Surf’s Up But Stairs Bar the Way : Access to Popular Beach Is Blocked by Unsafe Stairway

For 35 years now, it’s been a surfer’s stairway to heaven, a 70-foot descent down a rugged Encinitas cliff to some of the most awesome white-water breaks in the entire world.

A generation of both longboarders and shortboarders have descended the steps at Swami’s Beach to what is perhaps the county’s most famous surfing spot, a place featured in many surfing movies and mentioned in the Beach Boys’ ode to the sport--Surfin’ USA.

Surfers aren’t the only ones who use the old Swami’s stairway. School groups romp down its wooden steps to tour the tide pools on the scenic beach below.

People jog up and down the stairs, walk their dogs or just listen to the rocky beat of the beach stones as they tumble back into the water, a clattering chorus to the receding waves.

But the music--and the action--has become threatened at Swami’s Beach. Recently, the city closed the aging stairway after a contractor hired to repair the structure told them it was a public danger.

Salt water in the ocean mist has corroded the stairway’s iron supports, possibly causing the structure to shift, city officials say. Even to the naked eye, corrosion is apparent on the rusting handrails and framework.

Pathway Dangerous

Meanwhile, surfers and other visitors are using a dangerous, winding pathway down the jagged cliffs to reach the water, rather than use beach access a mile or so to the north or south as advised by the city.

Other people are just climbing over the barricade, ignoring the warning signs and lifeguards. Recently, several people just shrugged when asked about using the stairway, saying it would never collapse while they were on it.

Encinitas city officials say they have done all they can to protect the public.

“We’ve done our job when we told people it was a dangerous situation,” said David Wigginton, community services director. “The city has done everything except hire a 24-hour guard, and that’s not feasible.”

Wigginton said he would present results of safety studies to the City Council next week. If the structure is found to be unsound, it probably will be closed off until a new $460,000 stairway is completed next year about 50 feet north of the old steps.

That prospect has angered surfers, who say that the city’s inability to come up with a workable design for the new stairway may leave them without a way to the beach during the winter, when the waves are the wildest.

‘Bad Thing Out Here’

“It’s a bad thing out here,” said Johnny Lynch, a 39-year-old surfer. “Everybody uses the cliffs now, which are even more dangerous when you’re lugging a surfboard.

“I’ve fallen on the path before. It’s scary. The funny thing is the city could get this new stairway built in no time if they’d just stop messing around with the design and get to work.”

Construction on the new stairway was delayed earlier this year when members of the Swami’s Surfing Assn. appeared before the city council to oppose the city’s chosen design.

The group, whose 80 members can often be seen riding the surf just past the Swami steps, claimed that the new stairway’s spiral design was not conducive to surfboards. And the chosen location, they added, would cause the new stairs to be unduly pounded by the surf.

“A lot of people felt that we held up the design with our objections,” said Mark Brolaski, president of the surfers’ group. “Sure, we threw a wrench into the machinery. But just because a design is passed by the city, that doesn’t mean it’s a good one.”

City officials say they have reached a compromise on the design of the stairs and will begin construction upon approval of their plans from the Coastal Commission.

Meanwhile, surfers and others say they’ll take their chances on the old steps or the winding path--and keep their fingers crossed that nobody gets hurt or killed.

“It’s dangerous, there’s no doubt about that,” surfer Lynch said. “But maybe some good will come from this thing. Maybe it will chase away some of the people who use this beach.

“And that’s good for everyone involved.”