Safety Issues

These private camps arrive after school and immediately take over the point. With overcrowding and zero social distancing our quiet beach is transformed into a chaotic hazard zone with significant COVID transmission potential. Add to this the lack of surf etiquette being taught and accidents are inevitable. People will get hurt.

Pay-to-Play

Local residents (including local kids accustomed to surfing after school themselves) now find themselves pushed out in favor of clients paying $50-100 per child per day to use this public beach. Santa Barbara is already an incredibly expensive place to live. Now even our beaches are being segregated into those who can pay and those who can’t. And while many coastal cities ban private companies from using their beaches, Santa Barbara has instead chosen to license two camps — iSurf and SurfHappens. How much is the city profiting from this?

Non-Profit vs For-Profit

We are in full support of non-profit, city-run youth development programs such as Junior Lifeguards. Especially during these difficult times, kids need to be out exercising and socializing (with proper social distance). But private companies should not be profiting off our public beach – especially at the cost of our non-paying community.