NEWPORT BEACH : Surfers Ask City to End ‘Blackballing’ on Summer Afternoons

A group of surfers is asking the city to end the 20-year-old summer practice of closing most beaches to board surfers between noon and 4 p.m.

Beach visitors can easily tell when the regulation is at work: Lifeguard towers fly a yellow flag with a big black dot in the middle.

“Blackballing,” as it is called, closes most of the city’s beaches to surfing each afternoon for four hours from June 15 through Sept. 10 annually to protect swimmers from errant surfboards and a few aggressively resentful surfers.

At the wedge jetty at the Corona del Mar entrance to Newport Bay, board surfers are banned from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. May 1 through Oct. 31 in a move to protect bodysurfers who have long claimed the wedge as their own.

Surfers say they are being edged out of prime time, since blackballing limits their sport to 6 a.m. to noon and from 4 p.m. to sunset over most of the city.

Acting Marine Director Tony Melum reported the surfers have access to the beach 71% of the time for 87 days a year and 100% of the time the rest of the year.

The parks commission will hear the surfers’ plea at a meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall.

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Ban Challenge Surfers have asked the city of Newport Beach to lift the ban on hardboards. The boards may not be used between the Santa Ana River and Arch Rock from noon to 4 p.m.