In Hot Water : Divers Have Cove Residents Upset--Again

Lee Kellam chose her Laguna Beach oceanfront apartment because she likes the sound of crashing waves and barking sea lions. But what she’s been hearing lately--sometimes at all hours of the night--are the sounds of slamming car doors and hissing oxygen tanks.

“We don’t get any sleep here, and it’s getting worse and worse and worse,” the Divers Cove resident said.

Kellam and many of her neighbors in about half a dozen coves in Laguna Beach are becoming increasingly irritated about scuba divers who descend on their communities--sometimes up to 500 on a summer weekend morning--to suit up and prowl in the thriving underwater marine world offshore.

The residents are gearing up for a real fight Oct. 5 when lobster season opens and an estimated 200 divers are expected to hit Laguna Beach’s shore--considered one of the county’s best hunting grounds for lobster--for the traditional nighttime dives.

The divers say they often are blamed for the noise of swimmers and picnickers, and note that they have tried to police themselves. But residents say that, besides causing noise, the divers strew their gear all over yards and sidewalks and take up most of the street parking.

“It’s like an alarm clock going off at 2 in the morning,” said Blair Roberts, describing divers depressurizing their oxygen tanks. Roberts is property manager of a condominium building overlooking Divers Cove.

Some residents are pushing for the city to limit hours and require permits for divers--a proposal fiercely opposed by the local diving industry.

The matter is set to come up for discussion at a fall meeting of the Laguna Beach City Council. The issue is being put forward by Councilwoman Lida Campbell Lenney, who was approached last week by Dean Berko, chairman of the nonprofit Laguna Beach Marine Life Preservation Assn. and a representative of the homeowners.

“One of the biggest complaints is night diving and early morning diving,” said Berko, who plans to meet this week with the North Laguna Community Assn. to draw up a proposal for new regulations.

“This summer was the worst ever for diving,” Berko said. “Something definitely needs to be done.”

Paul Hutfless, 21, of San Dimas, who was skin diving recently with a friend at Laguna Beach’s Shaws Cove, denied that the divers make noise or bother the residents.

“We’re too tired by the time we get out of the water to make noise,” Hutfless said.

Added his diving companion, Kyle Wagner, 26, of Fountain Valley: “On a crowded weekend, we can’t find a place to park just like everybody else.”

Divers explained that Laguna Beach is popular not only because of its easy access to the beach, but also because large kelp beds nestled in underwater rock formations shelter teeming schools of fish. In places like Huntington Beach and Newport Beach, there is little to see underwater because of the smooth, sandy bottom.

The only other areas in the county that compare to Laguna Beach are Corona del Mar and Crystal Cove State Park. But neither is as accessible as Laguna Beach, where a diver has merely to park his car, walk down a flight of stairs and into the water.

Representatives of the diving industry said they would fight in court any attempts to limit diving in Laguna Beach. And they expressed disappointment that the residents did not approach them first with the complaints, as they did two years ago when the diving controversy last arose in Laguna Beach.

“We are very interested in making the situation work out,” said Jeff Nadler, a spokesman for the Professional Assn. of Diving Instructors in Santa Ana, which represents 65% of the American diving market. “It’s too bad they didn’t contact us again.”

The 1986 meeting attracted local residents, city officials and representatives of the diving industry. Instead of having diving regulations imposed, the participants compromised on printing a brochure on “diver etiquette.” Cost of the brochures was split among the diving schools, Berko’s environmental organization and the North Laguna Community Assn.

The brochure listed a series of do’s and don’ts, basically asking divers to behave themselves in Laguna Beach as they would in their own home. It also asked divers to enter the ocean through sandy beach areas and not over rocky points, in order to preserve the marine ecosystem that exists in the rocks.

The brochure implored: “To prevent the closure of Laguna Beach to divers, we need your cooperation.”

The material was distributed through classes at area scuba-certification schools. As a result, said Berko, the nuisances ended for several months. Divers also cooperated in staying away from rocky areas.

Although residents disagree on whether things are worse now than two years ago, they agree that the situation has gotten progressively worse.

‘Won’t Move a Thing’

One woman who lives in a condominium overlooking Divers Cove said her chief complaint is that the divers are getting increasingly ruder.

“You ask to get through their equipment on the sidewalk and they won’t move a thing,” said the woman, who did not want to be identified. “And they park in front of your driveway and they don’t want you to move in and out of the driveway.”

At nearby Shaws Cove, which probably ranks second behind Divers Cove in terms of local diving popularity, residents say another problem is the litter left behind by divers.

Said resident Peggy Huth: “We like people to come to Laguna, but we wish they would take their debris.”

Operators of local diving shops agree that “it’s a madhouse out there” in terms of the number of divers, but they bristle at being singled out by homeowners for complaints. John Rice, manager of Mr. Scuba in Laguna Beach, said divers are blamed for the abuses of all beach-goers because they are the most visible.

“If you wake up to stereos blasting, you look out your door and you see divers,” Rice said. “Because we’re so identifiable, we’re easily targeted. Anything that looks bad will be blamed on the divers.”

Some Legitimate Complaints

Rice acknowledged that the homeowners have some legitimate complaints, “but they cannot be attributed to all divers. You probably have some individuals who are less sensitive to the local needs than other people.

“The diving community has worked hard to try and educate people,” he added. “In classes, we stress the importance of keeping a low profile. I think we’re very aware that a problem has existed in the past and we work very hard to eliminate that from coming up again.”

Nadler, director of field operations for the Professional Assn. of Diving Instructors, said regulation is not the answer. Closing the beach to divers, he said, would mean also closing it to sunbathers and picnickers if they, too, present a nuisance problem.

“Divers are taxpayers and (usually) residents of Orange County, and they have a right to use the beaches,” Nadler said.

Laguna Beach City Manager Ken Frank said a regulation against diving would be difficult to enforce without added manpower. Both he and Bruce Baird, the city’s chief lifeguard, said they have received no complaints about divers from homeowners in recent months.

An ordinance against diving could run into serious legal problems, if the experience of Massachusetts is any indication. A beachfront community in that state imposed a prohibition against diving between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m., but a state court recently overturned the ordinance.

Similar threats of legislation are common in beach communities throughout the country, but so far none have been able to make a diving ban stick, said John McAniff, director of the National Underwater Accident Data Center in Rhode Island.

Baird said his main concern with the divers is that they maintain proper safety precautions when going out into the ocean. An average of three scuba divers per year drown in Laguna Beach--most of them caught up in heavy surf when trying to swim to or from shore, lifeguards say.

To help ensure safety, the City Council on Sept. 6 toughened its scuba-safety ordinance by outlining the proper equipment that divers must wear. Lifeguards were empowered to enforce the ordinance.

The Laguna Beach diving community hopes the controversy can be settled short of the courts.

“We would like to meet again with the upset citizens,” said Nadler. “We would love to work with residents to solve the problem.”

DIVER ETIQUETTE

--Keep noises, especially in early morning and after dark, to a minimum.

--Reach the ocean through sandy areas and not over rocky points.

--Between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m., divers should store equipment in their vehicles--even between dives.

--Be courteous with your light when night diving. Be careful not to flash lights at homes.

--Be tasteful when you dress and undress.

--Do not park in no-parking zones, even for loading and unloading equipment.

--Don’t unload your equipment into the street.

--Do not block sidewalks, driveways and stairways with diving equipment.

--Use all the appropriate equipment when diving.

--Follow the directions of lifeguards.

--Direct as much diving as possible away from smaller coves and beaches. Divers in these areas can be disturbing to other beach users.

Source: A Divers Etiquette brochure written by the Professional Assn. of Diving Instructors. DIVERS’ COVES AT A GLANCE

Crescent Bay: Access--1300 Circle Way and 1300 Cliff Drive.

Shaws Cove: Access--1000 Cliff Drive at 100 Fairview St.

Divers Cove: Access--Stairs south of apartments on 600 Cliff Drive.

Picnic Beach: Access--100 Myrtle St. and 500 Cliff Drive.

Rocky Beach: Access--Stairs behind 455 Cliff Drive.