I spoke to the Honeymoon Island State Park park manager today, Mr. Peter Krulder. We spoke about surfing being banned at Honeymoon Island State Park. I formulated a series of questions to ask him on camera. Though he didn’t want to be on camera, he didn’t seem to mind when I said I would like to post his answers to the questions.

Are you creating a no surfing zone?
No

Has there ever been a proposal to ban surfing?
Not in the 13 years he’s been the park manager.

He wrote me in an email after I initially posted the article, “The only times that surfing has been prohibited is during the times when it is unsafe to have anyone in the water.” So I ask, when was that?
The beach was closed during Irma, Matthew, and Hermine.

How is it possible that they banned surfing on the public beaches of Clearwater?
I don’t know the history.

On what level does this issue fall?
The Florida Park Service director. Some decisions, like storm closures, are made by me.

How are decisions like that made?
Based on public safety.

Will Honeymoon ever ban surfing?
Can’t answer that.

As a follow up I asked:

It sounds like the decision to ban surfing is with the park director, so should I be speaking to him about this?
If there was talk about banning surfing at Honeymoon Island, I would be included in the conversation.

How does the park feel about surfing?
It’s a resource based activity, and it’s permitted in Florida State Parks.

After speaking to Mr. Krulder I reached out to the state director. I left a message with his secretary earlier this afternoon, but have yet to get any reply.

Please note: although the wording in the first question I asked didn’t ask specifically if the topic was under discussion, our conversation indicated to me that the topic is not under discussion.