It would be the third female surfing statue in the world, according to organizers. Photo: Santa Cruz County//Jairo Gonzalez//Unsplash
The group behind a proposal to construct an 18-foot female surfer statue on the East Side of Santa Cruz, California says they’ve pulled their application from the city planning process. Instead, they’ve shifted their efforts to a new location for the statue, a mile down the coast in the city of Capitola.
Kari Lochhead, the Santa Cruz resident behind the proposal, told Santa Cruz Waves she believes the statue will be “celebrated in a way that she really deserves” in Capitola. The original plan called for installing the statue on East Cliff Drive near the late surf pioneer Jack O’Neill’s home. But the proposal drew pushback from residents, who argued it would pave over one of the East Side’s last natural bluff areas and that the accompanying benches could become a noisy nighttime gathering spot.
The statue gained support from local politician Manu Koenig, who said a public poll he conducted showed that 78 percent of respondents were in favor of the project. On Tuesday, Koenig announced that the county planning commission meeting had been canceled after the application was withdrawn.
In Capitola, the statue has already been backed by Mayor Margaux Morgan. She told Santa Cruz Waves that the project must pass through a permitting process, and that no location had yet been selected.
We’ll “make sure we find the best spot that is going to work great for the city,” she said.
It’s unclear if the project’s scope will change with the new location. The original proposal included a bronze female surfer statue to mirror the iconic male statue on the West Side of the Santa Cruz. The designs depicted a woman standing in front of a longboard, with three curved benches around the statue.
