Kneeboard Surfing USA Community Forum

First my best wishes for everybody in this 2011 new year.
I write from Zarautz a little village in the Basque Country of 20.000 inhabitants. Up to day the surfer mass were people of our county and four local surf schools. I understand that the sport is becoming more popular and we have to learn to share the space with everybody, just becouse the right to acces to the beach is universal.
But it is four years that schools from Belgium and The Netherlands come every summer to Zarautz with several hundreds of surfers ( They offer camping - private fiestas and surf classes) invading the whole beach.
I suppose this problem has occurred in many other places. My questions are:
- How is regulated the acces to the beach of these local and foreign schools?
- How do you know if it is a surf school or just a "big group of friends learning to surf "?
- Are the beaches limited for surfers and bathing?
I will thank any help in this matter. If you could give me any reference of your legislation would be great.

Call da hui, or the wolfpac

The owners of the schools must show some respect to the local community(not just local surfers). Also, it is not fair to their own students to throw them in a hostile environent and say "Have Fun".

Pass a law that they need permits. Then limit the number of permits and charge big $$ for the permits. But remember surfing is free, but getting there, staying there, eating there, and the like is not free. We call it capitalism over here.

......and if that fails then call da hui.

The Surf Schools in San Diego County are all permitted and the towns pack them in for more money.

My sons have worked for the past 5 years at a Surf School here in North San Diego county with two different locations. The location at the Oceanside Pier is permitted by the the Oceanside Main Street Association which is a derivative of the Oceanside Chamber of Commerce. The Main Street Association was created to contract and control the vendors around the pier and strand area of Oceanside. Last year the Association required the business to provide a six hour customer service/policies and procedures meeting for all employees of the Surf School in the conference room of the Main Street Association, presumably to assure that it happened. In short, the local City Govts are requiring these types of relationships for businesses that will be offering services on the City's beaches.

Thank you everybody for the information.
Here things are a little more complicated. In resume:

- All actions in the beach depends on " Harbour and coasts department".
- Every economic business in the beach on the local town hall
- The beach security and rescue depends on the Red Cross, ( But as the contrary as happens in France they are not policemen so they have not authority. They watch the swimmers.)

Generally local surfers (300 more or less) are fearful becouse every summer is getting worst. It is true that our best sessions are in winter when there is not such a problem, but it is summer when we have more free time and weather is more pleasant.
Some of the schools are trying to become in a bridge for foreign schools and share with them the gainings.
Other schools are fighting for a really tight law so all the surf pupils wanting to have classes in the beach should go to one of the local surf school.

Up to now the atmosphere in the water has been quite aceptable with ephemeral episodes of verbal or physical violence but I think things will change for the worse if town hall does not take things to an order.