Surfing ban: Newport favors giving lifeguards more discretion over blackball time

Newport Beach lifeguards could soon have more control over the time when surfing is prohibited along the city’s beaches.

The City Council indicated during a Tuesday afternoon study session that it favors allowing lifeguards to blackball, or prohibit, hardboard surfing off the city’s beaches when they determine that conditions are unsafe for swimmers, body boarders and users of skim boards, which are small flotation devices used in shallow water.

When a yellow flag with a large black circle is flying on the beach, hardboard surfers are not permitted in the water. The idea is to divide ocean time between hardboard surfers and those who surf without boards to help prevent injuries.

Currently, surfboards are prohibited at all hours between 40th and 44th streets and at the Wedge from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. from May 1 to October 31.

“Safety should be our number one issue,” said Mayor Pro Tem Diane Dixon.

The Blackball Working Group, made up of city commissioners, fire and police officials and staff members, has been working for two years on alterations to the surfing regulations in an attempt to improve safety and access for all surfers at the two popular spots.

In April, the city Parks, Beaches & Recreation Commission voted to recommend that the City Council reduce blackball hours between 40th and 44th streets to 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily from the Saturday before Memorial Day through Labor Day.

The current blackball period has frustrated many hardboard users who say they don’t get enough time in the water, especially during morning hours when the waves are the best. Several hardboard surfers called for the city to designate a specific stretch of beach for surfing year-round.

Huntington Beach and Laguna Beach, along with several other coastal cities, have year-round surf spots.

TK Brimer, who owns the surf shop Frog House, said 40th through 44th streets is an exclusive area for body boarders and swimmers during the summer months, but “there’s not an exclusive place for surfers.”

“It seems like we’re treated like second-class citizens,” he said.

However, body boarders and swimmers say the only time they feel truly safe in the water is when blackball is enforced.

“Leaving [the rules] as is gives body boarders one place to ride waves without the threat of having a board hit them,” said resident Dave Bent.

Dixon, Mayor Ed Selich and councilmen Kevin Muldoon, Marshall “Duffy” Duffield and Tony Petros indicated Tuesday afternoon that they are not in favor of easing blackball rules in West Newport between 40th and 44th streets and at the Wedge.

[For the record, July 29, 10:45 a.m.: An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated that surfboards are prohibited at all hours at the Wedge from May 1 to October 31.]