Dan's Papers - June 20, 2008 - Surfers, Surfcasters & the State Park Bureaucracy Don't Mix

Two weeks ago, the surfers of the eastern end of Long Island celebrated a great court victory. Tickets that eight of them had received for surfing at Camp Hero beach in Montauk were thrown out.

New York State, which owns Camp Hero and the beach there, argued that a state ordinance prohibiting the use of inflatables or other objects by bathers in the ocean, applied to "bathers" using surfboards. The judge decided it did not.

So the surfers are back at Camp Hero beach. Or are they? The sign prohibiting them from surfing there remains up. And, according to the state police there, the intention is to continue to ticket surfers if they can find another ordinance that might apply, which they think they can.

The matter at hand, it turns out, is far more complicated than it looks. And it involves not only surfers, but surfcasters.

For years and years, the various authorities here out east have tried to accommodate all different sorts of people who like all different activities. For example, dogs are allowed at Atlantic Avenue Beach in Amagansett if you agree to walk them on a leash 150 yards or more to the east beyond where the bathers are. There you can let them run around. Four-wheel-drive vehicles are allowed on the beach all winter, but only before 9 a.m. and after 6 p.m. in the summertime. During the day, it's the bathers' turn.

The point is that you can't have two conflicting activities going on at the same time - you have to work things out. And obviously surfing and surfcasting - what with the sharp fishhooks - is something begging to be worked out.

Many people are totally puzzled about why the surfers and surfcasters can't do this at Camp Hero. One in particular, Joe Giannini, who is not only a surfer and a surfcaster, but also a lawyer, is particularly baffled.

I think, however, that the problem lies in three truths - the authority involved (the state) is particularly bureaucratic, the surfers are a young, vigorous and passionate lot, and the surfcasters are older, more sedentary and out there for thoughtful contemplation and an occasional fish. It's oil and water, philosophy and bureaucracy, and it's a big problem.

The fish appear and the surfcasters say, "That's good, we've got fish." The huge waves appear and the surfcasters scream, "SURF'S UP, GANGWAY." And the state scratches its head.

Complicating this is that the fish are there a high percentage of the time, while a big surf is up a low percentage of the time.

Furthermore, the surfcasting is at its peak in September, October and November, with almost no fishing at all in the winter there. The surfers can get out 12 months a year, which 90% of the time involves sitting and chatting on their boards offshore because there are no waves; this essentially shuts down the surfcasters, who, a churchgoing lot, do not wish to harm the surfers with fishhooks.

In any case, the solution, in my opinion, is obvious. Install a large bell on a wooden platform, and let the state troopers decide when to clang it, for whom and for what. They could do it on the half-hour.

One clang is green light for surfcasting, no surfing.

Two clangs means surfcasters go to the east, and surfers to the west - it's a big beach.

Three clangs means surfcasters go to the west, and surfers to the east.

And if there are no clangs, it means the surf is utterly gnarly, the trooper has been disarmed, tied up and carried off and there is no surfcasting.