CITY HALL — With summertime nearing full tilt, elected leaders this week passed two new laws aimed at making visits to Santa Monica beaches more safe and sane.
Already it’s illegal to smoke, drink or light bonfires on the beach. Bringing glass to the beach also is a crime, as is wheeling out a barbecue or taking along the family pet. Some 52 million people flock to area beaches each year, most of them during summer.
One of the new laws makes it legal to jump off the Santa Monica Pier — but only in conjunction with an authorized event, like Red Bull’s “Flugtag” event last September, when more than a dozen teams designed elaborate contraptions and rode off the end of the pier.
Dozens of people jump off the pier illegally every year, said Santa Monica Police Department Harbor Patrol Officer Wayne Salkoski. It’s especially dangerous because often people don’t realize how far of a swim it is from the end of the pier to shore, and some of the jumpers will grab at the sharp pier pilings on their way back and injure themselves.
That’s why the standard response by harbor patrol is to jump in after people and either bring them up a ladder or swim them back to shore. Police also are called to cite the jumper and to be around in case the jumper is drunk or uncooperative.
“Right now it’s not legal for anybody to dive off the pier or swim near it, if you take literally what the code says.”
“Our eyes are open,” said Salkoski, whose harbor patrol office is at the end of the pier. “We’re there, and we can see the water, and just about the whole pier...
“It happens more in the summer, because the water’s warmer and people are going in the water more, especially teenagers and young adults — they dare each other to jump off the pier,” added Salkoski. “If they do jump off the pier, they will get cited.”
Flugtag went off without a hitch last year, but officials said the new law was needed anyway. The law, which was passed unanimously, also allows city maintenance workers and emergency workers to jump off the pier, in the course of their work.
“What this proposed ordinance would basically do is conform our law to practice, which, I think, is always a good idea,” City Attorney Marsha Moutrie said.
“Probably, if you have anything, it’s guys over there having a beer, they bring the cooler of beer,” Salkoski said. “The worst thing, though, is glass. You get the glass bottles on the beach, and the tractors come by and they’re sifting the sand... and it’ll break the glass, and the glass gets hidden down below the sand, and people cut their feet.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 11, 2004. Read the original PDF.