Surfers Seek to Stem the Tide of Events Crowding Huntington Beach

Surf City’s hometown surfers have been told to pound sand a few times too many.

About 30 Huntington Beach surfers stormed the City Council meeting Tuesday night to complain that they are being crowded out of the waters by a burgeoning number of competitive surfing events that draw millions of spectators and tourist dollars to this seaside community.

“This has gotten out of hand,” said Bill Shappell, a local surfer who, like the others, wore their formal attire of T-shirts with long, baggy shorts or jeans. “We call it Surf City and we’re pushed aside. We’re just tired of it.”

Tony Alvarez, a stocky young surfer known in the trade as “Big Tony,” told the council members that some of the choicest places to catch waves--such as alongside the famed pier--have been off-limits three weekends out of four in the past year, while the city played host to a total of 35 surfing contests.

“We are the surfing community,” Alvarez told them. “Not the organized events at the pier. Why should we, the taxpayers, have to be told to go somewhere else?”

Polite but firm, the loosely gathered coalition read formal statements to council members, who promised to study the problem. But Ron Hagan, director of the city’s Community Services Department, had to sigh a little in exasperation Wednesday.

Yes, he will meet with the group and make some compromises. But the locals have to understand this is bigger than all of them. The white-sand beach, laboriously raked clean 360 days out of the year, is crucial to the economy, he said.

These events, so irritating to those who want a fun day at the pier, are the fuel of this largely residential city, which runs on the fumes of a paltry sales tax, he said.

“What happens is, the events fill hotel rooms and cause business to go up,” Hagan said. “The events have a big spinoff. Obviously, we’re dependent on tourism now for revenue. We don’t have a South Coast Plaza. We don’t have a Westminster Mall. We do have hotels and the beach.”

City officials have not figured how much revenue the big events pump into local coffers. But it’s big. At a minimum, the city must earn the $3.5 million spent each year on top-drawer lifeguards and beach maintenance. Business leaders estimate that sales increase 30% to 40% on event days.

If it’s not the Katin Team Challenge, it’s the Ocean Pacific Pro Tour or the U.S. Open of Surfing, all drawing in thousands of spectators and hundreds of surfers to the prized waves that give Huntington Beach its nickname.

Just this year, the city doubled and tripled the cost of event permits, which now run up to $250 per day for nonprofits and to $5,000 per day for professionals.

City officials, desperate to pull in some bucks to this commercially challenged community, concede they can’t get enough of it. The people. The permit fees. The hotel rooms. A secure hold on this niche sports market. They can see the future, and it is beach-side tourism.

And that’s exactly what city leaders had in mind when they unveiled the $5-million renovation of Pier Plaza, designed to appeal to the 9 million tourists who reached the surf-side community last year. Compare that to the 4.2 million who came 10 years ago, Hagan said. And compare that to the 14 million they expect in years to come.

But Shappell, Alvarez and others said they are forced to out-of-the-way beaches while the surf industry goes Hollywood.

Many locals do compete in the seemingly endless run of events, and some even make their living that way. But even they are tired of being hustled out of the water to make way for other surfing contestants.

Alvarez suggested the city limit events to 20 weekends a year. Others recommended stretching the events out along the 3-mile shoreline so the locals can get some time in.

In some ways, the popularity of surfing is to blame. The Surf Industry Manufacturers Assn. in Dana Point estimated that there are 1.75 million surfers currently taking to U.S. waters, up from 1.1 million in 1992.

And there are not more competitive surfing events in Huntington Beach, just bigger ones, Hagan added. An amateur event 10 years ago drew 25 entries. Now they have 250 surfers clamoring to get in. And professional events might draw 250,000 spectators, he said.

But the complaints have been duly noted, Hagan said. He said he will meet with locals, most likely in October, and compromise on the annual surf event schedule that is drawn up in December.

But they have to concede some points as well, he said.

“The problem is the locals like to show off,” he added. “That’s why they like to surf the pier. They can show off to the crowds and get that adulation.”