Beach lovers, get rolling
People with mobility disabilities who want to enjoy the coast have more options than ever.
Your perfect beach day may await you somewhere along California’s 840 miles of coastline.
Mine looks like a long stroll along Stinson Beach in Marin County, where an all-terrain wheelchair gets me right to the shoreline to comb for heart-shaped pebbles.
You can borrow beach wheelchairs free at dozens of locations up and down the Golden State. Lightweight and sporting big tires that move across sand, these chairs allow people with mobility disabilities to experience the beach in ways that weren’t possible a generation ago.
“They’re a game changer,” said Bonnie Lewkowicz, a travel access specialist who reviewed beaches throughout the state for Wheeling CalsCoast.org, a visitor guide for wheelchair riders funded by the California Coastal Conservancy.
She provides details on trail routes and key features such as terrain, restrooms and pathways so people can decide what might work for them.
Although the website hasn’t been updated in at least five years, it still holds up as the most comprehensive information online about California’s accessible beaches.
Recently, “Someone sent me an email saying, ‘I’m bringing my father from Arizona, he’s in a wheelchair and we need an accessible pier, a beach wheelchair and a place where we can bring the dog,’ ” Lewkowicz said.
Beach wheelchairs are just the most visible evidence of California’s commitment to make the coast accessible to all visitors, said Amy Hutzel, deputy executive director of the Coastal Conservancy.
Using state bonds, the conservancy issues grants to public agencies and nonprofits to acquire beach wheelchairs, improve parking lots and build accessible restrooms, trails and visitor centers.
“It’s important to be improving facilities but then also making sure the information is available,” Hutzel said. “So Bonnie’s work is important so people can make that decision to visit a site and know what they are going to experience when they get there.”
Before you go, do a quick search on the beach you’ll visit. Find out the process for borrowing a beach wheelchair. There may be time limits, reservation systems or other requirements that call for planning.
Long Beach residents Catherine Campisi and Ralph Black want to get as close to the water as possible so that Ralph, who is blind, can get in and Catherine, whose beach wheelchair Ralph pushes, can be nearby to enjoy the ocean up close and help guide him.
For the ultimate experience, they said, they head south to San Diego’s Mission Beach, one of the few sites where you can borrow a motorized beach chair.
“It was great — I could go on my own,” said Campisi, adding that people who have difficulty with balance should be mindful of the bumps.
Be aware that any borrowed piece of equipment, such as a beach wheelchair, will not be customized to your needs. Campisi requires leg support, so she brought a box to use as a foot rest on their second visit to Mission Beach.
“You have to know what you need and adapt yourself to the chair,” she said. “But just to be able to do it yourself and get down by the water was totally awesome.”
San Diego’s beaches generate a lot of buzz for their great accessibility and that’s by design, said Jon Richards, supervising therapeutic recreation specialist with San Diego’s Parks and Recreation Department.
Richards is passionate about making beaches work for a variety of people with disabilities and always asks himself: “What would I want?”
The result is two motorized chairs at Mission Beach, a variety of manual beach wheelchairs — including some that can get completely submerged — sprinkled around other beaches, and nine locations with beach mats.
“This provides a lot of independence and this is what people are looking for,” Richards said. “Just being able to roll up and literally roll on the beach.”
As you explore California’s coastal trails, you may find that some accessible paths are no longer, thanks to drifting sand or simple wear and tear that can damage wooden boardwalks as I discovered recently at Bodega Dunes Beach in Sonoma Coast State Park.
In planning your outing, don’t rely solely on website information. Check access conditions before you go by calling the ranger station or visitor center. Ask to speak with someone who has working knowledge of the accessibility features, such as a maintenance manager.