ANDY IRONS KISSED BY GOD
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ISSUE 3/12 2018
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Founder, Editor in Chief, Creative Director
EDITOR’S N
CECE S. WOODS
OTES
Co-Founder STEVE WOODS
publisher
ADDISON ALTENDORF
Executive Editor
TIM HORTON JEN BEL EMILY SCHER NATHAN FAGAN
Executive Publisher NICK BETTS Managing Editor ADDISON ALTENDORF TRACEY ROSS
INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING ROB JOSEPH
Wellness Editor
“Kissed By God” is the story of world champion surfer Andy Irons who lost his battle with mental illness and drug addiction on November 2, 2010 leaving behind a pregnant wife, family members, and fans around the world mourning his loss. It was a very dark day for surfers everywhere.
DIANA NICHOLSON
Sadly, this story can be told many times over.
Sustainability Director
Malibu, CA. has 47 licensed rehab centers and a population of fewer than 13,000 people, making it the city with the highest per-capita concentration of rehab centers in California.
ANDREW MCDONALD
Travel Editor LESLIE WESTBROOK
Too many of our Malibu youth have been lost to drug overdoses.
Copy Editor
And while many are blessed and cursed with talent, the adrenaline of fame, money, excess, fragile egos and depression also weighs heavy, and as Ben Marcus writes so eloquently;
KIM LEDOUX
Rogue Writer BEN MARCUS
Sustainability Advisor BRAD DIAZ
Sustainable Lifestyle Editor EVELINA CHRISTOPHERSON
political contributors JAMES HALL ELISABETH JOHNSON
DAVID STANSFIELD MARSHALL THOMPSON SUSAN TELLEM MARI STANLEY MARIE MANVEL GUS JOHANSON ANNEMARIE STEIN
Contributing Photographers
LORI JACOBUS JULIE TOBIAS
Lifestyle Editor
Contributors
“The curse of greatness: Rising to it, achieving it, holding onto it, getting it back. That curse will drive men mad: Ted Turner, Bill Gates, Van Gogh. History is lined with men and women who were thought to be crazy, and whose behavior was crazy until the swirling voices of ambition in their head became satisfied. ”Ben continues “Why would a big, strong, healthy, accomplished surfer need to do drugs? Wasn’t success and money and fame and living your dreams enough? Apparently not.” “Andy Irons: Kissed by God” parallels the recent losses of Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain and the intense struggles that burn below the surface of seemingly happy successful people. Slay your demons before they slay you. - Steve Woods, Co-Founder, The Local
Malibu
All photos of andy irons by: Brian bielmann
CITY
MALIBU BEACH IN CROSSWALK CONTROVERSY:
PERCEPTION IS REALIty
By LESTER TOBIAS
On December 20th, 2017, The Local began what has turned out to be an ex-po-say, investigation, analysis….whatever, regarding the controversial signaled crosswalk that is sort of, semi, maybe…whatever, under construction at the Malibu Beach Inn. The controversy arose at the December 18th planning commission hearing, where the city planning staff, public works department and planning commission all seemed to be in agreement that the multi-variance-request project for the Malibu Beach Inn was nowhere near the degree of code conformance required to be approved at that time. The proposed project included a swimming pool built on part of the existing parking lot, the opening of the guests only restaurant to the general public, and - the project lynchpin - the approval of offsite valet parking across the street at the Hertz rental car lot. In direct opposition to the aforementioned perceptions, one of the owners of the Malibu Beach Inn, Simon Mani, approached the mic and very calmly took issue with the opposition voiced by the agencies and the commission. His position was that the project was clearly on track to approval, and the Malibu Beach Inn team had worked closely with the City, the Coastal Commission, and CalTrans to make sure that what they were proposing was clearly within the confines of the code. The two perceptions were so radically different, and the obvious impacts to traffic and public safety along that all ready bottlenecked section of the Pacific Coast Highway (from the light at the pier to the crosswalk at Colony Liquor) were so great that I took it upon myself to try to find the truth in all of the assertions and counter assertions that were made at that meeting. My concerns had nothing to do with the Malibu Beach Inn putting in a pool. Rather, I was focused on the issues of traffic and public safety. The way I saw it, any expansion of use of the Inn (through the opening of the restaurant to the general public), combined with the relocation of on-site to off-site, valet parking should be considered non-starters for that project, or any project proposing a similar parking scheme along that heavily commercialized corridor of the PCH. Add to that mix a signaled crosswalk sited in a highly specious location, and I felt that any reasonable analysis would conclude that the city agencies and the commission were correct, and the the Mani Brothers and their development team (which included local architect Doug Burdge) were dreaming when they stated the project’s status. After laying out the various assertions made at the hearing, and making a few phone calls to try to check the veracity of the statements, I ended the article thusly:
“…the big questions are why do some applicants believe they can attain the demonstrably unattainable, and who the fuck at the city, OUR CITY, approved a god damn flashing crosswalk so that the hotel owner of the biggest hotel in Malibu can increase the parking, increase the use of the restaurant, and turn a low key car rental business into an open air eyesore of jacked up cars?” In the past 5 months, after reviewing as many public records as I could find, and talking to as many agencies and staff that would talk to me, and fending off one threat of a lawsuit, I feel it is appropriate to answer as best I can those two questions, and a few others. The analysis is not complete, as there are still moving parts. Also, in trying to connect the dots, there are still connections that are not definitive. But I am convinced that off site valet parking only benefits the entity who is proposing the parking scheme while causing obvious negative impacts to public safety, and that someone in the City of Malibu who has authority over the various department heads had to have interceded in order for the signaled crosswalk to have received a CalTrans permit and commenced with construction. What follows is an update to the original article in The Local. WHY IS A SIGNALED CROSSWALK GOING IN AT THE MALIBU BEACH INN? When the new owners of the Malibu Beach Inn bought the Inn, they inherited an outstanding coastal violation mitigation measure (which had been originally imposed on the Miser/Cooper ownership of the then Tonga Lei Motel in 1988) of installing two beach access stairways. According to Heather Johnston, Code Enforcement Officer for the California Coastal Commission, by the time the new owners had agreed to install the stairs, the Coastal Commission staff had determined that additional mitigation was needed due to the 30 years that the public had been denied the access. In Johnston’s words, the negotiations were “technical and confidential”. Therefor there is no public record of who proposed the crosswalk, or who determined it’s location. Johnston did, however, shed some light on the project and process. She stated very clearly that: 1. The crosswalk “was not on Coastal’s horizon.” (direct quote). 2. It would be “very unusual (for Coastal) to cast around looking for the best option.” (in a mitigation negotiation). 3. The crosswalk was an either/or solution. If it didn’t get built, a monetary penalty would suffice. So to be clear, Coastal did not propose a crosswalk in a location beneficial only to the Malibu Beach Inn. Coastal did not demand that the crosswalk be built. Coastal did not force Caltrans to permit the crosswalk. Coastal had nothing to do with any traffic, parking or off site valet parking studies. And (don’t forget this point) Coastal never required the crosswalk from any of the previous owners of the Malibu Beach Inn. Going further into my conversation with Johnston, she told me that, “It is not uncommon for entities to use the violation to make it…um…not to their detriment.” What I took that to mean was that if someone wants something that the city won’t allow, they go get a coastal violation notice with mitigation that requires they do what the city rejected. Slick as snot, right? She was also adamant that Coastal only accepted the crosswalk as an option for mitigation. It was the sole responsibility of the Malibu Beach Inn to obtain all other necessary regulatory approvals for the crosswalk. Her clarifying comment on this matter was, “Whenever we do enforcement in local areas we consult with local government. (We say), “This is what they want to do. You can say no. If you say no, then they pay.” “You can say no.” “You can say no.” “You can say no.” Let that sink in. The city could have said no. But they didn’t. Instead, the record suggests that they saw it, knew about, and decided not to oppose it. Without public input. Without the review by the public safety commission. Without jack shit. WHY DO SOME APPLICANTS BELIEVE THEY CAN OBTAIN THE DEMONSTRABLY UNATTAINABLE, AND WHO THE FUCK AT THE CITY APPROVED A GOD DAMN FLASHING CROSSWALK? Perhaps Simon Mani stated it best at the December 18th, 2017 hearing when he said, “…the city was with us 100% of the time.” This actually makes sense. Why would someone pay the highest price per room in history (as reported by several news outlets) for a hotel, and buy a car lot across the street for off-site valet parking, without a certain degree of assurance that their vision of a public restaurant and instagram ready poolside experience would be approved? I mean, when I first read the staff report on what they were proposing, and what relief from the rules they needed to obtain their approvals, I found it laughable. But these guys are dead serious about getting what they want, and the thing at this point standing in their way is the city of Malibu, it’s various regulatory agencies, it’s planning commission, and it’s city council. The planning commission has all ready weighed in once on the subject, and it was a definitive “no”. The department of public works on Wednesday issued a memo rejecting the off site valet parking study, prepared by the Malibu Beach Inn and accepted by CalTrans (without comment) in their approval of the crosswalk. The planning department, while not weighing in on the crosswalk per se, had issued a recommendation of project denial at the December 18th hearing, and no new recommendation has arisen from their department. The city council has not officially weighed in on the matter. But through several public comments, and through city manager Reva Feldman’s actions, one can surmise that certain individuals are being helpful to the Malibu Beach Inn’s proposal. Laura Rosenthal has been vigorously deflecting public resistance to the crosswalk, making such demonstrably incorrect statements such as that the need for the crosswalk and it’s approval by Caltrans was not based on the off-site valet parking, and the notion that the crosswalk should not be approved until and unless the valet parking program is approved by the city was a ridiculous suggestion. She recently belittled resident Graham Clifford in a public forum, dismissing his concerns about the bottleneck the crosswalk would exacerbate by saying that she knew where he lived and would be surprised if he even drove by the location of the crosswalk at all. Classy, Laura. Really classy. Reva Feldman flat out lied at the April 9th, 2018 city council hearing when she said, “…(the crosswalk) was a requirement of the prior owner of the hotel and the Mani Brothers inherited it.” Feldman also took credit for leapfrogging and fast tracking the Caltrans construction schedule of the crosswalk over much more deserving and long suffering PCH safety improvements.
LOCAL
In an apparent attempt to help deflect the mounting public criticism of the project, The Malibu Times wrote a front page article entitled “Malibu Beach Inn Crosswalk Really is Part of California Coastal Commission Agreement”. When a newspaper uses the word “really” in their front page article, you gotta wonder… WHAT IS CALTRANS’ ROLE IN THIS DEBACLE? The recent public safety commission meeting that featured CalTrans office chief Abdi Saghafi was both informative and frustrating. Although Saghafi is the Office Chief, and very forthcoming, he was not the administrator involved with the crosswalk approval. That person is Joseph Kibe and he was not present. So, all that Saghafi could confirm was that “someone” assured Caltrans that the off site valet program was approved, and that the permitting for the signaled crosswalk could proceed. Now, obviously, if Joseph Kibe were there, the question of who at the city gave Caltrans the thumbs up could have been determined with certainty. Saghafi was adamant that the Caltrans approval of the permit was based on the (false) premise that the valet program was a done deal, and that the Malibu Beach Inn’s parking study that reached certain thresholds for a CalTrans crosswalk permit (by assuming the implementation of the off site valet program) was therefor valid, and the permit was issued. Back in December of 2017, once it was clear that Simon Mani was correct and the crosswalk was about to obtain a permit, I and others raised objections directly to Caltrans, and to the city council and the city manager and the city attorney to suspend the permit until the entire valet program was approved. The requests were met with silence from four council members (other than a few perfunctory, “we’ll look into it” comments) and the city attorney. As stated above, council member Rosenthal and city manager Feldman took an active role in both deflecting the complaints, slow walking the “investigation”, fast tracking the completion of the crosswalk, and, in the case of the city manager, refusing to discuss the matter with me. WHAT DOES THIS ALL MEAN? What this all means is that commercial projects that in the past never would have seen the light of day (in terms of getting to a hearing) are now becoming part of the planning department status quo. Commercial property owners and business owners are using the California Coastal Commission as the key to unlocking any commercial venture that can be remotely tied to the loosely defined “visitor serving” designation that gets the coastal staff in Ventura to support the venture. With the door unlocked, they are now seemingly able to find sympathetic ears in the higher echelons of city hall who seem to be willing to help shepherd projects through the process. The reasons for this apparent alliance are not public knowledge. The Malibu Beach Inn project will be a bell weather for other commercial projects in the city. In my opinion, their project still seems completely beyond approval, probably even if they were to obtain the off site valet parking program. I also believe that they won’t get the off site valet parking approval even if the signaled crosswalk goes in. Which would leave Malibu with a signaled crosswalk in a stupid location that no one but the owners of the Malibu Beach Inn ever contemplated or needed. The interval between this crosswalk and the signal at the Pier will be impossible to mechanically time correctly, as it will be a “hiccup” along the relatively equal spacing of signals along this stretch of the PCH. But the Malbu Beach Inn has been doing an admirable job of trying get something they really shouldn’t get while working through a system that has some holes in it. They came up with a blue print that offers some possibilities for other projects. Part of that process seems to be that they found a few instances where confidentiality led to various agencies not communicating effectively among each other. This was exacerbated and allowed to progress much further than it should due to active intervention on the part of some city officials, both elected and hired. The problem for the developers is that the process is set up so that at some point we all become aware of what is going on, sometimes to late, sometimes just in time. And that’s when the fun begins.
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COVER FEATURE
SOUL AND HEART:
BEN MARCUS by Brian Bielmann ANDY IRONS: KISSED BY GOD BYPhotos Andy Irons’ brain: A swirling, cacophonic kaleidoscope of influences - natural and unnatural, good, bad and ugly: Family pride and depression, sibling rivalry love, adrenaline and endorphins, the physical and mental stresses of competition discipline, opioids. Highs and lows, Pine Trees to giant Hanalei. From the quiet, protected sanctity of Kauai, to the dangerous rattle and hum of the world. The natural beauty of Hawaii, the ugliness of drug abuse. Ambition, Kauai pride, self-love, self-hatred, the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. And just the emotional swing of being an endorphin-addicted, surf-stoked surfer. All surfers know the feeling. Andy Irons cranked it to 11. The curse of greatness: Rising to it, achieving it, holding onto it, getting it back. That curse will drive men mad: Ted Turner, Bill Gates, Van Gogh. History is lined with men and women who were thought to be crazy, and whose behavior was crazy until the swirling voices of ambition in their head became satisfied. All of these elements orbited Andy Irons’ Gulliver like angels and devils and propelled one of the most dynamic surfers to emerge out of the late 20th Century and blaze into the 21st. Andy Irons was one of the few guys who could sit under the balcony of Kelly Slater, strum a ukulele and sing, “Goodbye Old School.” And make Slater angry enough to rise from the ashes and re-open that can of whupass. Andy Irons: Kissed by God, is all about the brain of Andy Irons, and all the forces that soothed and assaulted the noggin of a guy with surfing and competition in his family tree, who was nurtured by the isolated beauty and epic surf of the North Shore of Kauai - the liquid anvil that has hammered out some of the world’s most dynamic surfers, kane and wahine: Titus Kinimaka, Rochelle Ballard, Keala Kennelly, Laird Hamilton, the Alexander brothers, the Irons brothers.
“Believe it or not, we were manipulative in getting what we wanted, especially if it came to drugs...” Nurtured by Kauai, then unleashed on the North Shore, and then the world. This is about the mind of a guy who was willing to embrace the physical and mental discipline that competition requires - and had the will to dare to live up to his vision of greatness. In October 2010 Andy Irons died alone in a Texas hotel room while flying back to Kauai from a contest in Puerto Rico. Irons was 32 when he died, and in the middle of a comeback after winning three World Titles from 2002 - 2004. The sudden death of Andy Irons inspired a swirling waterspout of rumors and half-truths about what killed him: Dengue fever, or drugs? Andy Irons: Kissed by God began four years after Andy died, and was four years in the making. This is a first-rate, quality documentary that had a special premiere on May 31. The movie is a fast-moving montage of sounds and vision, which give some idea to all that went on in Andy’s head. The story is moved forward by friends and loved ones. Sitting quietly before beautiful backdrops and in garages, we hear from familiar faces like Kelly Slater, Lyndie Irons, Joel Parkinson, Nathan Fletcher, Sunny Garcia, Cory Lopez and Bruce Irons. But we also hear from people we don’t know - the friends and family of Andy Irons, who all have their angles on how Andy’s talent evolved, the struggles he faced, how he succeeded, how he failed and what ended Andy’s arc way too soon. The interviews are emotional, sincere and regretful but mostly honest: “They never want to accept the fact that me and my brother were big fucking monsters,” Bruce Irons says in the movie, as honest as he can be. “Believe it or not, we were manipulative in getting what we wanted, especially if it came to drugs. You know, you start getting into heavy fucking addiction with these pills. I know that was ruling my life, and I know it was ruling my brother’s life, too.”
Perhaps the only person as close or closer to Andy Irons was his wife, Lyndie, a lovely young woman who was pregnant when Andy Irons died, and gave birth to their son two weeks later: “He was very confused,” Lyndie says in the movie. “Didn’t know what to do. He sat in our condo for two months straight and didn’t say a word. I’d scream and yell and just be like, ‘Just tell me you’re okay.’ I’d do anything to try to get anything out of him. And it was nothing. Until he left one time, and that’s when I got scared. I remember finding him on a mattress with no sheet or blanket, barely alive. He always told me, ‘Don’t you dare tell anyone,’ so it’s like I had to go to freaking Foodland and act like everything was fine, and I had a dying, heroin husband at home. I look back now, and I wish, I think I was just trying to protect him, and in a way I wasn’t protecting him, but that’s what he wanted.” Andy Irons: Kissed by God hides nothing in exploring the depths of drug addiction that afflicted Andy Irons, and his friends, fellow pro surfers and Kauai buddies - the same drug addictions that have become a plague in Hawaii, the United States and around the world.
COVER FEATURE
People are dying from opioid addiction with great regularity, and in the past several years, a lot of well-known surfers have died in their 40s and 50s: Jay Adams, Barney Barron, Vince Collier, Buttons Kaluhiokalani, Brock Little. Some of these deaths might have had drugs as a catalyst, but that’s a lot of guys dying young. Andy and Bruce and friends were young, healthy, wealthy and immortal, so it was party, party, party. The question is left hanging in the air: “Why would a big, strong, healthy, accomplished surfer need to do drugs? Wasn’t success and money and fame and living your dreams enough?” Apparently not. The interviewees also include psychiatrists Dr. Andrew Nierenberg, Director, Dauten Family Center for Bipolar Treatment Innovation at Massachusetts General Hospital, Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School and Mark Vonnegut, a Harvard Medical School MD, son of Kurt Vonnegut Jr. and someone who has suffered from schizophrenia. Both of these doctors speak from clinical and personal experience about bipolar disease: Where it came from in Andy Irons, and where it lead him. Andy Irons was blessed with tremendous highs - the waves he got to ride, traveling as a pro surfer, partying, fame and adulation, women and meeting the love of his life, Lyndie. But Andy’s emotions swung high and low, like the surf along the North Shore of Kauai. There were times when his life went flat, and his behavior crossed the line into suicidal not an uncommon state for anyone suffering from bipolar disease. According to Bruce and other friends of Andy, on a boat trip to Indonesia in 1999, Andy was celebrating his 21st birthday when he did the same thing Mrs. Mia Wallace in Pulp Fiction: Took a huge snort of morphine and nearly died. Irons flatlined in an Indonesian intensive care unit for eight minutes before coming back to life. Three years later, “My brother went on to win the world title,” Bruce Irons says into the camera. “from being fucking dead.” Some believe that surfing itself should be classified as a chemical addiction, or a form of mental illness. Only surfers know the high/low emotions that come from surfing: The obsession with perfection, of not missing a good day, the incredible chemical high from surfing hard, getting barreled, taking chances, and risking life in the deep and dark blue ocean. Surfing causes extremes of behavior, because surfers moods swing like the ocean. But Andy Irons’ swung a little harder than most. Factor in ambition, competition, sibling rivalry, family pressure, media exposure, travel, fame, and it’s not hard to understand the demons that plagued Andy Irons, and the angels who tried to console him.
“Why would a big, strong, healthy, acomplished surfer need to do drugs? Wasn’t success and money and fame and living your dreams enough?” Andy Irons held as many conflicts in his heart as he did in his soul, and in the end, his heart couldn’t take it. The official cause of death for Andy Irons at 32-years-old was coronary atherosclerosis (a heart attack) with “acute mixed drug ingestion:” as toxicology tests found Xanax and Methadone in Andy’s system, along with Benzoylecgonine - a residue of cocaine use. Andy Irons: Kissed by God is a sometimes bright, sunny and funny, but mostly somber detailing of the life and death of Andy Irons. It should serve as a cautionary tale to a world that is beset on all side by the tyrannies of drug abuse and mental illness. These things are a plague sweeping across Hawaii, the United States and the world, and Andy Irons joined Prince, Michael Jackson, George Michael, Amy Winehouse and other public figures whose stout hearts could not handle the brain swirl of talent, greatness, love, hate, ecstasy, depression. The highs and lows of a close relationship with the ocean. The curse of greatness.
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LOCAL
UP A CREEK WITHOUT A SHOVEL
Solstice Canyon Beach Club Gets A Dim Green Light BY STEVE WOODS Solstice Beach Club Restaurant goes before the Planning Commission and gets its CUP of restaurant operating hours passed but future permits may get eclipsed by possible flagrant Fish and Wildlife violations The sun had just risen and some strange turn of events were unfolding in several places along Malibu’s 27 (not 21) Miles of Scenic Beauty. It was a quiet peaceful morning until we received a message from a Latigo canyon resident alerting us to a massive SWAT-team like military raid taking place at the house where Jefferson Wagner takes care of his partner and recovering cancer patient Candace Brown. Shocked and scared, Editor and Chief, Cece Woods and I instantly grabbed our cameras and dashed out the door before arriving at the Latigo house that was indeed surrounded by heavily-armed DA agents. We asked if Jefferson and Candace were okay. An irritated agent said yes but the head officer would not tell us what was going on other than for us to move along. We didn’t move. Little did we know that just out of sight on the patio, a partially naked Jefferson and cancer patient Candace Brown dressed in a flimsy robe were made to sit on the cold concrete shivering for hours as DA agents ransacked the house. Both were rattled out of bed in the wee hours of the morning by banging on the door and both were instantly detained without being allowed to dress , use the restroom , or allowed to call a lawyer but this is not the story that led me to this next one. This Jefferson raid and the first off-the-books raid in April by the DA is under a heavy cloud of suspicious political intimidation and will continue to be covered by The Local Malibu - guided by a private investigator with ties to the FBI whose speciality is uncovering political corruption. Stay Tuned for ongoing developments on the Jefferson raids, but this is where the next Malibu controversy arises. With No Cell service up Latigo Canyon, Cece and I drove down to PCH to post to the Internet eyewitness accounts, to make calls and send videos and pictures of the raid to the news outlets of the events taking place at the Mayor Pro Tem’s house and Business. We pulled over at the bottom of Corral Canyon above Solstice Creek Beach to make calls when I glanced over to the beach and lo and behold two laborers were on the beach with shovels digging a trench from the ocean to the mini lagoon at the base of the PCH underpass of Solstice Creek. I jumped out of the car with my camera, ran down to the beach and recorded the two men in violation of Federal law. For over a year the new owners of the Solstice Beach Club - formerly known as the Beau Rivage Restaurant - who are affiliated with Calamigos Ranch have used workers to breach the sand beach berm separating the ocean to the mini lagoon that fills up and floods the beach and underpass. Why do they do this? For several reasons. One is to lower the water level in the tunnel so that their guests can walk thru a dry tunnel to their ‘private’ guest beach. The other reason is to direct the course of the creek to the east so that the beach to the west can accommodate more private guest.
Why do they do this? For several reasons. One is to lower the water level in the tunnel so that their guests can walk thru a dry tunnel to their ‘private’ guest beach. The other reason is to direct the course of the creek to the east so that the beach to the west can accommodate more private guest.
Formerly known as the Beau Rivage Restaurant that partially burned down due to a suspected arson fire.
This Public Beach has been advertised and billed online as a private beach for guest staying at ‘The Ranch At Solstice Canyon’.
Two reasons. Two violations. First, the beach billed as their private beach (as stated on some online advertisement sites) is not a private beach but a public beach and the public such as myself have been told to leave to the other side of the partition or creek outlet which separates guests from the the public beach users. That was violation one! The fact that they have used workers to manipulate or alter the course of waterway is Crime Number Two! So as I was taking pictures of them digging the trench, I informed them that they were in violation of Fish and Wildlife Codes 1600-1603, which state, in part: (a) An entity shall not substantially divert or obstruct the natural flow of, or substantially change or use any material from the bed, channel, or bank of, any river, stream, or lake, or deposit or dispose of debris, waste, or other material containing crumbled, flaked, or ground pavement where it may pass into any river, stream, or lake, unless all of the following occur: They looked puzzled and claimed not to understand English but they stopped anyway and got on their cell phone to call whoever had ordered them to dig the trench. Several minutes later they took their shovels and went off thru the tunnel and up to the Solstice Beach Club. I called the Fish and Wildlife Tip Line and was connected to the regional Captain John Laughlin who was not happy. He filed a report that he will follow up on. This case is filed as # KK 2018-1880. Confidential tips can be made at 1-888-334-CalTip (1-888-344-2258). Craig Sap of State Parks has passed this info and pictures on the The Coastal Commission for further action. How did I know this act was a crime? Well I have been guilty of the same offense but was never caught doing the same thing at the Malibu Lagoon. As a lifelong surfer at Surfrider Beach and part of the covert Midnight Shovel Brigade, we would breach the Malibu Lagoon when the lagoon water table was extremely high, which submerged some the septic systems in the Malibu Colony.
...the beach billed as their private beach is not a private beach, but a public beach, and the public, such as myselF, have been told to leave to the other side of the partition OR CREEK which separates guests from the public beach user..
LOCAL
Because some residents could not flush their toilets they demanded the County come out with their bulldozers and dig a trench to lower the water level in the lagoon. This was a problem to surfers because the County was directed to breach the lagoon near First Point which we considered detrimental to our health and the quality of our waves. So when our County Lifeguard friends tipped us off that the County was coming out the next morning we went into action at midnight and dug a trench where we wanted: At Third Point where we thought it would improve the quality of the wave. Truth is, it never improved the surf but these events prompted Glen Hening to give birth to the Surfrider Foundation. .
As a lifelong surfer AT SURFRIDER BEACH and part of the covert midnight shovel brigade, we would breach the malibu lagoon when the lagoon water table was extremely high which submerged the septic systems in the Malibu colony Fast forward years later. A large south swell is washing over the berm into the lagoon, the Lagoon is very very full and about to breech naturally down near the Adamson House. Long time local surfer Andy Lyon recognizes the situation and the possibility that if the lagoon breeches where it was going to that the lifeguard station might get swept away. So about 100 feet west he dug a small trench - with his foot - which effectively changed the outlet of the breech and saved the lifeguard station. Unfortunately for Andy, a Fish and Wildlife officer witnessed him manipulating and altering the course of a waterway and was cited with a hefty fine: $1500. Now here is some irony. The same day Jefferson’s two homes and business were raided was also the same day I caught the laborers digging an illegal trench - and the same day I found out that the Solstice Beach Ranch Restaurant was going before the Malibu City Planning Commission the following Monday to plead their case for getting their CUP (Conditional Use Permit) approved. Lots of suspicious, shady shenanigans and code violations have swirled around this property for decades and Monday night’s Planning Meeting was no different. Former Coastal Commissioner Sara Wan showed up to lobby for the owners of the restaurant who were desperately pleading to open their strange, reservations-only operating hours and were not too happy when I spoke about the violations I witnessed. Of course they denied that the workers who left their shovels on their property were hired by the Beach Club and Sara Wan denied that their guests have taken over a section of public beach for private use - even though I told them how I have been ordered to leave that beach by workers setting up chairs and umbrellas on a beach that I have been using for decades. Not knowing if that beach was truly private or public I made further inquiries and found out that the workers were wrong: It is a public beach, yet it has been billed and advertised online that the Solstice Beach Club has a “private beach.” By the way, the Planning Commission approved the “By Reservation Only” operating hours of their CUP. The Solstice Canyon Beach Club got their foot in the door of their grand master plan of expansion but they may have put their foot in their creek mouth regarding their future permit plans! Advertised on Expedia Calamigos Guest Ranch and Beach Club This Malibu hotel has its very own private beach and is attached to a winery. Free Beach Shuttle Beach umbrellas Beach loungers
For over a year, workers have been seen illegally digging trenches to drain the mini Lagoon into the ocean in violation of Fish and Wildlife codes.
After informing the workers of their illegal trenching they stopped digging, got on the phone to their boss and retreated back though the tunnel with their shovels to the Solstice Beach Club property.
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25001 Pacific Coast Highway I Malibu, CA. 90265 I 310.317.9922