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Surfers, Casters Face Off
Montauk Point access is still under dispute
By Timothy Small
(09/20/2007)
Members of the Surfrider Foundation's eastern Long Island chapter met with representatives of the Montauk Surfcasters Association and New York State parks officials last week at the State Parks headquarters in Babylon to discuss the issue of access to the north side of Montauk Point State Park.
"I'm not sure if progress was made," George Gorman, the Long Island regional director for the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation, who attended the private meeting, said on Tuesday. "It was disappointing we didn't reach a compromise."
The debate over access to Montauk Point's north side, also known as North Bar, is not new. In recent weeks, however, the Surfing Advisory Committee to the Parks Department, which was formed by Surfrider in 2004 in an effort to legalize surfing at Camp Hero to the west of Montauk Point, has actively pushed the state to legalize surfing on the north side by contesting tickets surfers have been issued for violating the park's "no surfing" rule at North Bar.
Yesterday, in East Hampton Town Justice Court, surfers and surf-access advocates showed their support for five surfers contesting charges for surfing on the north side on Aug. 25. The defendants, who are represented by Joseph Giannini, an attorney and longtime advocate of surf access to the north side of the Point, were ordered to file a motion arguing that the statue they allegedly violated is invalid.
All five surfers were ticketed for violating Section 377.1(H) of the State of New York Official Compilation of Codes, Rules and Regulations. That statute "prohibits swimming, diving, bathing, or wading in swimming pools or other waters or walking upon the frozen surface thereof," on state parks property except in areas designated for those activities. Mr. Giannini believes this statute does not apply to surfing.
On Aug. 15, similar support was given to Nancy Optiz of Brooklyn, who was also ticketed for surfing on the north side on June 16. That charge was dismissed in the "furtherance of justice" because the officer who issued the ticket cited the wrong section of the law.
A meeting between the opposing groups was agreed to before Ms. Optiz's ticket was dismissed. The Surfing Advisory Committee believes surfers and surfcasters should be able to share the north side. Members of Montauk Surfcasters Association believe the north side should remain designated solely for surfcasters.
The surfers' objective in meeting was to discuss the possibility of opening access to surfers at the contested spot. "We went in with open minds as to how this would be accomplished," Eugene Alper, the former chairman of Surfrider's eastern Long Island chapter and a member of the Surfing Advisory Committee, wrote in an e-mail on Monday.
An interim policy such as the one implemented at Camp Hero before surf access was granted all year round there was one form of compromise suggested, he said. That policy, which served as a trial period to demonstrate there were no conflicts between surfers and fishermen, prohibited surfing from Sept. 6, 2004, through Nov. 1, 2004, except from sunrise to 11 a.m. Because there were no reported conflicts during that time, surfing was allowed entirely.
For several reasons, members of the Montauk Surfcasters Association are not willing agree to a compromise on the north side. The safety of surfers and the liability of surfcasters is one concern.
"The problem is that we are going to be casting what amounts to lethal projectiles in the waves where those fish are, and if there are 200 surfers in the water at the same time that there are 500 casters casting out, this is a recipe for disaster," Jay Blatt, the communications director for the Montauk Surfcasters Association, said on Tuesday.
"Surfers want to go out and have a good time, and by contrast, so do surf fisherman," Mr. Blatt said. "But we can't enjoy ourselves knowing that if we accidentally hook a surfer, we can be hauled into court for a multimillion dollar lawsuit."
By opening access to surfers on the south side, many surfcasters feel discouraged from fishing there, opting for the north side instead. "We feel that by allowing surfers on the south side, in many instances, we're effectively disenfranchised because we cannot enjoy our sport," Mr. Blatt said. "It's tantamount to restricting us completely."
Surfers argue that when they share the water with surfcasters, there is no clash between the two groups. "If anything," Mr. Giannini said, "surfers make it safer," referring to instances where surfers have rescued surfcasters.
The surfcasters' organization is responsible for creating the illusion that the two groups don't get along, Mr. Alper said, who remarked that their headquarters are UpIsland. "They said that Camp Hero would be a disaster if they allowed surfing there," he said. "That claim was 100 percent false. Now they're saying the same thing about the North Bar."
Katherine King, a Montauk resident since 1989 and surfer for over 15 years, said she has never once had an issue with surfcasters anywhere around the lighthouse. Mr. Alper also said in his 40 years of surfing in Montauk he has never witnessed a conflict.
Contrarily, Mr. Blatt said he has accidentally hooked three surfers in his 10 years of fishing.
Celebrating Montauk's fishing history and securing its tourism economy, which is heavily predicated on Montauk's world-class fishing, is another incentive to continue denying surfers access to the north side, Mr. Blatt added. "Many fishermen believe the north side, just one beach, should be set aside in perpetuity to celebrate Montauk's contribution to surfcasting. We hope people will recognize the historical significance of setting aside one beach to celebrate Montauk - the Harvard Business School of fishing."
Surfers proposed numerous other interim compromises, such as a 90-day trial period to see how shared use would work, and a policy that would allow surfers to use only a specific area of the park, Mr. Alper said, but the surfcasters were not willing to budge.
"I can't see any compromises," Willie Young, the president of the Montauk Surfcasters Association, said on Tuesday. "Nothing suggested by them is feasible and we have nothing feasible to offer them."
Though little if any progress was made in resolving their differences, the meeting was useful because both sides got to hear directly from one another, Mr. Gorman said. The Parks Department agreed to analyze the proposals made by the surfers, he said.
In the meantime, the department's police will continue enforcing the no-surfing rule on the north side.