McNamara on the premier episode of "Boarding House." Gerard is investigating the matter, as are Honolulu police, according to sources.

"On the one hand, surfing as a sport encourages youthful behavior," Gerard said. "It's always been a counter-culture, off-the-beaten-path type of sport."

But he said sponsors and athletes have to strike a "delicate balance," one that lets young athletes have freedom and individuality without bringing disrepute to themselves, their sponsors or the sport.

"As a lawyer who works almost exclusively in the industry, I can't imagine any company being happy that one of their athletes appears in the evening news for being involved in some criminal activity," Gerard said.

Most companies have contracts that spell out expected behavior and no-no's that could result in termination. They also have team managers, many former athletes themselves, who work with and mentor the riders.

Most are young teenagers traveling the world for the first time without parental supervision. "We try to avoid these situations by letting riders know our expectations and by maintaining a close relationship," said Sole's Brown. "By doing this, the riders don't just see us as a paycheck."

Most industry executives agree that the majority of riders are professional, respectful and well behaved. They also said a little drama is good, and bad behavior is overblown by the media.

"You need to have color in the sport," said Oakley's Bowers. "You need to have a sense of rebelliousness."