Surfers Foundation Is Out to Make Some Waves

At the once-legendary cove near the Santa Barbara County line known as Oil Piers, the surf is definitely not up.

The reason, say frustrated surfers, is because Oil Piers is now No Piers. The surf flattened after the oil industry pulled out last year, dismantling the two wooden piers that for decades had been used to transport oil--and kick up memorable rides.

Now a group of surfers and businessmen thinks it has a plan to restore Oil Piers to its former glory. The nonprofit group Quantum Reef Foundation has asked the state for permission to lease the beach in the hope of installing an artificial reef offshore to bring back the Big Ones.

In the process, the Hawaii-based foundation hopes to open the first public beach park in the United States that would be operated and maintained by surfers.

Members of the foundation want to make a park of the 4.9-acre stretch of beach that once was the site of Mobil Oil’s operation off the Ventura coast.

Besides bringing back big waves, the reef would provide a sanctuary for abalone, the foundation said.

Last week, members of the board traveled to Sacramento to present their plan to the Lands Commission, which could grant them a lease to operate the park by the end of the year. To install the reef, they would need the approval of the state Coastal Commission and local governing bodies, which would take at least five years to secure.

This is not the first time an artificial reef off Ventura’s coast has been proposed, and many of the names behind this effort were also behind previous proposals, all unsuccessful.

But this is different, the backers say.

“I don’t know of another place in the world where surfers are taking responsibility for a stretch of coastline,” said Surfrider founder Glenn Hening, a member of Quantum Reef’s board of directors.

The group is raising private money and has applied for $1 million in federal grants funded by oil companies. Foundation members have hired as executive director non-surfer Lynn Holley, who ran the foundation that created Las Positas Park in Santa Barbara, which is also operated by a nonprofit group.

Quantum Reef’s board includes surfer and local inventor Gary Ross, who has spent the past decade developing technology for a Y-shaped, 45,000-pound polyethylene reef he says will be movable, environmentally safe and cheaper than traditional artificial reefs made of sandbags.

The reef, about 150 feet long and 80 feet wide, would be sunk just off the beach. Water rolling in would bump up against it and form waves.

So far, however, the proposed reef has not been used.

Ross said Quantum Reef was formed a few years ago by his friend since college, Hawaii-based construction specialist Ernie Montana. Ross said Montana formed the group because he wanted to put an artificial reef off Hawaii after a volcano destroyed several surfing spots there.

Montana wanted to use Ross’ patented technology for the Hawaiian reef project. A study was done and officials expressed interest but never went forward with plans. Montana is now moving to Ventura to serve as president of the Quantum Reef board, Ross said.

Patagonia’s founder Yvon Chouinard, a surfer and friend of Ross, had contributed several thousand dollars to the Hawaii project. Chouinard, who is now on the foundation’s board, has been trying for years to get an artificial reef off the Ventura coast.

In 1989, he put $25,000 toward such an effort off Emma Wood State Beach, but the effort collapsed. Chouinard said he has not contributed any money to the Oil Piers project.

Artificial reefs are not without controversy, even when their primary purpose is to protect habitats.

Within the Surfrider organization, discussion of artificial reefs has caused “a lot of personality conflicts and heavy discussion” said Paul Jenkin, chairman of the group’s Ventura chapter. “Surfers have this dream of creating the perfect wave. But the problem is, there can be an environmental impact.”

Ross, who has been testing his design at UC Santa Barbara, says his reef design is made of environmentally safe material and would actually improve conditions for abalone, kelp and other sea life.

But he acknowledges his plans would have to withstand public debate and a lengthy government permitting process.

Meanwhile, Hening pledges that any artificial reef “would have to benefit the ocean 365 days a year,” not just surfers.

Other foundation board members are consultant and former Ventura Harbor director Richard Parsons, Wavefront Technologies founder Larry Barels, accountant Steve Edwards, ocean engineer Shawn Kelly, marketing consultant Shelly Merrick, architect Andy Neumann, and contractor Keith Zandona.

Several board members are in a position to profit from the work and publicity involved in a reef project, but Hening says no one on the board will make “a cent” if a reef is ever constructed because that would threaten the group’s tax-exempt status. Holley said she wants to make clear that the group is committed to creating a public park and teaching the community about the area’s oil and surfing history as well as marine life, even if an artificial surfing reef is never approved.

“That’s key,” she said. “We want to take that stretch of beach on, whether there is any surf or not.”

Meanwhile, Holley proposes creating an endowment to be funded largely by the sale of the future park’s name. Her asking price: $3 million.

Chouinard, who has not taken as high profile a role in this as in some previous efforts, predicts the project will be difficult to realize.

“I’ve been trying . . . for 20 years now. I haven’t given up yet but I know it’s going to take a long time to get there.”