Equity concerns lead to shake-up in Pacifica surfing schools.
Pacifica officials to rethink permit process for coastline
Linda Mar Beach in Pacifica is considered among the best in the Bay Area for beginner surfers. The mile-long coastline produces waves that are relatively calm for novices, yet challenging enough for some long-time surfers.
Because of its pristine conditions, Pacifica’s shoreline has long attracted surfing schools, where newcomers to the sport can learn the basics.
Despite ample demand for lessons, only four Pacifica surf schools — the same four that have been permitted for years — have been approved to operate on the beach. It’s a system that Pacifica officials said was designed to prevent overcrowding, which can lead to injuries in the water.
But the city’s long-standing permitting system for surf schools has left some organizations — particularly groups working to introduce surfing to women and Black and brown communities — feeling excluded, unable to access the beach for surf lessons, camps and schools.
For Angely Lopez, who is Latina, surfing wasn’t a sport she would have imagined she’d love three years ago.
“Whenever I came to a beach, it
was always male-dominated” with very few women of color, said Lopez, a former student who is now an alumni surf instructor for City Surf Project, a nonprofit that advocates for equitable surfing and beach access.
Now, the 17-year-old from San Francisco says, “I don’t see myself doing anything else other than surfing.”
Pacifica officials are in the early stages of rethinking a system that they said has unintentionally excluded people of color from learning to surf on city beaches.
Surfing is believed to have originated among Native Hawaiians, with the modern sport largely recognized as an example of cultural appropriation. Carissa Moore, the only Native Hawaiian surfer at the 2020 Summer Olympic’s surfing debut, made history last month by becoming the first woman to win a gold medal in the sport. For many Native Hawaiians, Moore’s win was a “reclaiming of the sport,” Kuhio Lewis, president of the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement, told the Associated Press.
But the prospect of shaking up the Pacifica surf school scene has touched off an unfolding debate, with some existing surf instructors insisting that it could lead to overcrowding, safety concerns for schools and beachgoers and impact their businesses.
Since last year, two nonprofit surf schools — City Surf Project and Brown Girl Surf — have been able to hold lessons on the beach thanks to temporary permits Pacifica granted as a stopgap measure. City Surf Project has operated at Linda Mar Beach for a few years — by using a local surf shop’s permit. Pressure is mounting for the city to making lasting changes to the permit process.
Cindy Abbott, a Pacifica parks commissioner, said, “It was more of a lack of awareness of an additional need that (has) come up in recent years as organizations like Brown Girl Surf have developed really wonderful programs to bring more people to the beach. Which is what we’re trying to do now, bring more small organizations into being able to use the beach, too.”
Abbott is part of a task force, one that includes surf school operators, surf organizations and community members, working on recommendations to overhaul Pacifica’s surf school permitting system.
Possible changes to the system could mean increasing the number of permits for commercial surf schools and creating a schedule determining when each school could operate at the beach, among a long list of other considerations. The task force’s final report is due to the city’s Parks, Beaches and Recreation Commission next week. A final vote on any long-term changes could happen in September or October, Abbott said.
While most current permit holders say they support creating a program for nonprofits, the proposals have invited criticism from others who insist adding more surf camps could lead to overcrowding and impact their businesses.
The city has granted permits to the same three surf camps and one surf shop to run lessons in recent years, preventing other groups from applying. City officials set the limit at four in 2013 to prevent overcrowding.
“When an inquiry is received, groups are added to a list and told they will be contacted should a spot open up. Since the policy limits the number of permitted camps, and each year the camps have chosen to renew their permits, new camp operators, whether non-profits or not, have not been able to operate,” city officials wrote in a report.
Adriana Guerrero, executive director of Brown Girl Surf, said she and City Surf Project want the task force to focus on the permit program first to prioritize equitable access to the beach.
“For the first time in 15 years, Pacifica State Beach will be open to nonprofit surf schools that are focused on equitable access,” Guerrero said in an email.
“While we recognize that the commercial surf permit system needs to be evaluated and overhauled, we need to prioritize equitable access for communities that have been historically excluded and not eligible. It’s critical to focus equity over equality at this moment in time,” she added.
Cliff Hodges, CEO and founder of Adventure Out, a currently permitted surf camp, said he supports the program for nonprofits but said making changes to the current system, specifically creating a schedule for schools, could lead to “significant logistical difficulties and safety issues.”
Adding an unlimited number of schools, he said, would not be “feasible” for a beach that already gets crowded.
“I don’t think any regular surfers at the beach think there is a need for new surf schools, but I also understand why people take issue with the current system,” he said.
“I don’t think it’s fair to strip away permits from existing businesses that have been working hard to run small businesses for many years and build successful operations.”
Matt Cole, owner of the surf camp University of Surfing, also supports the program but, he said, he has been concerned about safety with an increase in visitors during the pandemic.
“With the addition of more surf schools, we would like to see the city of Pacifica consider adding lifeguards to Linda
Mar Beach for everyone’s safety.”
Johnny Irwin, co-founder and executive director of City Surf Project, said most of the overcrowding occurs among regular surfers at the beach — not from surf schools or their students.
Nonprofit surf schools “are scapegoated for the overcrowding because we’re targets and because we can be limited through the permitting system,” said Irwin.
He added: “When people actually go with (a) surf school, we’re actually able to keep them more safe than people that don’t go with a surf school who might be a beginner because they don’t have someone who’s coaching them.”