Stand on the bluffs overlooking San Onofre State Beach and you’ll get a glimpse of the past — simply surf and sand, what life was like before mega developments, houses and hotels began cluttering the Southern California coast.
“If you look at pictures for the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s, it looks the same,” said retired State Parks lifeguard Mike Brousard on a recent day, looking out to Lower Trestles surf break to the north, where surfers navigate thick brush and trails to access the world-class waves. “It looks really similar to what it used to. I’m really proud of that.”
For nearly five decades, California State Parks has been the steward of this land, a stretch that spans 6.5 miles just south of San Clemente, with some inland patches where campers seek solace and remote areas where mountain bikers traverse the hilly terrain.
The state was entrusted as caretakers in 1971 by President Richard Nixon, who sought to give the public a place to escape urban sprawl, a way to make use of surplus federal land that wasn’t being used by on Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton.
The state was given the deal of a lifetime: a 50-year lease for $1.
But the sun is quickly setting on that land lease. Saturday, Aug. 31, marks the start of the two-year countdown to the deal’s expiration. And it’s anyone’s guess what the future holds for this slice of paradise.
Land lease
San Onofre has a storied history. Indigenous tribes once called the area home and by the ’30s its perfect, tucked-away surf was luring early wave riders who would haul in big, wooden boards to take the Waikiki-like waves.
The area became so popular among surfers that the fish camp changed its name to become the mainland’s first “surf camp.”
Don Craig’s father, Doug Craig, was one of the early surfers in the area. His parents were at San O, as it’s called today, when Pearl Harbor was bombed in 1941, his mother calling all the surfers out of the water when she heard word of the attack.
It was during World War II that private land owners sold San Onofre to the U.S. Marine Corps. For $4.7 million, the Marines received about 160 square miles, plus 16 miles of coast from San Clemente’s southern border to Oceanside, to be used for amphibious landing training, said Steve Long, founder of the San Onofre Foundation and for decades the State Parks lifeguard chief for the area before retiring in 2008.
In 1952, after the military took over, Doug Craig and others formed the San Onofre Surf Club, a select group that were allowed on military property provided they had a sticker on their windshield to access the Surf Beach.
Some surfers ventured north to off-limits waves, such as Lower Trestles, and returned with stories of military personnel running them out of the area, taking their boards or handing out citations.
When Nixon set up his “Western White House” on San Clemente’s southern border in 1969, the idea was raised to open a portion of the Camp Pendleton land to the public.
An exhibit at the San Clemente State Park Historic Cottage details the correspondence and negotiations, showcasing a San Onofre Surf Club sticker that designated Nixon as the first honorary member, in 1970, and photos of Nixon with surfers of the era.
San Onofre would be the first in Nixon’s “Legacy of Parks” program, which aimed at providing the public with access to more open space and parks.
Long said Nixon actually wanted to build his presidential library next to his Western White House, but a federal law kept him from doing so on a military base. Leasing the land to the state created a loophole, Long said, though the plan for the library eventually went wayward after Nixon was no longer president.
But the lease for the surf beach, the bluff and beach just south, and the inland valley, was already a done deal, and local surfers had a big role in shaping what would become — at least temporarily — public land.
Don Craig has binders filled with letters between San Onofre Surf Club members — including his father, who was president of the club at the time — and military and government officials.
“I saved all my dad’s communications with the state and military, maps and things like that of what they had and what they wanted to do,” he said.
The surfer group lobbied to add Trestles, which had a world-class wave that today draws some of the globe’s best surfers, to the State Parks jurisdiction. That goal was achieved by the mid-’70s, though the military opted to keep a swath between Trestles and San Onofre Surf Beach, dubbed “Church,” for military camping and training exercises.
The original lease included the entire inland valley, but lease boundaries have been changed about a dozen times, Long said.
“Every time, the lease got smaller,” he said.
San Onofre Surf Club members were torn about the deal: They enjoyed the quasi-private beach, but they didn’t want to lose access of the area to the military.
“They had access to it as a private beach and it was fantastic,” said Don Craig, who today, at 70, still rides waves at the same spot, which these days is so in-demand surfers will wait for an hour or more in a car line just to get a parking spot on the small stretch of Surf Beach.
“It’s still that family-based beach and still has that same kind of feel to it,” he said. “It’s just been a great place, I still love going down there,”
Today, longboarders from around the world gather to hang 10 at Surf Beach, where the easy, rolling waves also draws novice surfers. Up the beach at Lower Trestles, considered a more high-performance wave, local rippers and travelers from around the world can be found battling with 100 others for a piece of the peak.
Others find thinner crowds at breaks such as “Uppers” and “Middles,” with some walking past military land for the right-hand break at “Church.”
“It’s like the holy grail of surfing in the United States,” said Brousard, who was a State Parks lifeguard there in the ’70s when the land deal was completed. “I don’t see how they can revert it back to private military property. The public would be up in arms… . The state has done a really good job as a steward of the area.”
The 2,000-acre site isn’t just for surfers. Mountain bikers trek the back-country trails, and campers pitch tents along the bluffs at San Onofre trails or inland at San Mateo State Park campground.
It’s one of the most popular areas in the State Parks system, with an estimated 2 million visits per year.
“It’s one of the finest examples of a wilderness coastline,” Long said. “Public parks is something everyone should get behind. It’s what the community, we as the people, give to ourselves – a place of respite and recreation that has a story to be told, a sense of place.
“This is the crucible of the modern surf culture.”
What’s next?
The California Department of Parks and Recreation, which has operated San Onofre State Beach, in 2016 sent a letter to the Department of Navy formally expressing its desire that the lease be extended, according to State Parks spokeswoman Gloria Sandoval.
The state has met with Camp Pendleton base commanders and their staff regularly, but “an agreement of this magnitude will take time to negotiate and finalize,” Sandoval wrote in an e-mail.
However negotiations evolve, one thing is pretty clear – the state likely won’t be getting the 50-year-lease-for-$1 deal it scored in 1971.
If the lease is renewed, the fee will factor in any boundary changes that may occur, according to Maj. Simba Chigwida, spokesman for Marine Corps Installations Command.
“Potential boundary changes and public access may be considered, however no decisions have been made to date with regards to changes in access or boundary,” Chigwida said in an email.
The requested renewal of the lease will also be based on “current and future Marine Corps training requirements,” according to Capt Luke Weaver, spokesperson at Camp Pendleton.
The lease negotiations are on the radar of U.S. Congressman Mike Levin (D-Dana Point), who called the area “one of our greatest treasures.”
“I am eager to see the State Parks land lease renewed so surfers and other residents can continue to enjoy it,” he wrote in a statement. “I will continue to work with federal, state, and local officials to ensure that the San Onofre State Beach is preserved for future generations.”
Long, who has been part of a San Onofre Foundation renewal task force since 2015, said he hopes for a cooperative win-win resolution.
“It’s fully moving, and I’m really enthusiastic about how it’s come to pass. We have two years, and we’re going to have a big party that the lease is renewed,” Long said.
“We’re very pleased with the responses we’re hearing from the state and federal government. It’s on a positive track.”
The public, in the meantime, can send letters expressing their hopes for the area to the Department of Parks and Recreation at SOSBLease@parks.ca.gov, and a web page has been set up to inform the public of updates.
