Some unhappy with Long Beach surf camp site

Some nonsurfing Long Beach residents are worried that a proposed summer beach plan will limit their use of sea and sand while favoring surfing camps.

Residents of the Ocean Club at Long Beach, a seaside condominium building, last week asked the City Council to not place the Skudin Surf camps on the beach between National and Magnolia boulevards, directly in front of their building.

In the plan by the Long Beach Surfer's Association, that stretch of beach was to be designated as the location for summer day camps for children and adults that run from June 25 to Aug. 31.

"If this comes to be, residents of the Ocean Club and nearby residents will lose much of the benefit of why we chose to buy and live where we do," said Lorraine Nordlund, 55, who lives in the Ocean Club building. She said at Tuesday's City Council meeting that she has gathered 67 signatures on a petition to keep the one-block stretch of sand known as National Beach a "family beach."

JoAnn Genduso, 57, also an Ocean Club resident, said she hopes the city will keep the rotating beach plan of last year.

In 2011, the Skudin Surf camps were held on the stretch of beach between Monroe and Lincoln boulevards, while other city beaches rotated from designated surfing to designated swimming areas. The goal was to keep the thousands of daily swimmers and hundreds of daily surfers separated, and safer in the water, officials have said.

This year's plan would keep some beaches as exclusive surfing beaches and none as exclusive swimming beaches.

"I hope when you get the proposal to shut down certain beaches for the surfers, you'll think about it before you vote on it," Genduso said.

Gerald Snell, 59, who lives on West Fulton Street, supported the Long Beach-based Skudin Surf school and said owners Chris and Will Skudin's "contribution to this community is unbelievable."

Cliff Skudin said he welcomed the community feedback. "We have to find a beach that works best for everybody," he said.

Skudin, 29, and his brother Will, 26, are the third generation of their family to run surfing lessons and camps, and the first in their family to start a surf camp in Long Beach.

The surf camps also would take place on the beach between Maple and Pacific boulevards, but there were no complaints about that location at this week's meeting.

Council president Fran Adelson said Wednesday that the matter won't go to a council vote. Instead, Chief of Lifeguards Paul Gillespie, the Long Beach Surfer's Association and the city manager, Jack Schnirman, will work out details in the near future, she said.

Comments about summer beach use will be accepted through Friday and can be submitted at the city's website, longbeachny.org.