Surfer Mark Gerardi looked out at the destroyed dirt road, a large gap slicing through the only entryway into San Onofre Surf Beach.
“It’s like a funeral,” he said, mourning his beloved surf spot on the empty beach this week during a brief break in storms. “It seems like 100 years of history and culture is gone.”
Surfers and countless beachgoers with fond memories of the tucked-away oasis have been in shock over the access road washing out recently at the popular beach wedged between San Diego and Orange County, a place so coveted that people wait hours in line to get a parking spot right on the sand on summer days – or any time a swell hits.
While the dirt road may be repaired in coming months, the sudden closure of the parking lot into San Onofre puts a spotlight on what’s at stake as negotiations continue over who should manage this popular surf spot and surrounding beaches, trails and campgrounds.
A 50-year lease between the military and California State Parks, a gift to the public by President Richard Nixon in 1971, expired three years ago and since then officials have been negotiating the fate of the land just south of San Clemente.
A three-year lease extension sunsets in about six months, on Aug. 31, and the question remains: Will State Parks continue to be the stewards to the land, or will the military take it back – and if they do, what does that mean for the public’s access?
“It’s a family beach, it’s always been that way,” said Don Craig, a 75-year-old San Onofre Surf Club member who has been riding waves there his entire life. “We just want to keep it that way.”
A sweet deal
San Onofre State Park doesn’t stop at the iconic Surf Beach where early-era wave riders discovered long, rolling Waikiki-like waves in the late 1920s.
There are two campgrounds, an expansive network of trails for hikers and bikers, and a string of other surf breaks, including Lower Trestles, where the world’s best surfers have battled for…
Read the full article here