City Hall Mediators Fail to Broker Peace Between Traditional Surfers and Hydrofoil Enthusiasts; Paddleboarders Blamed by Both Sides

Reported by Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat.

VENICE, CA — What began Sunday as a shouted dispute over the hydrofoil-free zone at Venice Beach Breakwater has escalated into what Los Angeles County Lifeguard Services is now officially calling “an ongoing surf-adjacent civil disturbance,” entering its third consecutive day Wednesday with no resolution in sight and three people treated for wax-related friction burns.

The conflict pits traditional shortboarders and longboarders against the growing Venice Beach foil community, a group of mostly tech-adjacent enthusiasts who have embraced hydrofoil boards — which ride three feet above the water’s surface on a carbon wing — as “the future of wave riding.” The traditional surfers call them “terrifying,” “unacceptable,” and, more specifically, “that flying razor blade thing that almost took out my ear last Tuesday.”

The Incident That Started It All

According to witnesses and one surprisingly detailed beach cam recording, the triggering event occurred Sunday at 7:42am when a foil surfer named Cody (last name not provided, Instagram handle @CoastalCodyFoils) glided through the Breakwater lineup at approximately 20 miles per hour, clearing every traditional surfer by what he described as “plenty of room” and what surfer Melissa Park, 38, described as “the width of a thought.”

Park, a 12-year Venice local, responded by placing her longboard horizontally across Cody’s foil path. Cody responded by launching his foil board over the longboard. Park responded by calling everyone she knew. By 9am, there were 40 people in the water having an argument about the future of surfing, and by noon, the argument had moved to the parking lot, which is where all important surfing arguments eventually move.

Positions Harden

Traditional surfers are demanding a permanent foil exclusion zone at Venice Breakwater, citing safety concerns backed by a recent Surfer Magazine editorial that described foil boards in crowded lineups as “an inherently chaotic element in an ecosystem that is already mostly chaos.” They have also erected a hand-painted sign reading “FOILS = DANGER (also they look stupid)” which legal experts say has no regulatory standing but excellent kerning.

The foil community has countered that foil surfing is “demonstrably the most efficient use of available wave energy” and that traditional surfers are “gatekeeping a finite natural resource based on aesthetic preference and fear of progress.” Their representative, a man named Marcus who works at a battery startup in Culver City, presented a 14-slide PowerPoint at Tuesday’s city mediation session. The slides included three charts. One of the charts had a typo.

Paddleboarders, who were blamed by both sides for “making the lineup soft in the first place,” released a joint statement saying they “just want everyone to get along and maybe a juice bar.” The statement was ignored by all parties.

The City’s Response

Los Angeles City Councilmember Ruth Watkins, whose district includes Venice Beach, held an emergency community forum Tuesday that she described as “productive” and attendees described as “forty-five minutes of people talking over each other followed by someone throwing a fin.” No fins were confirmed thrown but the fin rumor has spread widely on the Venice surf WhatsApp group, which has 340 members, all of whom have opinions.

Mayor Karen Bass has requested a memorandum from the Parks and Recreation Department on whether hydrofoil restrictions at public beaches are legally enforceable. The memorandum is expected within 60 days. The disturbance is in its third day. These timelines are not synchronized.

The California Coastal Commission has been asked to weigh in on whether hydrofoil exclusion zones constitute a lawful restriction of coastal access. The Commission noted that it “receives approximately 3,000 such inquiries per year” and will “address this one in the order received,” which based on current processing times is late 2028.

A Cultural Divide

At its core, the Venice Beach foil conflict represents a larger question about who the ocean belongs to and what counts as surfing. Traditional surfers argue that the ocean is a shared resource governed by an unwritten code of mutual respect, safety, and the understanding that you do not fly a carbon wing through someone’s head. Foil enthusiasts argue that innovation is neutral, physics does not care about tradition, and that the unwritten code was written by people who wanted to protect their own access at the expense of everyone else’s.

Both sides are correct in ways that make the other side furious. This is Venice Beach. Being furious is a community value.

At press time, the parking lot argument had entered its 72nd hour. A hot dog cart had set up nearby. Business was described as “phenomenal.”

Track the situation as it deteriorates at NewsThump.

SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/