Malibu just might qualify for reserve status. Photo: Patrick Konior//Unsplash
In 2020, lawmakers established 30×30 California, a decade-long commitment to conserve 30 percent of the Golden State’s lands and 30 percent of its coastal waters. The initiative was enacted to protect biodiversity, strengthen climate resilience, and expand access to nature in one of the most diverse natural landscapes in the United States. We are a little more than halfway through that 10-year plan and the state is on track to reach its coastal waters goal, having designated 21.9 percent as marine conserved areas.
State Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin has been working since 2022 to give surf spots a pathway to becoming some of those conserved marine areas. Irwin proposed AB 2177 back in 2022, which borrowed from the state’s 1963 Scenic Highways Program to define criteria for establishing a Scenic Highway System for historical or recreational uses. The bill was passed by the Assembly, but in May of that same year it was held under submission in committee, stalling its progress for that session.
“Like scenic highways, the onus of designating a surfing reserve would be on a local government to propose. The reserve would consist of a designated stretch of coastline, such as a known surf zone like Maverick’s, as a surfing reserve. The local agency would apply to the Conservancy to request approval of designation,” Irwin wrote at the time.
Irwin has proposed the legislation once again, now AB-1938. It proposes that local governments will have the opportunity to apply surf spots in their given community for the surfing reserve designation. Designating any spot a State Surfing Reserve would come with inclusion in the state’s 30×30 California initiative and signs would be erected designating their status, among other things.
View this post on Instagram
One selling point, of course, is the dollar value of conserving these spaces, according to the committee.
“The United States is home to approximately 3.3 million surfers, who spend between $1.9 and $3.3 billion each year on local surf trips,” reads a committee analysis. “Professional surfers brought in $140 billion in domestic surf tourism in California in 2018 alone, and the surf industry, which is almost exclusively based in California, generates more than $6 billion in United States annual retail sales.”
Saving surf spots, it seems, equals cash.
