The Surf Club was open at noon yesterday, but the masses of people indulging in the drinking sport were absent.

Instead, bar owners from Pleasant Gap watched videos there to learn how to protect themselves from being sued.

The owners were experiencing a new program called TIPS -- Training for Intervention Procedures by Servers of Alcohol -- run by Dan Fishbaine, a co-owner of the Surf Club and a certified TIPS trainer.

TIPS decreases the risk of selling alcohol to an intoxicated customer whose actions could result in a serious liquor liability lawsuit, Fishbaine said.

According to state law, if a reasonable effort to prevent a patron from becoming intoxicated is demonstrated, a bar owner or server may be protected from going into court. It is a bar's responsibility to the patron to get him home safely, the law states.

TIPS aims to educate the bar owner and servers the signs of intoxication to prevent an incident, Fishbaine said.

"There are so many lawsuits right now," he said. "Someone can walk out and hit their head, and they can turn around and sue the bar. If you have to go to court, and you can show that you've done all you could, the courts will see you as a responsible server."

Fishbaine stressed the effectiveness of the program because of the training that servers and owners must go through.

The program is an interactive program, in which servers see videos of a person who may have had too much to drink. Then the trainees discuss whether the patron is drunk or not. The videos also teach servers how to intervene without offending the customer, and the last part of the program is role playing, Fishbaine said.

After the program, the participants are tested. The results are sent to the company and are graded there. This way, a third party is getting involved with the certification process. Then the servers are sent a certification card which is good for two years, Fishbaine added.

Although liability is the main advantage of TIPS, there are also other advantages, the Surf Club owner said. Many insurance companies now require a training program or offer lower rates to bars who carry out one of these programs.

Fishbaine mentioned that insurance companies offer significant discounts for having servers trained by this program. And for some bar owners, that is the prime reason for participation.

"I'm only doing the program because they told me they were going to charge me $1,000 more for my liquor liability insurance," said Marjorie Robinson, owner of the Handlebar-E Saloon and Ranchouse, Inc. in nearby Pleasant Gap.

TIPS is also advantageous because it gives the owners and servers confidence to deal with patrons and enables them to intervene in a professional way, Surf Club employees said.

"I think the program is excellent," said Surf Club Manager Barbara Ennis. "It makes you feel more confident as a server. It gives you a chance to learn to deal with people who are intoxicated and know what to do in certain situations."