‘Eco-Surfers’ Fight to Keep Beaches Clean

When Bill Barnes resumed surfing a few years ago after a two-decade hiatus, he longed to get the feel again of a board under his feet and the movement of the ocean.

But instead of simply riding the waves, Barnes has found himself spending time testing the water for fecal coliform, lobbying politicians and scrutinizing development plans in the city.

Barnes, 42, is a member of the Doheny Longboard Surfing Assn., a group of surfers who prefer to call themselves environmentalists. Apart from hanging 10 out on the swells, these surfers say they have learned to hang tough to preserve their “home break” from the further onslaught of developers and polluters.

The surfers’ actions have earned the group a reputation in the United States and around the globe as a model club whose members are no longer satisfied with “a six-pack, a surfboard and a beach.”

Doheny Longboard members say they belong to a new breed of “eco-surfers” who have surfaced worldwide to protect prime surfing spots from the ravages of people.

From San Diego to Malibu, Alaska to England, surfers are taking on developers, oil companies and governments to protect their favorite shoreline spots from episodes like last week’s diesel fuel spill off Huntington Beach, which caused officials to temporarily close miles of Orange County shoreline.

The Alaska Waveriders Assn., a group formed after the Exxon Valdez spill, was instrumental recently in lobbying for legislation that now protects 50 miles of surf-pounded coastline on the Gulf of Alaska. In Santa Monica, a group of 50 surfers formed the Free Pacific Assn. to tackle sewage pollution at their Bay Street surfing spot. Surfers Against Sewage, a 7,000-strong British group, is asking for assistance from its American counterparts to fight pollution battles across the Atlantic.

“Surfers can no longer afford to be complacent,” said Gene Eudaly, president of the Doheny association. “We are in this for the long haul to give back to the ocean for the enjoyment it brings to us.”

Surfers are finding out that they can no longer just hang loose, but must increasingly rely on mobilization, litigation and demonstrations to protect their playgrounds.

“If someone told me that you could get a group of surfers to sit still for two hours while waves are breaking a few feet away, I would have said, ‘Impossible, dude,’ ” said 78-year-old Lorrin (Whitey) Harrison, a San Juan Capistrano resident who has been surfing for 64 years. “But we need to do this because every surfing spot that is good seems to get taken away.”

The Dana Point surfers’ home break is situated on the wave-pummeled rim of Doheny Beach State Park.

The 62-acre park, which was donated in 1931 by multimillionaire Los Angeles oilman Edward L. Doheny Sr. not long after his acquittal on bribery charges in the infamous Teapot Dome scandal, is among the top five most popular state parks in California, drawing 1.3 million visitors from across the nation last year, said Doug Harding, supervising state park ranger.

Surfers at Doheny were not always organized. Only a few years ago, surfing was simply a recreational activity, part of a laid-back lifestyle.

The change began three years ago after Eudaly, a 44-year-old Laguna Beach cabinetmaker, read an article in a surfer’s magazine lashing out at surfers for their complacency while the best surfing spots up and down the coast were being ruined by development and pollution.

Eudaly said the criticism was on target. As a young boy growing up in South County, he would visit the Doheny area and watch surfers ride “Killer Dana”--10-foot-high waves that sometimes carried riders up to a quarter of a mile. Killer Dana made Doheny legendary, and prompted the Beach Boys to immortalize the Orange County surfing spot in their ubiquitous ballad “Surfing U.S.A.”

But after the county built the Dana Point Marina 25 years ago, surfing was never the same. The once-towering tubular breaks were reduced to “ankle-slappers.” The sporadic closure of Doheny because of pollution from urban runoff and sewage spills compounded the surfers’ problems.

Appalled by the contaminated water and stung by the criticism that surfers were complacent, Eudaly invited six other surfers to form a group dedicated to protecting the environment. The membership has now risen to 150 and includes doctors, attorneys and engineers, Eudaly said. Membership is open only to people who are “interested in preserving the ocean’s environment,” the club’s constitution states.

The surfers’ actions, however, extend beyond the state park. Apart from removing dozens of bags of litter from the beach during regular cleanups, the association collects clothes and food throughout the year to support orphanages in Baja California.

During their monthly two-hour meetings, Doheny long-boarders often decide to donate the proceeds from their fund-raising drives to the Surfrider Foundation in Huntington Beach and the Cousteau Society.

“They are positive watchdogs who don’t fit the stereotype of surfers,” said Dana Point Mayor Mike Eggers. “It’s refreshing that they are not only willing to work to make the beach better, but to ensure its preservation. We need people like them in this town.”

The surfers say they sacrifice their time and effort because they are concerned about the environment.

Dana Point optometrist William Petersen, who surfs five times a week, said he joined the group after treating several surfers who had “possibly” contracted eye infections from the contaminated water.

“It’s very frightening when the water is not safe to enjoy,” said Petersen, 39. “But these surfers realize that they can get politically active to fight this destruction and win.”

The group won a significant victory a few months ago when it teamed up with the Doheny State Beach Interpretive Assn., a nonprofit organization that promotes natural history in the Dana Point area, to force a state agency to address the pollution at Doheny.

For years, surfers complained that they had contracted rashes and infections by surfing in water contaminated by the runoff from the polluted San Juan Creek. When the authorities declined to address the problem, the long-board association decided to conduct their own tests.

Over a six-month period ending last January, Barnes and other club members collected water samples from Doheny to have tests for fecal coliform conducted at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla. Barnes would get beach-goers to sign affidavits that they witnessed the samples being taken, then take a photograph of each sample being drawn before rushing the vials to the laboratory.

“I was amazed at their organization,” said David Skelly, a coastal engineer at Scripps Institution who performed the tests. “They’re a good example of people who think globally and act locally. They do not get frustrated by the bureaucracy because they persevere.”

The tests showed that swimmers and surfers were frolicking in contaminated water. To make matters worse, the beach was closed for a month last March when another 50,000 gallons of raw sewage flowed from a burst main in Mission Viejo down the San Juan Creek and into the sea.

Last month, news that the state Regional Water Quality Control Board had ordered the sewage treatment agencies to curtail the pollution of the beach--in no small part because of the test samples gathered by the Doheny long-boarders--was splashed in surfing magazines.

Mark Massara, a Bay Area attorney who serves as the chief legal counsel for Surfrider Foundation, said his advocacy group now uses Doheny’s success as a model for other surfing groups who want to tackle pollution at their surfing spots.

“If everyone gets as passionate as the Doheny people, then we can protect all of our beaches,” Massara said.

Barnes, who has earned the nickname “Bulldog” from club members because of his dogged attitude in battling the bureaucrats, has since received letters from surfing clubs in Maine and Great Britain asking for advice on tackling their own pollution problems.

When he is not responding to these letters, Barnes is busy examining development plans in the city to see if they would contribute to the pollution of Doheny. Barnes and other surfers show up at City Council meetings to vent their feelings on a number of issues ranging from a seaside hotel project to the city’s comprehensive redevelopment plans.

Barnes said Doheny members will continue to monitor pollution at Doheny. Recently, the club distributed water-testing kits to its members, asking them to report any “hot spots.” If the pollution of the beach continues, Barnes said Doheny surfers plan to exchange their wet suits for lawsuits.

State ranger Harding said he is confident that the surfers would succeed. Said Harding: “The most encouraging thing about this is that these surfers are involving their children in the activities, so another generation is blooming to protect Doheny. That’s very comforting.”