Today a cop rounded up everyone surfing at 79th street (in Virginia Beach) and informed us that there is no more surfing allowed within 300 feet of the 79th street pier. 79th street happens to be one of the better breaks in all of Virginia Beach and we were forced to move to a ****ty break while watching empty peeling lefts go off at the pier. If only the bastards in city hall surfed...then we wouldnt have these bull**** problems. Special thank you to the Army Corps of Engineers <3 <3 <3 thank you for destroying my favorite surf spot! <3 <3
Restricted area Are they marking the 300 ft line on either side, or just estimating it? And if so, who makes the call, the police, or the pier owner?
they marked it on either side with two large signs and the pier security lady calls the police if anyone is crossing it or if she sees anyone having fun or smiling
move to the mentawais, haha or just surf there anyway and act stupid every time they call the cops. Also figure out if the pier is ever closed or what the security hours/shifts are..... maybe you could fit in a dawn/pre-dawn session?
Surf-in Sounds like time for a classic Surf-in where you mob them with surfers from the entire town and area. I'm willing to bet the signs are on the beach as well, and most likely attempts to enforce it are from the beach as well. Do they have waterborne police?
"Do they have waterborne police" hahahahah that was my next question.... get a boat and pull up outside, and if the cops show up just take off
I was thinking about playing the dumb game but the cop specifically said if he saw anyone after yesterday crossing the line, it would mean a ticket. Im liking this idea of a Surf-in and there is usually a huge crowd surfing there anyways. The pier isnt even really a pier in a conventional sense. All it does is run a water line to dump **** in the ocean 1000 feet out.
Yet more questions Does Vah Beach claim offshore rights? OCM annexed two miles offshore x 10 miles long a number of years back just so they could exercise jurisdiction over that area with Beach Patrol and such. (I can't imagine that they had many objections from the residents of all that submerged property that the US Govt. technically owns) The BP has zodiacs they run around in, but I suspect their main resort to control would be exercised through the local Coast Guard. Not to mention the need for waterproof tickets to hand out. The good news here is our ESA negotiated two rotating surfing beaches (consequently not always the best breaks, but better than nothing) and just last year the ESA and Surfrider in concert with the Parks and Recreation dept. negotiated with the town council to reserve the inlet area for surfing on weekdays. It was sort of an easy agreement for the council because the downtown day-visitor Latino poplulation is way up and the authorities are a touch xenophobic, if you know what I mean. That's why they built a "model sand dune" right under the pier- to discourage all the Hispanics from hanging hammocks under there. Maybe the Latinos should take up surfing. I suspect your issue is more with the pier operator than it is with the police, so try building some bridges in that direction- sort of you pat my back and I'll pat yours. That, or tell everyone who paddles out 300' away from the pier to paddle out with a round river rock and drop it in the same place. Given enough time and enough surfers dropping rocks and pretty soon you'll have a first class point break and you can claim it's a fish habitat meant to help the pier. Let's see, 10 surfers in the water for 200 days= 2000 rocks, and that's just the beginning! Whatever you do, get the Parks and recreation department involved. They can be good advocates especially when community health is involved.
I'd have to agree, we all get pissed at restrictions place on surfing, and just about everything else these days, I would suggest organizing yourselves a start playing the political game as every other group does. It will take time, but you might be suprised at how strong the surf lobby can be. Perhaps you can contact one of the local surf orgs. for help. Telling the pier operator and the fuzz to f**k off will make you feel good today, but will probably only hurt your cause in the long run. We've done pretty good in OCMD in the last couple of years and I'm pretty sure the local gov knows there are a lot of us surfers in this town and we vote too.
I just got back from surfing the pier and a lot of surfers were disregarding the signs and taking off right next to it so im thinking that the pier owner is only serious about enforcing the rules when it is a warm day with lots of swimmers and tourists...which happens to be all of summer for VB. Nothing like dodging fatass pale people with waterwings on your last wave into shore to get your ticket!
That definitely is BS i must agree. The ocean is there for all to enjoy and dont let anyone take that away from you. Definitely fight that with your local homies. VA Baech authorities suck the big one anyways. I got a parking ticket there when my meter ran over just 15minutes. They can suck on my ding dong
you know this "pier" is temporary, right? as much as the restrictions suck, it's not forever. there's one at 42nd street as well and they recently put a 300 ft. sign there too. these both are temporary structures used as they rebuild the drainage pipes that carry out all the runoff into the ocean. it's not a fishing pier or anything. actually, i can see potential danger with the large cranes swinging around while people are surfing nearby. they definitely have created decent breaks (for VB) with the sand building up, so it's definitely going to be an interesting summer, but when there's real waves, there not working anyway (they have to take a boat to work and the crane cherry picks them on and off the pier/structure). so far it hasn't been a problem but with summer right around the corner, i guess they're trying to enforce the restriction now.
any idea when they will be taking it down? the 42nd street pier is not even touching the beach and they are still building the pier at 79th
