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# Surfing lawyers want to address issues facing sport
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/surfing-lawyers-want-to-address-issues-facing-sport/
- Published: 2002-07-15T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T00:30:34.000Z
- Author: John Wood
- Tags: Sports, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*Lawyers want to mediate disputes, protect ocean*

When the swell is good, you’ll see them gather like sharks in the water instead of the courtroom.

Sitting in the line-up with other wave-starved L.A. surfers, a group of lawyers have tip-toed away from mediation tables, courthouses and office buildings with a convenient explanation: Their presence was required at a “board meeting.”

Nine lawyers recently paddled out at Topanga State Beach for the evening “glass-off” — a term that refers to dusk, when onshore winds typically recede and leave the ocean surface clean.

At that ceremonial session, the Surfing Lawyers Association was formed.

The organization hopes to address environmental and social issues facing surfers while networking, educating and catching a few waves, said founder David Olan of West Los Angeles.

Interest in the association has reached as far north as Redding and as far south as the Mexican border, according to Olan, who said its members hope to “deal with legal social-surf related issues such as surf rage — specifically the incident at Lunada Bay in Palos Verdes — and environmental issues. We plan to get continuing education accreditation by the state bar so we can take exotic surf vacations and they will be legitimate legal seminars.”

Can anyone say tax-exempt? The surf rage issue in Palos Verdes involves affluent locals who use scare tactics and violence — such as throwing rocks, vandalizing parked cars and dominating incoming waves — to intimidate outsiders from surfing the world-class break.

Santa Monica attorney and longtime surfer John Gerard said association members are considering becoming mediators to resolve the dispute.

“I don’t think it would be our place as an organization to take sides,” he said.

Immediately following the initial Topanga surf session, the surfing lawyers were met by about 20 more at a Santa Monica Canyon Mexican restaurant, where the group swapped surfing stories and talked about the future of their organization.

“It was one of the funnest functions I’ve ever attended,” Gerard said. “There was a lot of energy and a lot of bright people sharing not only legal stories. But, more interestingly, insights into surf spots, coastal knowledge and stories of surf trips.”

The meeting, which Gerard said was primarily to set up subcommittees within the organization and establish the surfing-lawyer bond, will be followed by another, tentatively scheduled for Aug. 20 at Third Point, a surf break in Malibu.

“I think it is a great idea for attorneys to get together and pursue passions other than the law,” said Hal Light, president of the Santa Monica Bar Association. “It would be nice to see attorney groups like this for other sports and pastimes.”

Olan said the association is about networking, having fun and dispelling “the myth that lawyers are boring, silk stocking suits.”

“There are many kindred spirits that share the belief that surfing is a peaceful and fantastic stress reducer which takes many landlocked professionals from the frying pan to the cold water,” he said.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 15, 2002.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/071502.pdf?ref=smdp.com)