“One of the park rangers came up to us and said that parking was such an issue, and that it was our fault,” Garner said. “Because of that, it seemed like we were going to have to move the event to before the summer months, or after the summer months. That was a huge, huge blow and was kind of really the last straw for us. We put together a petition online and we’ve gone around to local businesses, got a lot of them to sign on a petition saying the benefit of the event, what it does for community and for business. We were going to go to the county officials.”
No citations were issued, but the message seemed clear. The online petition got more than 500 signatures, but as it turned out, it didn’t have to come to that.
Last week, Garner and Victoria Skimboards owner Tex Haines met with OC Parks coastal district supervisor Leslie Ray and communications manager Tom Starnes. Ray had heard of the organizers’ concerns.
“We were real disappointed to hear that they had any concerns,” Ray said. “I think we were definitely able to share enthusiasm for [the event], and it’s genuine. It was a very positive meeting We’re looking at how we can kind of be a sponsor of their event, being that its on a county beach and a county facility.”
The World Championship of Skimboarding does bring a large crowd to Aliso Beach on a prime summer weekend. Ray said that since Aliso is a regional facility as opposed to a strictly local beach, out-of-towners do tend to come to the beach. A possible solution that was discussed to alleviate some of the traffic problems was to better advertise “The Vic” on both the Victoria Skimboards and OC Parks web sites, Garner said.
