Surf schools in the Los Angeles area are suffering. Photo: Aqua Surf School
Surf camps in Los Angeles are reporting a slump in summertime enrollment amid fears that ocean and beach conditions are unsafe due to contaminants from the Palisades Fire. In a recent report by the LA Times, five summer surf camps lamented that sales are down by as much as 50 percent.
Dylan Sohngen, the executive director of Aqua Surf, said sales have declined by 20 to 30 percent at his Santa Monica and Manhattan Beach camps, which has forced him to lay off staff. Malibu Makos Surf Club at Zuma Beach reported a similar decline in business.
“I’ve refunded some people who didn’t want to put their kids in the water,” said Tom Corliss, the operator of Malibu Makos Surf Club. “Some camps were working on real thin (margins) as it is. A couple of guys I talked to are even worried about staying in business this year.”
Chris Stiegler, who founded Malibu Surf Coach, related that his sales are down by 50 percent due to confusion about the ocean’s status.
Parents’ concerns trace back to beach and ocean closures in January, which were prompted by runoff and pollutants from the fires. The closures were lifted on February 11, and the warnings were removed in April for beaches impacted by the fires. The L.A. County Department of Public Health told the LA Times that testing of water and sand “revealed no chemicals related to wildfires at levels that are dangerous to human health.”
The message that the LA Times received was echoed by Kyle Thiermann, a Patagonia ambassador and surf-related podcast host who resides in Los Angeles.
“The water is fine now,” Thiermann told his Instagram following. “People need to stop with the fear porn and go play in the ocean again. It’s summer. If you have kids and want to enroll them in a great Santa Monica surf school, check out Aqua Surf School. Their owner Dylan Sohngen is as solid as they come.”
Despite expressing his confidence in the water quality, Sohngen said parents are still wary of sending their kids back to the ocean.
“I talk to parents about this issue every day, and it’s really sad,” he said. “There are a lot of families who are just going to pass on it this year – it’s considered a luxury item for them. You know, ‘Let’s do other activities this summer.’ We have an entire ocean, an incredible resource … and it’s sad that people are getting that taken away from them.”
Thus far, no surf camp has shut down amid the downturn. Still, Anthony Petri, the owner of Always Summer Surf School in Malibu, stressed that the situation is dire.
“Everyone’s gonna go bankrupt,” said Petri. “These are people’s livelihoods; this is how you feed yourself, feed your family.”
