San Diego Decides to Button Up Beachgoing in the Buff at Black’s

Black’s, the bad boy of beaches, is causing trouble again.

After receiving complaints of lewd behavior at the city’s stretch of what is hailed by many travel guides as America’s finest (unofficial) nude beach, San Diego city officials have decided to enforce the law against public nudity.

Lifeguards last week posted “Nudity Prohibited” signs along the city’s quarter-mile stretch of Black’s and soon will begin issuing $135 citations to the defiantly naked.

Luckily for the all-over tan set, the crackdown will not apply to the 2.5-mile stretch of Black’s owned by the state.

Still, the enforcement decision for the city part of Black’s has sent a shiver through the buff community.

“If we lose Black’s, we lose freedom,” said Arnold Allen, a bodybuilder and carpet layer who comes to Black’s for the restorative powers of sun and sand.

To its devotees, Black’s Beach is a way of life, an unashamed attitude, the one place in an otherwise buttoned-up community where it is OK to unbutton, unzip and disrobe, as long as certain civilities are observed.

It also is a beach so notorious that it has to live under two assumed names: Torrey Pines City Beach to the south and Torrey Pines State Beach to the north, with the San Diego Glider Port as the dividing point.

Sandy, secluded, sun-kissed and blessed with fabulous surfing, Black’s is a place where private parts and public property have learned to coexist--for the most part uneventfully.

But every so often, the inevitable controversy kicks up, and City Hall officials cringe at having Black’s / Torrey Pines City Beach as a member of the civic family.

This time complaints from the La Jolla Shores Assn., a group of property owners, were sent to Mayor Susan Golding and Councilman Harry Mathis, a retired Navy submarine captain who represents La Jolla.

“Black’s has changed over the years,” said Melinda Merryweather, an art director and surfer who has sunned at Black’s for decades. “It isn’t just nicely nude families or surfers anymore. It’s a new group of serious exhibitionists. Any woman alone on the beach is immediately a target.”

After hearing the complaints of Merryweather and others, Mathis summoned lifeguards and police. The city manager then ordered lifeguards to post the signs and begin enforcement.

Just what upset the balance is unclear, but there have been concerns that Black’s is attracting a new wave of nudists who have learned about the beach from various World Wide Web sites and are eager to push the envelope of acceptable behavior.

Indeed, the Web is ablaze with pseudo-anonymous indignation about the enforcement decision.

“I’ve been visiting Black’s for five years, [and] I have encountered less lewdness or unpleasantness than I have in bars. . . . I bet the folks who proposed this law spend most summer days in front of their television sets,” said Runnerdude.

“If you have a problem with seeing nude people at Black’s Beach, I have a simple answer for you: DON’T GO THERE!” wrote Hurley19.

Even in their anger, Black’s devotees rhapsodize on its matchless beauty. UAL77 calls Black’s “one of the most special places in America” and lists its charms: “The high cliffs tower overhead, La Jolla visible in the distance, and once in a while a U.S. Marine F/A-18 Hornet streaks overhead.”

Lifeguards hope that not many citations will need to be written. Before issuing them, they plan to use bullhorns to warn nudists to cover or move north.

“I expect there’s going to be fairly good compliance,” said Lifeguard Lt. Brant Bass. “It’s really not too much to ask--just go a small distance and they can continue doing what they’ve always done.”

At Torrey Pines State Beach, which is more secluded than the city portion and just as drop-dead gorgeous, life will remain unchanged: If you behave yourself, you can stay as nude as you want, as long as there are no complaints.

Black’s was popularized by surfers in the 1960s. Its wide and sandy bottom gives it one of the finest surf breaks in the world.

For three turbulent years, from 1974 to 1977, the City Council decided to decriminalize nudity at Black’s, effectively sanctioning what had been winked at. Black’s fame soared.

In 1977 a referendum drive sponsored by the then-nascent Christian right forced a public vote, and officially condoned nudity was overthrown 55% to 45%. The referendum, however, did not bring with it any enforcement.

Three years after the referendum, members of the pioneer La Jolla family for which the site was named petitioned the council to please strip their name from the beach and rename it Torrey Pines to make it consistent with the state portion.

By the early 1980s, the word about Black’s was inescapably out. In the 1980s, Black’s became increasingly popular with the gay community.

Seven city lifeguards are assigned to patrol the waters of both the city and state beaches. For all its beauty, Black’s also has a dangerous riptide.

Lifeguards have been told by their bosses not to ignore the water while enforcing the nudity prohibition.

Even at Black’s, it seems, a swimming body still takes priority over a naked one.