York Town News
Surfers working toward solution
By Melissa Wood
Local residents and business owners, who also happen to be avid surfers, continue to discuss ways to meet the needs of the surfing community and others who use York's Long Sands Beach during the busy summer months. Pictured at Liquid Dreams on Route 1 in Ogunquit are, from left, Bobby Moran, Dick Byrne, Mark Anastas, Michael Mandravelis, John Clancy and Scott Drake.
Photo by Melissa Wood
YORK BEACH - When Mark Anastas began surfing as a kid, it was mostly considered a fringe sport.
Today, as the owner of Liquid Dreams surf shops in York and Ogunquit, he has seen an upsurge in popularity.
"All of the action sports - and especially surfing - in the past 10 years have exploded in popularity in the mainstream market," said Anastas, who opened Liquid Dreams in Ogunquit in 1996 and in York Beach in 2001. "The surf camps are always full. … Lessons are booked all the time."
The increase of surfers on the beach has led the town of York to take a look at its surf ordinance - a process that will be ongoing to address the needs of the various users of York Beach before any revised ordinance is ready to be put on the May ballot.
Currently, surfing is not permitted at York Beach between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. from Memorial Day to Labor Day except in the surf zone, an area 120 yards long.
An informational meeting was held on Nov. 30 and chaired by Parks and Recreation Director Michael Sullivan, Police Chief Doug Bracy and local attorney and surfer David Ballou, and attended by 35 people, mostly surfers.
The group generally agreed on proposed changes to the ordinance that would widen the zone and make enforcement less rigid.
After the meeting, Ballou began work on other options for the proposed ordinance, taking into account concerns raised about the zone's proposed new location and problems last summer with reports of young surfers badgering the head lifeguard to expand the zone.
"Unless some sort of miracle occurs, we've got a lot of work to do," said Ballou, who has undertaken coordinating efforts to amend the ordinance and has been a self-described "point of synthesis" on the issue.
The first proposal, dated Nov. 30, had the surf area doubling in size but move the location to the Sun-n-Surf Restaurant, while a second proposal, dated Dec. 5, keeps the surfing area where it is and adds another 120 yards to the south.
Both drafts double the zone and provide flexibility by allowing an expansion of the zone of 120 additional yards on big wave days or opening the beach to surfing on days when inclement weather has made the water undesirable for swimmers.
A recent media report suggested that the surfers aren't happy with the changes to the ordinance that were presented at the November meeting. Ballou said surfers were shocked at the tone of that report.
"We realize we have to share the beach," he said. "On the other hand, some action needs to be taken to eliminate or reduce the tensions."
Ballou called the ordinance revisions a work in progress that would need to be tweaked a few more times before they will be ready to be put on the May ballot.
He is already reconsidering a part of the Dec. 5 draft, which calls for the formation of a Surf Advisory Committee to decide whether to expand the zone or open the beach, after he received feedback that the committee would be more work than it is worth.
"Nothing is set in stone," he said. "It's a collaborative process. It's a public process. It's a preliminary process."
York surfer John Clancy agreed with the need for collaboration.
"The first meeting was an open forum," he said. "The bottom line was that we wanted to open it up for everyone to say this is the start of a discussion."
The location of the zone had been raised at the meeting and rethought by surfers afterward.
"When they came back with the first draft," said local surfer Michael Mandravelis, "We said, you know what's going to happen, when there's novice surfers, they're going to be surfing into rocks."
According to Anastas, the revised proposal is not a counter-offer to the first, but rather part of the process of coming up with something that everyone could agree with.
"It's not a negotiation," he said. "We're trying to work together."
Mandravelis agreed.
"This is not us-versus-them by any means," he said.
Though Sullivan said this week he wasn't ready to comment on the Dec. 5 draft, he said he considers it a pretty dramatic change. He said he was not pleased about losing the natural boundary of the rocks by the Sun-n-Surf and that from his point of view, it was important to be able to manage the zone.
"We have to make sure it works," he said, agreeing with the call for more flexibility. "Flexibility is good… Right now, the ordinance is the ordinance: 120 yards of beach and that's where you stay."
Ballou said he did not disagree with the natural boundary issue, but the draft is an effort to retain a surfing zone that had been in existence for 40 years and not overly restrict one side of the beach.
He said the Nov. 30 draft would have eliminated two very good breaks by moving to an area south where, arguably, there's only one good break.
"I don't think the surfers want to relinquish good surfing areas," he said.
Ballou discussed the proposed changes at an informal gathering of a group of surfers at Liquid Dreams.
"I'm getting a lot of feedback from a lot of different sources, by e-mail and calls, and the group there also provided feedback," he said.
As part of opening the process, both the Parks and Recreation Department and Liquid Dreams have posted the ordinances on their websites.
"I expect this to be a work in progress," said Sullivan. "I didn't leave that meeting with the surfers expecting this to be a done deal."
The Parks and Recreation site at parksandrec.yorkmaine.org has posted the current ordinance and the two drafts. Sullivan said they are hoping to soon enable the site to allow comments to be posted as well.
"My guess is that we'll continue to put ideas on the table," said Sullivan.
He said he expects there will be another meeting that will probably be attended by swimmers and other residents as well.
"My hope is that they'll come with an open mind as well," he said, and added that, ultimately, the York Board of Selectmen and voters will make the decision.
The Liquid Dreams site at www.liquiddreamssurf.com has the Dec. 5 ordinance posted on its forum general discussion page, which allows feedback from users.
"We understand we still have a ways to go as far as putting it together," said Clancy. "There's a lot of different ideas that can be used."
Mandravelis said the surfers would also be making a donation for new signs or other necessary items from the 3B Waverider Foundation. The foundation was started by a local group of guys in memory of William Davies, an avid boogie-boarder and longtime York Beach fixture who died of cancer in 2005.
Anastas said the rising popularity of surfing can be seen anywhere with a coastline and that he enjoys setting up new surfers who come into his shop.
"It's like rekindling that stoke again," he said. "Not only do I get a personal reward from surfing, my living is made of surfing."
