As the summer gets into full swing beach visitation can become overwhelming. The number of people at Sand Key today was unlike most days. It’s very rare that there aren’t any spots to park, in fact, I can’t recall that happening in a long time. Not only was the parking lot overflowing with cars, the beach was full of people. As I walked out to the waters edge to surf I noticed all the people in the water right in the surf zone. Looking for a place to surf I realized, there is a surfing zone and a swimming zone here for a reason, for situations like this where swimmers could be at risk of injury by a surfboard. Lifeguards are constantly telling surfers to stay in the surfing zone, shouldn’t it be the same for swimmers?

The sign at the beginning of the walkway from the parking lot to the beach says swim/surf in designated area. I know I’ve seen them asking swimmers to move out of the surf zone. I thought, it shouldn’t be a problem for them to make a little bit of space for me to safely surf in the designated surf zone, the only designated surf zone in the county as far as I know.

I walked over to the lifeguard at the tower. I told him the situation, and asked him if he could do that. He told me he would get the other lifeguard to do it. I thanked him, and walked back toward the surf zone. The lifeguard down near the jetty was the one he was referring to. I watched the lifeguard do nothing down there, then drive back to the main tower. Frustrated I walked back to the tower. I watched the lifeguard who was supposed to be handling this walk away. The original person I spoke to told me the towers always need to have someone in them, so he couldn’t do anything about it at that moment. I told him I could wait. We waited there. The lifeguard came back with lunch. It was unbelievable. They had another discussion. The lifeguard again said he would do something about it. I walked back down to the surf zone which the lifeguard drove way past. He went all the way down to the jetty, did nothing and drove back. By this time I was really starting to feel ignored.

I walked to the lifeguard tower again. When I arrived the initial lifeguard I spoke to was off getting their supervisor. He got the supervisor. They went down to the surf zone area. I walked down there to tell them the situation. The supervisor asked me a couple questions. She said she understood that I could surf there, but they talked about how hard it would be for them to get all the people out of the surf zone. I told them, I didn’t want or need them to do that. I just needed a little space near the edge of the surf zone.  They had to check the rules with the park ranger, she said. I said fine.

She called him over. He claimed that he didn’t think it’s a rule that surfers are supposed to stay in the surf zone and swimmers are supposed to stay in the swim zone. I told him about all the signs. I told him there is a sign near the parking lot that says, “swim/surf in designated area.” I asked him if he wanted me to show him. He said sure, still not believing me. He looked at the big sign, then realizing that I was correct without even needing to see the sign I was referring to told me it didn’t matter. He told me that the rules don’t matter, and that in this situation he wasn’t going to make any room for surfing. He said he could tell the swimmers to move, but that he couldn’t enforce it. I said, okay, do what you can.

I walked to the edge of the water, stood there for a couple minutes. Nothing happened. Then decided to get everyone’s name (all four people) so I could make an official complaint (which I didn’t do) to the county. I walked to the lifeguard tower again to ask the person there for names. He gave me everyone’s name except the ranger. I walked over to the ranger, and got his name. At this point he was driving his little four wheeler golf cart back to the lifeguard tower, still no one having done anything. It was just unbelievable that there can be such clear and blatant discrimination between surfers and swimmers on the beaches.