The Palisades fire spewed toxins into the Pacific. Summer surf camps are paying the price

The wave is all anger and elegance. Shaped like a cursive C, it hurtles toward the Santa Monica shore.

A child on a surfboard balances on its crest. Or at least he tries to.

The boy wipes out. Hard.

But then he pops up in the whitewash, all smiles. His Aqua Surf School instructor is grinning too.

An Aqua Surf School camper gets a high five from instructor Bren Cohee, left, as she rides a wave in Santa Monica.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

On this happy day, the Palisades fire, which in January burned all the way to the shores of the Pacific about five miles north of this Santa Monica beach, feels like a distant memory for student and teacher.

But back on the sand, surf camps — long mainstays of Santa Monica Bay’s shorelines — are suffering this summer. Several have seen a significant drop in attendance because families are concerned the surf or sand is contaminated with fire pollutants.

At Aqua Surf‘s camps alone, business is down by 20% to 30%, said Dylan Sohngen, executive director.

“I talk to parents about this issue every day, and it’s really sad,” said Sohngen, who has trimmed Aqua Surf’s staff due to the drop in campers. “There are a lot of families who are just going to pass on it this year — it’s considered a luxury item for them. You know, ‘Let’s do other activities this summer.’ We have an entire ocean, an incredible resource … and it’s sad that people are getting that taken away from them.”

Dylan Sohngen, executive director of Aqua Surf School, said business is down this summer.

Four other youth surf camp or surf school operators said business is notably lower this summer as many families express angst over possible health dangers — even though public health authorities say it is safe to go in the water at the beaches where they operate. That disconnect has left instructors frustrated, predicting economic hardship — and a hit to a classic summertime tradition — if the slide continues.

“Everyone’s gonna go bankrupt,” said Anthony Petri, owner of Always Summer Surf School in Malibu. “These are people’s livelihoods; this is how you feed yourself, feed your family.”

For decades, surf camps have offered parents an easy way to introduce kids to a quintessential Southern California pastime. Most begin in June, and last well into August; children ages 5 through 17 are typically welcome. Prices vary, with some camps costing about $150 for a day pass and upward of $600 for a week. A few of the larger operators said that more than 1,000 kids attend their camps over the course of the summer.

At a time when many kids’ summers have become highly programmed — filled with sleep-away camps, academic enrichment and organized sports — surf camp has been seen by many parents as a refreshing throwback. And one that they didn’t have to wring their hands over. Until now.

Take West L.A. parent Ivy Cavic. For her, it’s too soon to send 9-year-old son Wolf back to surf camp. He long attended Fitness by the Sea in Santa Monica. Not this year.

“They have the answers for today, but they have no ability to forecast how this will affect us a year down the line, two years, 10 years,” she said of authorities’ testing efforts. “There’s just so much out there — between air quality and all of these crazy things — that we’ve had to worry about for our children. The only thing I can control is protecting my kid.”

Malibu-area surf instructor Anthony Petri waxes a board before giving a surf lesson.

Surf camp operators said that they understood parents’ reticence. And some pointed out different reasons for a decline in business, including the deleterious effect that recent immigration enforcement raids — and the protests they spurred — have had on tourism. Still, so far, no camps or surf schools have shut down, according to several operators.

The Palisades fire did force the relocation of a handful of camp companies that operated at Will Rogers State Beach, where a parking lot was tapped to temporarily process fire debris. Though the beach, located in Pacific Palisades, is open, lots there remained closed for months.

Mar Vista parent Angelica Mistro, whose children have long attended Freedom Surf Camps, said that earlier this year she briefly harbored “those doubts” about the safety of the ocean after the fire. But after discussing the issue with Freedom’s owner, she decided to send her 8- and 15-year-old daughters back to the company’s camp in Venice this summer.

The camp, Mistro said, has taught them an essential skill: “Just like street smarts, we want them to have ocean smarts.”

Parsing the science

After the Palisades fire blanketed the shoreline in debris — and led to widespread beach closures — surf camp and school operators grasped for information about the potential detrimental effects of the heavy metals and other substances spewed into the ocean.

As testing data became available, it was shared among surf instructors, who pride themselves on being part of a tight-knit community — even if there are some business rivalries. There are at least a dozen surf camp and school operators from Malibu to the South Bay on beaches overseen by the county’s Department of Beaches and Harbors, according to data provide by the department.

Tiny bits of pulverized fire debris are washed up at Will Rogers State Beach in Pacific Palisades on Feb. 21.

Here’s what they found out: In February, the Department of Beaches and Harbors said gunk washing up on shores — a mixture that included flecks of burned wood and plastics — wasn’t “hazardous to beachgoers or the environment,” according to initial testing.

Beach closures were lifted in February, and in April, the L.A. County Department of Public Heath ended an ocean water quality advisory for fire-impacted beaches. It said in a statement to The Times that water and sand testing, which looked for various contaminants, “revealed no chemicals related to wildfires at levels that are dangerous to human health.”

Although the county’s findings have been supported by other scientific work done by private groups, some parents have said that a lack of clear-cut information has left them feeling exasperated. Both researchers and county officials have acknowledged that there aren’t clear guidelines on how to measure the impact of an ecological crisis the size of the Palisades fire on ocean water quality.

For Cavic, her concern is not with the water — she believes it is safe. It’s the sand. Despite the testing that’s been done, she still wonders what toxins it might contain.

Cavic said that while she was deciding what to do, Fitness by the Sea, a camp that offers surfing, was “very thorough and protective,” and had done testing on its own. But she still wasn’t comfortable sending her son there.

She worries about the camps: “My heart goes out to those who aren’t able to profit and make a living on something that they’ve done for so many years.”

Fitness by the Sea did not respond to an interview request.

Gilad Lewandowsky, owner of Freedom Surf Camps, said he heard from parents in the spring expressing “a lot of concern.” Some past customers “just decided they wanted to pass.”

Over the next months, however, Lewandowsky investigated the issue and came away certain it was safe to operate his camps. Still, “people are afraid,” he said. “And when people don’t know, they don’t go.”

Tom Corliss, operator of the Malibu Makos Surf Club at Zuma Beach since 1994, said the surf camp and school has seen business drop off by 20% to 30% this summer. “I’ve refunded some people who didn’t want to put their kids in the water,” he said.

He frets for his industry: “Some camps were working on real thin [margins] as it is. A couple of guys I talked to are even worried about staying in business this year.”

Life’s a beach — until it isn’t

Aqua Surf instructor Gibson López de Huehls faced the Santa Monica shore — where the insistent surf pounded against sand strewn with tangles of kelp and seagrass — and explained what he liked about teaching children. Behind him, about 45 campers dug into their lunches.

“It is a really good feeling when you help the kid get their first wave,” said López de Huehls, 19.

López de Huehls, who grew up in Westwood, learned to surf when he was about 12. He has no qualms about getting in the water. “I trust all the scientists. … If they say it’s good, it’s good,” he said.

With a push Aqua Surf School instructor Aidan Sohngen, surfer Dylan Afshar rides a wave in Santa Monica.

Several instructors said that they have reassured parents that they wouldn’t be in the water with children if they thought it was unsafe. That’s the case for Chris “Stingray” Stiegler, who founded Malibu Surf Coach a decade ago, and typically gives lessons at Broad Beach in Malibu.

He said that business is down by more than 50%. Prospective clients are “understandably confused” amid a litany of reports about the issue. But he’s in the ocean “almost every day.”

“It’s honestly just as clean as I’ve experienced it at any other time,” he said.

Venice parent Scott Hechinger said he read reports about the water testing, and felt comfortable sending his 9-year-old son back to Aqua Surf, which has three locations along the coast. “The fun and enjoyment that it provided for him outweighed what we saw as a relatively low risk,” Hechinger said.

Malibu-area surf instructors Anthony Petri, left, and Chris "Stingray" Stiegler say business is down this summer.

When Cavic told her son he couldn’t go to the surf camp this summer, “it did not go over well.” Time at the beach, she said, brings him “genuine happiness.”

Instead, her family is embarking on an extended trip to the Pocono Mountains, a long way from the beaches of Santa Monica.

“Hopefully,” Cavic said, “we can go back next summer.”

Times staff writer Corinne Purtill contributed to this report.

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