Associated Press
Kayakers David Beck, left, and Steve Hiegel, chat after hitting the waves as surfers Howard "Boots" McGhee, left back, and Dan Robinson exit the water in April at Privates Beach in Santa Cruz, Calif.
Posted on 06/14/2002 5:22:58 PM PDT by Illbay
June 14, 2002, 10:55AM
By ALAN GATHRIGHT
Copyright 2002 San Francisco Chronicle
Santa Cruz, Calif., is renowned as an oasis of mellow, peace-loving liberalism.
But mess with a surfer's wave-riding in a town called "Surf City" and the locals are as laid-back as sharks in a feeding frenzy.
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Associated Press
Kayakers David Beck, left, and Steve Hiegel, chat after hitting the waves as surfers Howard "Boots" McGhee, left back, and Dan Robinson exit the water in April at Privates Beach in Santa Cruz, Calif.
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For decades, the "right" to surf at legendary Steamer Lane off Lighthouse Point has been enforced by fiercely territorial locals whouse trash talk or fists to drive off novice -- or "kook" -- boarders and to combat growing competition for waves.
Now, faced with increasingly popular surf kayaks, board surfers are pushing for something the Beach Boys never sang about: a government ban. Charging that out-of-control kayaks have mowed down surfers, some hard-core locals are demanding the city outlaw kayakers -- or "butt surfers" -- from surf breaks that dot the town's four-mile coastline.
Mixing the two types of surfing in congested Steamer Lane is like "putting a motorcycle on a bike path. You're going to have an accident," said Kim Stoner, 50, a third-generation Santa Cruzan who's surfed for 37 years.
Echoing other surfers, he added: "I don't have a problem with the kayakers launching off the beach and going into the kelp beds."
The group pushing the ban, Surfers for Safe Berth, is threatening to file a civil rights lawsuit against the city, alleging that surfers weren't notified of hearings when the city adopted an ordinance in 1990 allowing kayaks in the surf zone.
Yet, many water warriors say the real issue is whether California's growing armada of surfers, kayakers, body boarders and body surfers can find a way to share increasingly congested waves.
"Even if you got rid of us, it wouldn't solve the problem," Dennis Judson, founder of the 18-year-old Santa Cruz Kayak Surf Festival, said recently. "You would still have all those surfers to deal with. And (surfboards) are the ones that are really dangerous: They're sharp, they're hard and they have fins."
To tame the water wars, city officials have created a kayaker-surfer committee and are urging safety education and self-regulation over legislation. Officials warn surfers they could be inviting Southern California-style rules relegating kayakers and body boarders -- and surfers -- to separate spots. Or the city could impose alternating days for surfing and kayaking at Steamer Lane.
"We don't have the staffing or the desire to micromanage the surf community," said city Marine Safety Chief John Alexiou. But city officials may be forced to act if surfers and kayakers can't find a way to co-exist safely, he said.
The tsunami-size clash flows from the passionate territorial rights local boarders claim over Santa Cruz's waves, where in 1885 three visiting Hawaiian princes first demonstrated "surf board swimming" on the U.S. mainland, using boards carved from coastal redwoods.
The central battleground in the surf wars is Steamer Lane, where swells surging around Lighthouse Point rise up on a series of reefs. On big days, the Lane can become a gladiator pit with more than 100 surfers vying for waves -- short-boarders battling long-boarders, locals against "Valleys" -- while spectators watch from the cliff-top bike path and benches.
Surfers bristle about being "invaded" every March when the planet's largest kayak surf festival -- which often doubles as the world championships -- brings in international paddlers for a three- day competition. In the mid-1990s, repeated surfer-kayaker clashes during the festival sparked fist-swinging, paddle-jousting brawls.
Years later, board surfers are still complaining that in the weeks surrounding the festival, the waves are jammed with both expert and novice kayakers, including some who flout long- standing "surfing etiquette," which dictates, for example, that the first person up on a wave has the surfing right of way. Compounding surfers' frustration: Kayakers can paddle faster and catch more waves than surfers.
Yet boarders insist their primary concern is safety: A capsized kayak that has taken on hundreds of pounds of water can be hurtled sideways by a wave for hundreds of yards, plowing over anyone in its path. The Safe Berth group has given the city documentation of about 10 surfers who say they've been hurt by a kayak, mostly during the festival, since 1994.
"I've been mowed down by a kayak," said Stoner, when his surfboard leash to his ankle wrapped around the kayak. "I got dragged 50 yards under water. I almost drowned."
Some surf-kayakers are truly talented, said surfing instructor Debbie Sidenfaden, 28. But, overall, kayakers "are not able to react as quickly to avoid a collision as someone on a surfboard," she said.
Alexiou agreed. "Generally speaking, kayaks can be potentially more hazardous than surfboards in the lineup," he said, because they're less maneuverable and their mass -- which includes the paddler's weight -- packs a bigger wallop.
But he emphasized that sharp-finned surfboards also pose hazards, acknowledging an international medical survey that showed that 55 percent of severe surfer injuries occur when they're hit by their own board. (The remainder are caused by other surfers' boards, hitting the ocean floor, contact with marine animals and other incidents.)
The kayak-ban crusade is drawing a riptide of outrage from kayakers worldwide who have barraged city officials with e-mails saying they're being made scapegoats by surfers exaggerating safety concerns "to justify their selfish desire to claim the sea as their own," as one critic wrote.
"I surf the Lane all the time ... and I don't come close to hitting anybody," said Rick Starr, a competitive surf-kayaker who is ranked No. 2 in the world. "I get out of the water when there's a crowd -- not because of the safety issue, but because I don't like the hassling."
Many surfers are wary of government restrictions on the ocean, said Greg Felde, 40, of Half Moon Bay, after shredding some morning sets at the lane recently.
"The last thing anyone wants is a bunch of regulations and rules. It's the exact opposite of why we're out here," Felde said.
Instead, the 15-member kayaker-surfer committee formed by the city is exploring educational programs. Ideas range from promoting surfing etiquette brochures and videotapes to deploying volunteer water marshals who would direct struggling novice boarders and paddlers back to the beginner beach.
"It's not just the kayakers that need to be educated," said committee member Chuck Reed, a surfer for 40 years. "All the surfing schools are pumping out thousands of surfers who end up in the lineup without the proper skills."
The Safe Berth group's attorney has warned the city it is promoting a dangerous mixed use by ignoring a state boating law that defines kayaks as "vessels" and surfers as "bathers."
In 1990, the city changed the local ordinance to redefine kayaks as "water sports equipment," allowing kayakers to paddle inside a 300-yard offshore area where "vessels" are barred.
Now, city recreation officials are urging the committee to consider switching back to the kayak-as-vessel definition to make the city ordinance conform with state law and eliminate confusion. While city officials say an amended ordinance could still allow an exception for kayaks in the surf, paddlers fear it would spell a ban or require them to leave the water when breaks grow congested.
"Whether you like it or not, California state boating law says that a kayak is a vessel," Alexiou, the city's marine safety chief, told the committee. "If you're operating a vessel in a reckless or negligent manner and you hurt someone, you can be held responsible for that."
Ultimately, veteran surfers say, any solution must appeal to local surfers who've long ruled the lineup with a tribal code based on hard-won skill and respect.
"Unless you make some concrete decisions, the hostility and the dominance and the pecking order of the surfing community will not be altered," said committee member Rym Partridge, a local dentist and veteran surfer. "It never has been and it never will be."
Seriously, isn't this just Liberalism in microcosm? Rules and laws are for OTHER PEOPLE, for the unwashed masses (especially for gun-totin' right-wing Christians) not for them.
But when it is their OWN "civil liberties" they are four-square AGAINST government intervention and want to seek a non-governmental solution.
Good grief! What this nation needs is an economic cataclysm of biblical proportion, to "help" us get our priorities straight! Can you imagine if the Founders of this nation could see this? They'd think "we gave our all, our blood, sweat and tears, so these people could fight in the sandbox over who's going to have to leave so the others can play with their toys?"
Oh, and don't you love this surfer-spokesman's last name, "Stoner"? You can't tell me he didn't have it changed back in the 60s!
Then run it up and down parallel to the beach reaping both boarders and kayakers.
The only reason I would climb into a kayak is to fish the kelp beds.
Being a freshwater fisherman, I have to share lakes with crazy people in jet boats and Ski-doos(sp?). Its a public place, I gotta live with it.
Seems like the surfers want the waves to themselves, even if it takes government intervention.
No way!
Anyway, try going to a surf spot (Other than Waikiki) for the first time on a big day (Like today on the south shore) and see how you're treated in the line-up. Surfing can be nearly as rough as ice hockey. The sticks are bigger, sharper and there are no referees.
Lotsa waves, not so many surfers.
BTW, that was Jan and Dean who sang about Surf City, not the Beach Boys.
Remember, Santa Cruz surfers coined the term "Surf Nazis" and that's what many of them are. I used to body-surf in some of those areas, and surfers would try to run you down of you got in their way, whether you had right of way or not.
"Hug a tree, kill a rival surfer." "Peace, Love, and get the f--k off my wave!"
That's Santa Cruz for you. It's always been that way and always will. I for one like the idea of local surfers getting mowed down by kayaks - for once they're getting a taste of what they've been dishing out for so long.
Great idea. Great Whites need to eat, too.
It's been much too long since I was in beautiful Hawaii.
The racial/ethnic antagonisms were unpleasant in the '80's. I didn't notice it so much personally, but it was certainly blatant in bathroom grafitti. Is there overt discrimination? I noticed that people were referred to as haoles--a derogatory racial slur--even in newspapers. Personally, everyone with whom I was in contact was gracious and friendly.
What's the name of that great surfing beach on the north shore of Maui, a few miles east of the airport? And there's a little town nearby, in which every man has a suntan, a relaxed expression, and a surfboard on his car (it might be a legal requirement).
In the midst of the mists of Haleakala I had a mystical experience, and then I thought it over basking on the sunbaked sands of Makenna Beach--and all this in February.
I've got to get back to Hawaii. It's calling to me...
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