In this episode, it's beach duty for Jon and Ponch, but as with every episode set on the beach, it's not all surf, sun and babes...this time around, it's a turf war between surf dudes (three goofy blond guys straight out of Central Casting) and Latino kids from the Valley. The surfers seem to be the aggressors here, acting like they own the beach and the poor Valley kids have no place there. The Latino kids, replete with the requisite painted van (which every Chicano character in movies and TV seemed to drive back then), accidentally damage the headlight of the surfer's refurbished ambulance, leading to the first of several car chases. Ponch catches up to the surfers, and that brings out his lecturing side, telling these bozos that the Valley kids have just as much right to the beach as anyone and also exploding when they call Ponch the Valley kids 'Bro'.
Does that get through to them? No...next time it's the surfer dudes doing the damage when they spray-paint the Latino kids' van, and it's another chase. While all this is going on, someone's stealing car stereos, including those of both groups of kids as well as Jon, and each side is accusing the other of the thefts. We then see another chase, this time the surfers are chasing the Valley guys on foot after seeing them grab their surfboards. They bump into a number of people, including a little girl flying a kite...she loses the kite, the kite lands on the window of a moving car, causing a five-car accident. Finally, the two groups become involved in a bumping incident on the highway, which results in both groups' cars overturning and some of the guys injured. Ponch believes that a couple of days in jail will cool them off...when the officers return to the beach, the surfers and Valley dudes are hanging out together. The jail time did help...not to mention Jon and Ponch finding the real stereo thieves.
And of course, Jon and Ponch do find time to go catamaraning with a couple of babes that Ponch saved when their car was out of control!
Valley Go Home! is one of the better CHiPs episodes in my estimation...sun, babes, action...what more could you want? My score...9 out of 10.
