This Sand Is Your Sand, People
As a California native, I can't help myself. Summer arrives, bringing dizzy days of sun-blasted heat, and I can't wait to sniff cool salt air and dive into a wave.
But there's trouble once again along the exclusive shores of Malibu, and if it keeps up, it might be time to resurrect my plans for Sand Aid, the concert to free the beaches for one and all.
No, David Geffen is not up to his old tricks. He's one of the good guys now, having finally opened the gates next to his Carbon Beach compound last year so the hoi polloi can enjoy their God-given right to frolic in the surf. What a mensch, that Geffen, and I'm not just saying that because he's trying to buy my newspaper.
The first flare-up of the season actually occurred farther west, on Amarillo Beach, where a sunbather, out for a day of relaxation with his wife and 10-year-old daughter, ended up in custody after a call from an angry homeowner.
This got the attention of Access for All's Steve Hoye, who was horrified to learn that the L.A. County Sheriff's Department plans to encourage property owners to make citizen's arrests this year on fabled shores that are home to some of the world's richest and most famous people.
Like me, Hoye envisioned movie stars and moguls hoofing across golden sand to make flying tackles of greased sunbathers. But I'm getting ahead of myself here, so let's begin at the beginning, back in May.
A Beverlywood couple named Jean Philippe Chabassier and his wife, Catherine Deschamp, along with their daughter, love a fine day at a nice Malibu beach, and they've been regulars for years. This time they chose a spot along Malibu Road, using the public accessway to Amarillo Beach.
As regulars, they know public beach from private and know that they have a right to the area beneath the mean high tide line. It's a confusing concept and the line is not fixed, but essentially, if you're on wet sand, you're legal.
You're legal on dry sand, too, if the homeowner has traded public access to the California Coastal Commission for the right to remodel a home, although it's not always easy to know where that is, and signs posted by homeowners are sometimes intentionally misleading.
Chabassier, a photographer and screenwriter, said there were signs on this particular beach saying "private," but he and his wife, a teacher, took their place and quietly enjoyed themselves. He was reading and his wife was napping when a man called out from the balcony of the home behind them.
