Beach Buggy : Wheelchair Eases Surfside Access for Disabled People

It’s been four years since Pat Demar was able take a stroll or jog along the beach, something the artist did every day before Lou Gehrig’s disease left her in a wheelchair.

Demar and her boyfriend, Michael Laux, have since had to enjoy the beach from their car, never getting closer to the water than the parking lot.

But with the recent arrival of a wheelchair designed for beach use, Demar got a long-awaited chance to travel on the sand--and even to get her feet wet.

“I love it,” said Demar, 35, relaxing in the blue and yellow wheelchair after a trip along the shoreline. “It’s incredible.”

Laux, who leisurely pushed Demar on the beach, received as much enjoyment from the outing.

“This is just long overdue,” said Laux, 37, of Laguna Niguel. “It’s a little Christmas present. It got here just in time.”

The beach wheelchair, with large, inflatable yellow wheels that move easily along the sand, was unveiled this week at Doheny State Beach in Dana Point.

It is the first in Orange County, and one of only a handful in the state, said Scott Stuart, a state lifeguard who spearheaded a fund-raising drive to buy the $900 Surf Chair.

“It will open up the beaches for a lot of people,” Stuart said.

A lifeguard since 1974, Stuart knows how hard it is to move a regular wheelchair on the sand. The San Clemente resident was paralyzed four years ago in Costa Rica when he dived into a shallow pool. The accident left Stuart, 36, a quadriplegic, although he has regained mobility in his arms and most of his fingers.

*

He works as a lifeguard dispatcher at San Clemente State Beach and serves as Orange Coast district coordinator of the Americans with Disabilities Act for the state park service.

Stuart said he had never heard of the Surf Chair until he received a call this fall from Laux, who had seen one elsewhere. It was were invented several years ago by Florida lifeguard Mike Hensler.

Within weeks of starting a fund-raising drive in October, the nonprofit State Lifeguard Assn. received enough money to buy its first chair.

“It really uplifted my spirits to see that kind of response,” Stuart said. “I was just stoked that the community did it.”

The Surf Chair is just the first step in making local beaches more accessible to those with disabilities, Stuart said.

Before the busy summer season, Stuart said he hopes to have a wood boardwalk and ramps built near the main lifeguard tower at Doheny State Beach, the most accessible of the state beaches in southern Orange County.

Efforts are also under way to buy more Surf Chairs for other beaches.

The chair, with its wide wheels, won’t get stuck in the sand like a regular wheelchair. Because it is made of non-corrosive PVC plastic, the chair, which must be pushed, can get wet when riders venture near the surf.

It promises to be in great demand. State lifeguards at Doheny, San Clemente and San Onofre state beaches receive 10 to 15 requests a week during the summer to help disabled or elderly people through the sand.

“There’s a lot of use for it,” Stuart said.

Anyone interested in using the Surf Chair can call the Doheny State Beach entrance station for a reservation at (714) 496-6172.

Donations to help buy more of the custom wheelchairs may be sent to Scott Stuart at California Aquatic Safety Inc., P.O. Box 1484, San Clemente, Calif. 92674-1484.