Buoyed by Beer, Floatopia Survives on Land

Keep 'em in their cage, til they go back to mommy and daddy.

Once again, you skew the article, Indy. A huge clean-up happened in 2009, and continued for several days. I doubt your reporter even was on the beach during and after the 2009 Floatopia, and he is just repeating inaccurate information.

That was in 2009, what is being done in 2010?

That comment at the end by that kid Ben Arnold, where he is quoted as saying
"“How are we going to feel the effects of our actions if we’re prevented from carrying them through?"

Did anyone turn to Ben and say, "What the hell are you talking about?"

but i agree Ben, how are you going to feel the effects of falling off the cliff, or skinning your knee, or starting fights for no reason, i mean your Dad is not going to come up and save you this time. Although if there where no police present I bet he would sue the city for reckless endangerment. So I think I speak for most when I say shhuuutt uppppp!

So are they going to fund 59 law enforcement personal to come and hang out by the beach and hand out tickets again next year? how about in 2012? maybe it's to their advantage as they handed out 61 more citations this year than during the 2009 flotopia. Cash money

@pardallchewinggumspot

So what was inaccurate? Was the beach not trashed last year? Did people not fall off the cliffs? Was there no arrests or citations? Did the county not have to spend $20,000 dollars babysitting?

Glad the kids had fun. Thrash your streets, your yards, your homes. Here's a novel idea. Next year, keep the event local, don't advertise for 10,000+, get your permits, port a johns and keep it dry. Then have fun.

Mesamike, do you by any chance know how much revenue was made from tickets and citations? I've been trying to citation revenue data from large events like Halloween but I have never been able to get a source for that.

What's inaccurate is at the end of the day the beach was cleaned up by lots of volunteers who kept cleaning for several days. What's skewed is not mentioning that hot summer days at the City of SB beaches are just as dirty, or that the police costs for Fiesta are never reported, nor that the arrest statistics for Fiesta are not emphasized.

Hm. Try this pardall......Fiesta is permitted, there is extra law enforcement. There is a sponsor. In my 30+ years in santa barbara, I've never seen a mess at any of our other beaches that comes close to what happened in 2009. So you think it's ok to just let another Halloween self create? Sorry, ain't gonna happen!

So SB beaches get trashed like IV beach after Floatopia? Hah. Nice try. Fiesta? Fiesta has nothing to do with it. No matter how hard you try to change the subject and deflect the issue, it's not going to make it go away. Yes there was clean up by some responsible people. I get it. The point is that the beach never should have been trashed like it was in the first place. Do you seriously think that this criticism is unfair?

rc251- good question.. I wonder if the revenue from the citations and such offset the $$$ that the county spent babysitting. But that's not really the issue I have with it. It is the fact that the environment was completely disrespected by USCB students who generally claim to be pro-environment.

I completely agree with that sentiment regarding environmental damage, and I'm sure it's hard to put a figure on how much damages were done.

For Floatopia 2010 and Halloween years past, the SB Sheriff's cited the costs of extra enforcement, but I can't recall them ever releasing revenue figures from citations. I believe that arrests for public intoxication is somewhere in the neighborhood of $400 (of course, that's assuming a guilty plea and not challenging the citation in court which would increase costs), which is not a small chunk of change. I assume a big reason for not building a sobering center in Isla Vista is due to losing this revenue stream.

"Next year, keep the event local, don't advertise for 10,000+, get your permits, port a johns and keep it dry. Then have fun."
--BeachFan

As a practical matter, you're probably howling into the wind, so to speak.

It helps to realize there are no official organizers of Floatopia or Halloween in IV. No official websites, nobody making an official decision as to when/where it happens. No single student or student organization you can talk to. No official marketing committee trying to line up commercial sponsors or sell T-shirts/posters. The local Chamber of Commerce isn't trying to advertise Floatopia to fill local hotel coffers. Nobody is officially responsible for anything other than individuals for their own personal actions. That includes both attendees and those who volunteered for cleanup, etc.

The above isn't necessarily good or bad. But to ignore the reality just makes most "requests" or "wishes" posted here somewhat akin to ranting.

I will take sides with one issue though ... not all UCSB students are alike. They don't all act or behave identically, nor are they all like those you see on the news or quoted in print. So talking about students as if they're some monolithic group ... probably shows you didn't pay attention in school :)

I doubt, BeachFan, that you even went out and saw the actual IV beaches after Floatopia 2009. I did, and yes, they were initially messy, but a huge cleanup effort occurred as well. To ignore the clean-up is a half-truth, and is worse than a lie in this case.

Fiesta is a horrendous mess, with a huge number of arrests and trouble. Yes, it is permitted officially. But that is small comfort to someone assaulted by a drunken Fiesta reveller, or someone who trips on a discarded beer can and falls and breaks something.

Mesamike, messes happen regularly at all beaches... I've found diapers and dogpoop at Arroyo Burro, East Beach, by Bacara, etc. Messes are a consequence of beach usage by humans. I don't like it either, but I do not think there is any evidence that Floatopia was any worse than the diapers and dogpoop. If you want to ban all local beach usage by humans, then you'd be consistent.

But to ban usage A and allow usage B, when usage A caused an initial junkpile that was subsequently cleaned up (Floatopia 2009), and when usage B is a slow but steady flow of raw sewage, baby diapers, and dog poop with quantitatively higher coliform impact (the current South Coast sewers and beach use) makes no sense to me.

I'm OK with the Floatopia alcohol ban. I think it saves less lives over the long term than would requiring helmets and breathing apparatus for surfers. I don't want to require that kind of safety apparatus for surfers.

Never once did I ignore the clean up efforts, I actually applauded them. The fact that they couldn't possibly clean up everything that was left behind is still just that - a fact. There never should have been that amount of trash to begin with, and that is my point. There just is no way to justify it, no matter how hard you try....entirely inexcusable.

I'm not calling for a ban on all beach usage.... That would be ridiculous. But for you to say that the trash generated by floatopia is equal to any other day at Arroyo Burro or wherever is insane.

Your argument is weak, which is probably why you keep trying to point the finger at other events.

What a shame. Floatopia was a fun, manageable party for UCSB'ers at one point. But out-of-towners have once again ruined the fun, bombarding IV. It's just too many people. Just like Halloween in IV, and even Fiesta.

It seems rather ridiculous to blame the fall of Floatopia on out-of-towners. The reason why it had to be disbanded is because of a lack of personal responsibility in terms of cleaning, conduct, and safety. Yeah, I'm sure that out-of-towners contributed to the mass rise of people; but it came from people here inviting them and partaking in the exact same revelry that "they" are being blamed for. It begins with accountability -- if we can learn to control ourselves and be a wee bit more responsible for our actions then we can have events like Floatopia and won't have the need for constant governance from external sources.

I'm a rather large proponent of the saying "how you do something is how you do everything." Look at the streets of IV and the mass prevalence of cigarette butts, red cups, trash, and vomit stains that collect in the cess pools of "IV culture" -- if we can police ourselves enough not to desecrate on the walkways between home and school maybe we can prove, through actions rather than meaningless words, that we can take care of a beach enough to migrate a party or two over to the sand. Until then I hope Floatopia stays a distant memory and cautionary tale to the recklessness of teenage repulsiveness that is isla vista.

I've not tried to justify the 2009 Floatopia trash, I've emphasized that it was largely cleaned up. I've never compared it to one day at any other facility, but I have compared it to the cumulative impact of 10,000 or 20,000 beach visitors at other South Coast beaches. I think Floatopia 2009 had less impact than 10,000 or 20,000 beach visits elsewhere on the South Coast.

One point I will continually make: coliform counts are *much worse* at other South Coast beaches than have ever been associated with Floatopia 2009. Now why is that?

"I think Floatopia 2009 had less impact than 10,000 or 20,000 beach visits elsewhere on the South Coast."

Which is obscene.

Well, mesamike, you may thing visiting the beach is obscene, in which case you must want to ban all visits to the beach.

No I think that the amount of trash left behind was obscene. Which it was. Disagree?

How do Santa Barbara City College students and their administrators manage to side step their ownership in Floatopia and Halloween? There are a lot of SBCC students living in Isla Vista partying and trashing the beaches and the streets. The administration and their board don't see themselves as part of the problem or the solution. Kinda like the Tea Fire.

"How do Santa Barbara City College students and their administrators manage to side step their ownership in Floatopia and Halloween?"
--gsjosh

That's an interesting question!

We know Floatopia and Halloween in IV take place off campus. And we know neither have anything to do with UCSB or SBCC other than the fact that many of the participants are students of those schools. What sort of "ownership", then, would you say currently exists and what issues are being side-stepped?

Are the schools legally responsible for the actions of their students in their private lives outside of campus-related activities while off-campus? What would you legally do if you were the chancellor? What would you do beyond the public statements already issued by the UCSB administration?

What if you crashed a party at 6545 Del Playa in IV on Halloween and subsequently got jailed for public intoxication out in the street? Is your employer legally responsible for your actions? Does your employer have any ownership of your problem? What would you have wanted your employer to do to be a good corporate citizen?

I don't have any horses in this race, but it would be interesting to hear some constructive and practical comments.

"Yeah, I'm sure that out-of-towners contributed to the mass rise of people; but it came from people here inviting them ..."
--jordan

That's both true and not true. While I'm sure many attendees were personally invited by friends here, many were not. Have you seen the Facebook page and read the posts? Lots of people just see the event post and decide to come to IV.

And don't discount word-of-mouth. Look at what Playboy and other magazines did for Halloween in IV! And word travels fast these days with email, phone texting, twitter, social media sites, etc. These aren't the 1990's anymore.

So to put some blame on locals for inviting out-of-towner's isn't quite fair IMO.

Floatopia 2009 certainly got out of hand and I think that lack of organization was clearly to blame. Large scale events such as Floatopia, Halloween, Fiesta, etc are part of what attract people to the Santa Barbara area. However, the first of those aforementioned events are largely disdained, while the latter is looked forward to.

I think that it is unfortunate that many of these comments are so hateful. Fiesta is a well organized event that claims to be in honor of SB history, but anyone who has partaken in Fiesta knows that many of the revelers don't spend a moment thinking about SB history. Meanwhile, Halloween and Floatopia are rather unorganized events for college aged persons, therefore some of the previous bloggers feel free to be disrespectful regarding Isla Vista inhabitants, UCSB and SBCC students.

Many Isla Vista inhabitants worked hard to clean up the beaches and were horrified that the event got so out of hand. It is unfair to make it seem like college students do not care about the environment or their local community.

Please do not use Floatopia as an excuse to insult Isla Vista inhabitants. UCSB and SBCC are assets to this community in many ways, do not let a few events characterize the way you think about them.

Yes, the trash left by the tens of thousands of visitors to Carp, Butterfly, East, Leadbetter, 1000 Steps, Arroyo Burro, More Mesa, Goleta, IV, Sands, Haskell's, Naples, etc, beaches, is obscene. Per person Floatopia was if anything less impact (albeit it occurred all in one day) than the constant stream of dog poop and diapers that comes from continuous usage of South Coast beaches, summed up over, say, the summer.

As for total impact, Floatopia didn't cause the kind of coliform spikes that happen at other South Coast beaches. Not even close. The sewer leakages on the South Coast are 100X as obscene as Floatopia, but nobody cares about the real issue of fecal coliform in their Channel water. Instead people and the media (including the Indy) harp on Floatopia.

It's a little known fact that with all the luv in the air during a true Floatopia, those beer bottles thrown off the cliff do not break nor do they ever hit any people down on the beach.

An even lesser known fact is that not a single dog taken for a walk on a South Coast beach ever poops or pees.

Thank You EastBeach. Finally there is someone who gets it. I'm not sure how UCSB is the official organizer of Halloween and Floatopia. Probably because IV is next to the campus and it's the quickest group for people to associate these events with. For some reason everybody believes UCSB organizes it and all the blame is put on their students.

"It is the fact that the environment was completely disrespected by USCB students who generally claim to be pro-environment" - mesamike
Why are you holding UCSB students responsible for the incident?

Looks like a round-trip for those out-of-towners who have to come back for their court dates. I guarantee that the majority of those citations and arrests were for them, which misrepresents IV residents, making them look like the bad guys in these articles. They live there and I'm pretty sure they know better than to walk around in the open holding red cups, water bottles or beer cans.

People, give it a rest, it's over & done w/, the turkey is cooked, well, @ least until next year when the same shenanigan resurfaces on facebook.
Were lessons learned? I think (more like hope) so. If IV locals want to see Floatopia suceed then they should consider KEEPING IT LOCAL!
I don't care about bacteria counts, trash, bottles, idiots, that's the main staple of such an event & besides everyone will twist the end result for their own argumental benefit.
What I do care about is those feeling it is the responsibility of others (volunteers) to clean up after them. Kind of tough not having a nanny around ain't it? Not so when you got volunteers.
In all, it came, went, saw some people having fun, thwarted some attempts @ stupidity on my property, compliments of the Pirahna R6.
In the end all this talk about violating people's rights by not allowing them on the beach & heavyhandedness of the IV Foot patrol all amounts to 1 thing: WAAAH WAAAAHH, the evil sheriff won't let us have our cake & eat it. WAAAH!
This ain't about anybody's right to party, it's about fact & the fact it it didn't happen as planned, whether they (spoiled children w/ a sense of entitlement) liked it or not :) henry

@Phir - "Why are you holding UCSB students responsible for the incident?"

No UCSB students were there? maybe it was wrong for me to generalize them like that, but still, I would guess that the majority of the attendees were UCSB students... Just a guess.... Still doesn't take away from the fact that the environment was completely disrespected.

@Hank- well said.

@pardallchewinggumspot- So...

1 day of Floatopia Trash = an entire summers worth of trash at any other south coast beach? That's a lot of trash.

It's a good thing they only try to do it once a year. Maybe next time they will act responsibly and pick up their ******* trash.

@mesamike - My bad, poor choice of wording on my part, should have put solely in front of responsible. And you're right, Only UCSB students were there? Perhaps I'm wrong, might as well have been the whole lot of UCSB students who attended, I mean wouldn't be hard seeing how there are ~20,000 students attending UCSB. Guess all those SBCC & out-of-towners attending was just a conspiracy or a cover-up.

And I hear you about the environment and agree with you about the disrespect shown in 2009 but with the alcohol ban and all the post-Floatopia environmental talk, next year the masses, at least IV residents, will be more aware.

@hank - Good point! How do we get it back to the locals only level? But I was wondering, how did Halloween get so big without facebook back in the day? Didn't it start out as Locals Only? As bad as Floatopia got in 2009, it should stabilize eventually. I mean look at Halloween 2008 w/ 45,000 visitors down to 25,000 in 2009. Just give it time.

uh... mesamike... you got your wish, volunteers did clean up Floatopia 2009. Floatopia 2009 was cleaner than a summer's worth of flotsam from Santa Barbara City, because, unlike all the diapers and dog crap the summer visitors cast into the surf, volunteers did clean up Floatopia 2009. Well, the thousands of dog walkers on South Coast beaches don't carry poop bags either, nor to surfers carry urine bags, so they're worse than Floatopia 2009 too.

Well, hank, I got a feeling you'd actually care about coliform counts in your drinking water. Hug the head otherwise. When was it ever true that americans cleaned up after themselves? Always some kind of do gooder to take advantage of, Floatopia 2009 was no different.

Phir:"But I was wondering, how did Halloween get so big without facebook back in the day? Didn't it start out as Locals Only?"

The rumor/story has it that a former UCSB grad who worked for Playboy Magazine Got Isla Vista put on Playboy's "Top 10 places to be on Halloween" list. Soon after it just exploded.
My 1st Halloween in IV was 1987, the year the open container law went into efect @ sunset.
Lots of busts for open container, DIP, MIP, giving false info to a peace officer.
What I didn't see in the stats: Sexual assault, assault & battery, rampant theft.
What I did see in the stats: The majority of arrests dealt w/ non-UCSB/SBCC students, technically out of towners.
Things REALLY fell apart around 1991-1992 when it became a call for gang members from out of town to show up, get hammered & get in brawls.
In 1993 the SB County Sheriff's Dept. decided to impose the "zero tolerance" rules in place & the 1st time was a bit excessive, but guess what? No or extremely little crime.
Lately Halloween has been quite fun, mostly locals out to have a good time, read my article about it in this publication (in the archives).
Pardall, as a surfer I actually do care about the coliform, but since I avoid the winter/early spring surf (too busy snowboarding) any of it from Craptopia won't be affecting me. Besides, we have a very capable water treatment system in place for home water supply. If that fails, try boiling & a couple of drops of sodium hypochlorite, kills giardia, works wonders on coliform.
Mike, they'll NEVER stoop down to picking up their own trash because that is somebody else's (volunteers) problem. Heck, if it wasn't for those adopt-a-block programs that consist of volunteers, all the streets would look like total ghetto crap.
But then again, some of these so-called "best & brightest" want to live in ghetto conditions, it boosts their street cred. Like any of these geniuses will ever need it. Where they going when they get the hell out of UCSB? Compton? Would NOT survive an hour! :) henry

Wow hank. Thank you very much, very informative (please this was actually sincere, no sarcasm so nobody read into it). As everybody knows history repeats itself so my guess is that Floatopia should eventually mellow out over the years just like Halloween.

Hank is as usual extremely helpful with a good perspective... I remember some of the details differently, like, Halloween really got going back in the early 1960's, like, 1963 or so. Big scramble of the Deputies into IV one Halloween back then.

I think a Theater grad student did a PhD on IV Halloween a few years ago.

Then gradually the homecoming festivities, which used to take place just about on Halloween, were terminated. Used to be a parade down State Street; I seem to remember the Mayor of Santa Barbara issuing a proclamation in 1965 or so commending UCSB students, **literally dated on Oct. 31**.

But the football team crashed, the late 1960's happened, but the desire for a fall blowout is so strong the free-form Halloween took over. Also Halloween itself has gone from a kids thing to an all-adults too thing, with people wearing costumes to work. Probably the candy and costume lobbyists and industry.

Floatopia is taking the place of the spring activities that also disappeared. I still have a 33 rpm or two of the old UCSB `spring sing', long gone. Well, Extravaganza still happens, and pretty good too. But a post-winter open the spring blowout is as natural as a post-harvest Octoberfest thing. Looks to me like SoCal will adopt Floatopia as the thing, given the spread to San Diego etc. The only question is will an organizational structure spring up for it here.