The wave exudes elegance and rage. It screams toward the Santa Monica beach in the shape of a cursive C.
A child rests on the crest of a surfboard. Or he makes an effort.
The youngster gets wiped out. Hard.
Then, however, he appears in the whitewash, beaming. His instructor at Aqua Surf School is also smiling.
For both students and teachers, the Palisades fire, which burned in January all the way to the Pacific coast around five miles north of this Santa Monica beach, seems like a faraway memory on this joyous day.
On the beach, however, surf camps, which have long been a fixture along the shores of Santa Monica Bay, are having a rough summer. Families’ worries that the surf or sand is tainted with fire pollution have caused a sharp decline in attendance at some.
Business has decreased by 20% to 30% at Aqua Surfs camps alone, according to executive director Dylan Sohngen.
Sohngen, who has reduced Aqua Surf’s staff because of the decline in campers, stated, “I talk to parents about this issue every day, and it’s really sad.” Many families are simply going to pass on it this year because it is a luxury item to them. Let’s engage in other activities this summer, you know. We have a whole ocean, which is a wonderful resource. It’s unfortunate that people are losing that.
Although public health authorities say it is safe to go in the water at the beaches where they operate, four other youth surf camp or surf school operators said business is noticeably down this summer as many families express anxiety over potential health risks. Teachers are frustrated by this gap and have predicted that if the decline continues, there would be financial difficulty and a blow to a traditional summers tradition.
Anthony Petri, the proprietor of Always Summer Surf School in Malibu, predicted that everyone would go bankrupt. This is how people make a living; it’s how you provide for your family and yourself.
Surf camps have provided parents with a simple method to expose their children to a traditional Southern California hobby for decades. Children from the age of five to seventeen are usually welcome, and most start in June and continue well into August. Prices range from over $150 for a day pass to over $600 for a week at some programs. Over 1,000 children attend these camps during the summer, according to some of the larger operators.
Many parents view surf camp as a welcome throwback in an era when many children’s summers are overly planned with sleep-away programs, academic enrichment, and scheduled sports. Additionally, they didn’t need to wring their hands. So far.
Consider Ivy Cavic, a parent from West L.A. She believes that sending her 9-year-old son, Wolf, back to surf camp is premature. He was a regular at Santa Monica’s Fitness by the Sea. Not this year.
Regarding authorities’ testing efforts, she stated that while they know the answers for today, they are unable to predict how this would impact us in the next year, two years, or ten years. There are a lot of issues that we have had to worry about for our kids, including air quality and other bizarre things. I am only in charge of keeping my child safe.
Operators of surf camps claimed to understand parents’ reluctance. Additionally, several cited various factors contributing to the drop in revenue, such as the negative impact on tourism caused by recent immigration enforcement raids and the protests they sparked. However, according to a number of businesses, no camps or surf schools have closed as of yet.
A few camp companies operating at Will Rogers State Beach were forced to relocate due to the Palisades fire, and a parking lot was briefly used to handle fire debris. The Pacific Palisades beach is open, but the lots there were closed for months.
Angelica Mistro, a parent from Mar Vista whose kids had long attended Freedom Surf Camps, admitted that she had momentarily questioned whether the water was safe during the fire earlier this year. She chose to send her girls, ages 8 and 15, back to the company’s camp in Venice this summer after speaking with Freedom’s owner about the matter.
According to Mistro, the program has given kids a crucial skill: we want them to have ocean smarts, just like street smarts.
Parsing the science
Operators of surf camps and schools scrambled for information about the possible negative effects of the heavy metals and other things sprayed into the ocean after the Palisades fire covered the beachfront with debris and caused extensive beach closures.
Surf instructors, who take pleasure in belonging to a close-knit community despite certain business conflicts, shared testing data as it became available. According to information provided by the county’s Department of Beaches and Harbors, there are at least a dozen surf camp and school operators on beaches under its jurisdiction, spanning from Malibu to the South Bay.
This is what they discovered: According to preliminary tests, the Department of Beaches and Harbors stated in February that the mixture of charred wood and plastic particles that washed up on coasts was not dangerous to the environment or beachgoers.
The L.A. County Department of Public Health terminated an ocean water quality advisory for beaches affected by fire in April, and beach closures were lifted in February. In a statement to The Times, it said that tests on water and sand that checked for different toxins did not find any compounds linked to wildfires at levels that are harmful to human health.
Some parents have expressed their frustration at the lack of definitive information, despite the fact that the county’s conclusions have been corroborated by additional scientific research conducted by private organizations. Bothresearchers and county officials have acknowledgedthat there aren t clear guidelines on how to measure the impact of an ecological crisis the size of the Palisades fire on ocean water quality.
Environment & Climate
It is difficult to evaluate the environmental impact of the January fires on land. In the sea, it’s considerably more difficult.
For Cavic, her concern is not with the water she believes it is safe. It’s the sand. Despite the testing that s been done, she still wonders what toxins it might contain.
Cavic claimed that Fitness by the Sea, a camp that provides surfing, was extremely meticulous and careful during her decision-making process and had conducted independent testing. She was still uneasy about sending her son there, though.
“My heart goes out to those who aren’t able to profit and make a living on something that they’ve done for so many years,” she says, expressing concern over the camps.
Fitness by the Sea did not respond to an interview request.
Gilad Lewandowsky, owner of Freedom Surf Camps, said he heard from parents in the spring expressing a lot of concern. Some former clients just made the decision to move on.
Over the next months, however, Lewandowsky investigated the issue and came away certain it was safe to operate his camps. “People are still afraid,” he remarked. And when people don t know, they don t go.
Tom Corliss, operator of theMalibu Makos Surf Clubat Zuma Beach since 1994, said the surf camp and school has seen business drop off by 20% to 30% this summer. I ve refunded some people who didn t want to put their kids in the water, he said.
He frets for his industry: Some camps were working on real thin [margins] as it is. A couple of guys I talked to are even worried about staying in business this year.
Life s a beach until it isn t
Aqua Surf instructor Gibson L pez de Huehls faced the Santa Monica shore where the insistent surf pounded against sand strewn with tangles of kelp and seagrass and explained what he liked about teaching children. Behind him, about 45 campers dug into their lunches.
It is a really good feeling when you help the kid get their first wave, said L pez de Huehls, 19.
L pez de Huehls, who grew up in Westwood, learned to surf when he was about 12. He has no qualms about getting in the water. I trust all the scientists. … If they say it s good, it s good, he said.
Several instructors said that they have reassured parents that they wouldn t be in the water with children if they thought it was unsafe. That s the case for Chris Stingray Stiegler, who foundedMalibu Surf Coacha decade ago, and typically gives lessons at Broad Beach in Malibu.
He said that business is down by more than 50%. Prospective clients are understandably confused amid a litany of reports about the issue. But he s in the ocean almost every day.
It s honestly just as clean as I ve experienced it at any other time, he said.
Venice parent Scott Hechinger said he read reports about the water testing, and felt comfortable sending his 9-year-old son back to Aqua Surf, which has three locations along the coast. The fun and enjoyment that it provided for him outweighed what we saw as a relatively low risk, Hechinger said.
When Cavic told her son he couldn t go to the surf camp this summer, it did not go over well. Time at the beach, she said, brings him genuine happiness.
Instead, her family is embarking on an extended trip to the Pocono Mountains, a long way from the beaches of Santa Monica.
Hopefully, Cavic said, we can go back next summer.
Times staff writer Corinne Purtill contributed to this report.
