..."some of the Bay Boys yelled, 'You can't surf
here' and 'Kooks.'"
Oh those crusty locals from Lunada Bay! You
know the ones and if not catch up here and here. Enemies have rained down
upon them this year, from a British reporter to a Facebook activist
to local police. Now, the California Coastal Commission wades into
those tumultuous waters.
Today’s Los Angeles Times reads:
For generations, a small group of locals in wealthy Palos
Verdes Estates has maintained a reputation for keeping other
surfers off Lunada Bay’s well-shaped waves.
The so-called Bay Boys bombard outsiders with dirt clods,
slash their car tires and assault them in the water — sometimes
coordinating the attacks with walkie talkies — witnesses have
said.
Surfers who say they have been victimized over the years
have accused local authorities of complacency, cowardice and even
complicity.
Now an unlikely new sheriff of sorts has ridden into town:
the California Coastal Commission.
In a letter to Palos Verdes Estates officials, Jordan
Sanchez, one of the agency’s enforcement officers, wrote that the
Bay Boys are so entrenched in this beautiful notch of California
coastline that they are subject to the commission’s watchdog
regulations and permitting processes.
The letter says: “Precluding full public use of the
coastline at Palos Verdes Estates, including the waters of Lunada
Bay, whether through physical devices … or impediments, such as
threatening behavior intended to discourage public use of the
coastline, represents a change of access to water, and, thus,
constitutes development.”
“We are not in the position to do a sting operation like the
police or tear down structures like a building and safety
department,” he said, a reference to a stone fort at the water’s
edge allegedly constructed by the group as a party spot and outpost
for coordinating harassment of outsiders.
The fort features stone and cement masonry, and on one
recent day it was outfitted with cooking utensils, lighter fluid,
trash cans, cushions and an ice chest, as well as a paved step way,
seating areas and a fire pit. At the table, someone had etched
“Respect this place.”
Palos Verdes Estates City Manager Tony Dahlerbruch said he
agreed with the commission that the fort — whose construction is
said to have begun three decades ago — will now need to undergo the
permitting process or come down.
“In the meantime, that structure must be available to be
used by all,” Dahlerbruch said.
“Lunada has some of the most powerful and perfect big wave
spots in California,” said Jordan Wright, 31. “It’s the wave that
is most like Hawaii in Southern California in terms of its
strength, power and longevity.”
And, said Wright, he has had to retreat each time he tried
to surf Lunada Bay, even though he has surfed in 13 countries and
on waves with 40-foot faces.
Even when he went with his father, a detective for the Los
Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
“It’s run like an organized crime or racketeering outfit,”
Wright said of the Bay Boys’ grip on the slice of public
coast.
Cory Spencer, a 44-year El Segundo police officer and
surfer, said he has watched the dynamic play out since he was 14
years old.
“I’ve driven by and looked at the spot probably 10 to 15
times just to see it, but never really took my board out of the car
and just traveled on because of the fear, intimidation and
vandalism,” Spencer said.
In recent months, however, small groups of outsiders have
decided to challenge the Bay Boys’ grip, and Spencer said he was
inspired by Wright to finally give it a try. “I worked South
Central for the LAPD, but it took time to gain the courage to go
down there,” he said.
On his first outing in late January, Spencer said,
“immediately, from the time we were on the rocks, we started
getting the verbal heckling.”
Wright said some of the Bay Boys yelled, “You can’t surf
here” and “Kooks.”
After they paddled out, Spencer said, he caught a wave and
locked eyes with one of the Bay Boys who had heckled him on the
shore.
“He was 75 yards away on the wave behind me. We had plenty
of space, but he tried to spear me with his board … and he left a
nice little slice in my hand,” Spencer said. “That was a nice
introduction to my second wave at Lunada.”
Efforts to end the behavior have been largely ineffective. A
former police chief installed a surveillance camera in 2002 to help
keep an eye on the less-than-pacific bay. The City Council had it
removed three months later.
Jeff Kepley became Rancho Palos Verdes’ chief of police a
year ago, shortly before the Guardian newspaper caught on tape one
of his employees as she dismissed visitors who came to complain
after capturing footage of being harassed at Lunada Bay.
Kepley said he has sent patrols to the bluffs about 400
times and is determined to make an arrest during the current winter
season when the waves and tensions are highest.
“It would not be hard,” said Spencer, the El Segundo
officer, “if they really wanted to take care of this problem. But
they need to get out in the water instead of just looking down from
the bluff.”
For now, the Coastal Commission enforcement officers said,
they are not preparing to fine anyone or take other punitive
steps.
“If we work cooperatively,” Willis said, “we don’t need to
think of enforcement mechanisms.”
So….umm…..I don’t get it. I actually don’t really get any of it.
Lunada is a big rolling mushburger and if someone wants to surf it
they should just go surf it and if they ain’t up for being hassled
and/or good enough to not get hassled then they should not surf
it.
It is amusing to watch an older form of heavy-handed localism.
The fact that the Bay Boys now have so many city and state enemies
makes me want to cheer for them. Though if one shot his board at me
I would smash him in the dentures.