Southampton Village Sets Hearing on Surf School Law

After receiving numerous complaints for a year or more about a surf camp hogging the beach and commercializing the shore, the Southampton Village Board has put legislation on the table to regulate surfing and swimming lessons on ocean beaches.

Commercial activity is prohibited at village beaches under the village code, so when Sag Harbor resident Shane Dyckman's Flying Point Surf School clashed with other beachgoers last summer, Village Board members heard about it.

"This has clearly come to a head," Deputy Mayor Richard Yastrzemski said Tuesday during a work session, before the board voted 4-0 to schedule a hearing July 11. Mayor Mark Epley was out of town.

Epley said at previous meetings that he thinks people should have the opportunity to learn how to surf on village beaches, but camps and surf lessons must be licensed and the class size must be reduced.

In a recent interview, the mayor said he does not know the exact headcount of surfers and teachers at Flying Point Surf School last year — but it was too many.  "I’ve had all sorts of reports from different people, and was never really able to get a straight answer out of anyone about how many people participated in that camp."

He alleged that Flying Point Surf School never should have been operating during the 2012 season. "They didn’t meet the requirements of Suffolk County," he said. "They should have been licensed.”
 
It was made clear to Dyckman that he would need to come before the Village Board for permission to return to the village beaches, and any past approvals he received, formally or informally, are no longer valid, Epley said. “I told him in order for you to even contemplate operating in the village of Southampton, you need to get a license."

While all day camps in Suffolk require a license from the county department of health,, the proposed legislation would also require a license issued by the Village Board. According to the draft law, the Village Board will dictate a designation portion of the beach where a camp may operate and the hours and days a camp may operate. It also states that by issuing a license the village does not accept any responsibility for injuries or property damage.

Epley said this law may ultimately lead to a surf camp overseen by the village through the parks department and using the village's lifeguards as instructions.

No matter who runs a camp, he said, “It will be done legally. It will be done with approval of the board. We’ll know all the operational policies before it occurs.”

Reached in May, Dyckman said he had no comment. He did not immediately return a call Wednesday.

At the May 9 Village Board meeting, several beachgoers addressed the board to oppose continued, unregulated commercial use of the beach.

“This is about allowing somebody to create a commercial use,” said Tim Beringer, a former village resident now living in Tuckahoe. “You’re walking into a sea of quicksand. Where’s it stop? Can I sell newspapers down there?”

At the June 13 meeting, village resident Jim McLaughlen said he was concerned that commercializing the beach will lead to chaise lounge rentals and $5 sunblock applications — "just like they do on the Jersey Shore."

In particular, several residents were concerned about the fate of "the picnic area," a stretch on Meadow Lane where four-wheel drive vehicles are allowed on the beach during the day in-season.

Fran Adamczeski presented the board with a petition he said contained 300 signatures to "save our picnic area."

"The petition was actually written in general to ban any commerical actviity at that stretch of beach," added resident Matt Colombo.

Epley assured residents he would never vote for anything that would permit a camp there.

The July 11 meeting begins at 6 p.m.