New police chief says harassment, assaults by surfers must stop
LOS ANGELES TIMES
People walk up a cliff at Lunada Bay in Palos Verdes Estates, Calif., in July.
LOS ANGELES >> At the beginning of the big wave season last December, Sef Krell began his descent down a steep pathway from a coastal bluff to Palos Verdes’ Lunada Bay, one of Southern California’s most storied — and notorious — surfing spots.
Suddenly, Krell found himself being pummeled by dirt clods thrown from above by men yelling at him to go home. They didn’t want a stranger using a public beach they considered off-limits to outsiders.
Krell had braved a beach that for decades has been known for its hooligan-enforced insularity. Surfers who are not local proceed at their peril, while authorities look the other way.
This year, however, as Lunada Bay once again enters prime surfing season, Palos Verdes’ new police chief, Jeff Kepley, is promising a change.
“I’m not so naive to believe that we can solve this instantly or overnight,” Kepley said. “It took 50 years to get here. Hopefully, it won’t take that long to resolve, but I think it’s very important to get the word out as aggressively and enthusiastically as we can that the status quo is going to be mixed up around here.”
Patrols are being added to the coast. Officers are working overtime. And Kepley said he hopes to make the first arrest in years of one of the assailants.
“We will make an example out of anyone who behaves criminally down there,” he said.
Krell wishes the police had been that vigilant last year. Undaunted by the harassment, he kept going, walking past kayaks the locals leave unlocked because they have no fear of intruders, not with the “Bay Boys” there to drive away visitors.
Krell put his surfboard in the water and paddled out, leaving a bag of belongings on the shore. The Bay Boys emptied it into the ocean. They began throwing rocks.
“I’m in the water alone and there are people yards away throwing dangerous missiles at me,” said Krell, a criminal defense and personal injury attorney. “I don’t have any way to protect myself because that culture is allowed to continue without the type of law enforcement that I would expect.”
Beaches often breed territorial tensions, but here, amid homes that routinely sell for millions of dollars, the tactics are unusually fierce. Too many surfers want to ride too few waves. Newcomers seeking entry have retreated in the wake of flattened tires, snapped antennas and slurs scribbled with surf wax on their cars.
The police have repeatedly pledged to rid their coast of bad behavior, but critics say enforcement is weak.
Earlier this year, a dispatcher at the police station was caught on camera by The Guardian newspaper saying: “We know all of them. They are infamous around here.
“They are pretty much grown men in little men’s mind-set,” she said. “They don’t like anyone who isn’t one of the Bay Boys surfing down there. It literally is like a game with kids on a schoolyard to them, and they don’t want you playing on their swing set. It is what it is. If you feel uncomfortable, you know, then don’t do it.”
For some, the tape seemed to confirm a view that the police take a hands-off approach to the Bay Boys and might even share some of their disdain for outsiders.
In 1995, protesters demonstrated against the harassment. Police responded by checking the protesters’ cars for expired tags and broken headlights before later clearing the entire bluff, citing a bomb threat, according to the Easy Reader newspaper.
Two years later, police ordered a television news crew out of the area, according to the Easy Reader.
“Those Bay Boys are a lot more sinister than people know,” said Geoff Hagins, a longtime activist who lamented that a video camera aimed at the water was removed a decade ago by the City Council after community opposition.
“It is a bully system, and it is supported by the community and the police,” said Hagins, who alleged that he and his elderly parents reported death threats from members of the Bay Boys in recent years.
Kepley, who arrived in Palos Verdes over a year ago, said he couldn’t be held accountable for the past, but “if we did discount a claim, and I’m not saying we did, we are going to make sure we do the right thing.”
Kepley said a recent spike in residential burglaries has “residents up in arms and is the real headline down here,” but officers are still making frequent visits to the bluff above Lunada Bay to look for trouble.
And Kepley pushed back against the perception that the Bay Boys — who are largely white and middle-aged — are representative of the city’s people.
“People say this city is a bunch of snobs,” Kepley said. “I have to tell you, I have not met that person yet. I don’t see any snootiness in the people I come across.”
Krell said he will wait and see if the police are serious — but he has his doubts. He filed a complaint last year and his case remains unsolved, in part, he says, because detectives didn’t follow up adequately.
“Doing a drive-by of the bluff when there aren’t any waves isn’t going to do anything,” said Krell, an avid surfer from Encino who has traveled to Oahu, Hawaii, Baja California and Fiji in search of the world’s best waves.
“The chief needs to put detectives on the cliff in plainclothes when there is going to be (a) swell,” he said. “And they need to do what any other police departments do: real field investigations with suspect descriptions and names and phone numbers.”
27 responses to “New police chief says harassment, assaults by surfers must stop”
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Need to see if our local chief is willing to do the same. Hawaii beaches (especially ones at Ala Moana and the north and west shores are notorious for this same childish behavior.
Don’t bet on it, Kealoha is a P__sy!
too many surfers..too few waves..people need to learn etiquette and respect the regulars or else things can get ugly in the lineup
Try governor. Water belongs to DLNR. They have the authority, officers, training and equipment.
Hooliganism has no business on public beaches! No Aloha even in Hawaii? Sad when locals in California wants to monopolize and keep outsiders out of the public domain?
Happens here too.
Happens all the time in Hawaii, you just don’t want to admit it.
Naaaah? Fo’ real? It must be those aggressive tourist surfers on their rented boards making all the trouble. Certainly the locals would never harass anyone….they’ve got ALOHA!
Happens every day here. Surfers paddlers, body boarders body surfers, beefs between beach boys. Every heard the black shorts from North Shore?
Johnny Boy G after his arrest in Waikiki for trying to drown someone after an argument is a lifetime member.
Just like the movie North Shore. As far as Southern California’s Lunada Bay, reminds me of Point Break.
Sounds just like local discrimination in Hawaii.
Don’t go fishing or diving in Molokai or Hana. Locals will board your boat, take your catch even equipment. What are you going to do about it. No DLNR on Molokai or Hana. Cops there got no equipment, training, or authority. Outside Islands dirty little secret.
SA: It’s not difficult to add in “L.A.” to the headline so that we know it’s not a local story. Or is it purposeful just to make us click on every story?
Kids just want to have fun.
Yup, false crack.
Krell’s scud missiles?
Born and raised HI. Surfing all my life around Oahu, Kaua’i, and BI and don’t know what some of you posters are saying about our beaches. I can’t think of one place in HI that is like what was described in the article.
If you have trouble at a surf spot, then maybe it’s because you don’t how to act in the water when there’s waves. Know before you go.
Apparently you surf enough that people recognize you when you paddle out. I’ve surfed all my life, but not so much the last 10 years. I only go out when the surf is pumping … and that means that I paddle out looking white and like a tourist. If no one recognizes me right away, I have to make sure that I rip that first wave that I catch or have to endure more harassment till my timing comes back.
So yes, HI does have too crowded waves and local harassment going on.
Sorry, I don’t think that born and raised in Hawaii and surfing here all your life is going to give you a lot of insight into what a visitor can expect.
You disregard the last line in plaba’s post. And in regards to your post, yes plaba does have insight on what visitors can expect. Those born, raised, and surfing here in Hawaii know what to expect. It’s not isolated to visitors. It goes both ways. Respect given, respect returned.
Ask Sonny Garcia if we have a problem with aggressive locals……
Marcus, I am not implying that thugism doesn’t exist here. SG has acknowledged his past and hopefully is moving on and forward. I am only replying to TigerEye’s post that being born and raised in Hawaii is not going to give you insight into what a visitor can expect. From the eyes of someone who was born here, I have experienced what this article is about. It’s something that I can say now, and it hasn’t come without the passage of time and from what I have seen. No one is “local” to a site or spot. You put in your time at a location, show respect, and you will eventually be given respect and seen as a local to the site. Goes beyond surf spots. Fishing, playground basketball, etc. It applies to those born here as well as visitors. I’m not saying that it’s right or wrong. It’s not a surf thing, it’s not a Hawaii thing. And I absolutely am not implying that what this article states on Cali locations is acceptable.
Interesting happenings in the surfers’ world!
I’m a life long Hawaiian surfer. Respect and order in the line up is necessary and real. Surfing can be dangerous. I will SHARE waves with ANYONE. Take your turn. You miss, go to the back of the line. Don’t drop in. I surf to relax and have fun. I generally have the most issue with the super star surfers, not the outsiders. The super stars just keep hogging the waves. Just because you can catch it doesn’t mean you should. Yeah, you’re a great fantastic surfer, but this IS NOT a contest. Let the recreational surfers have fun. The last thing on my mind is power tripping anybody.
Just a bunch of punks who wouldnt dare act up if their boys werent with them. Locals here dont make trouble unless u disrespect
The perps have been doing this for years and are obviously known to the community and the cops. Time for a serious beatdown of these hooligans. There’s no excuse for “Black Trunks” appropriating a public beach and an ocean that belongs to “first come, first served”.
Let’s not stop with Lunada Bay but bring some serious enforcement here, because everybody knows the same thing happens here and has been happening for decades. In fact we saw a story about one such incident just last month.