Threat of Floatopia Closes IV Beaches

So the people who dump millions of gallons of partially treated sewage just offshore...are worried about people peeing on the beach ??

No one can say YOUR IQ isn't commensurate with your SHOE SIZE, rubbermuncher.

Oh just have it at the Showgrounds...there is no review required or law enforcement to deal with there.

Sorry, the environmental damage was not `immeasurable', it was quantified with bacteria counts in the weeks before and after the 2009 Floatopia. Nothing. Goose Egg. Bubkes.

In contrast, the City of Santa Barbara's leaky sewage system and the leaky septic tanks all along the Coast cause serious bacteria blooms in our channel that are regularly measured at orders of magnitude higher concentrations than Floatopia.

The vast majority of 2009 Floatopia plastic trash was cleaned up by volunteers who piled it at the top of the Embarcadero beach access, where Marborg hauled it off. The Indy photographed it and said it was still on the beach... nice one, Indy.

^ so the trash in the ocean weeks later was "nothing"?

What happened to environmentally aware university students? Previous student bodies did trash a bank and a few buildings but they always kept the beach clean.

r_c: "What happened to environmentally aware university students?"

They've been replaced w/ a bunch of rich, White wannabe ghetto kids that think they're "bad" & "hard" because they heard a rap album & they think they're ghetto now.
There's no such thing as "environmental awareness" in IV anymore for the most part, it's gone & been replaced w/ an attitude of wanton destruction & violenece that has been on the increase for the past 3-5 years :) henry

And the regular spikes in bacteria from leaky Santa Barbara sewers and other County septic tank leaks are `nothing'?

Only a nerd who enjoys swimming in human waste would defend Floatopia. The 2009 event was an envoronmental disaster. When i first heard this pathetic event was upcoming I was praying for a massive swell that'd scare the bejesus outta anyone (many of them out of towners) who'd wanna participate in it. Now it double sucks if there is a swell, IV surfers will be hassled simply trying to ride their home break. Anyone with a surfboard should be given a free pass and not made to suffer because of these morons.

As a UCSB class of '93 alum that enjoyed an education and a good time... let the kids have fun. I'm sure a clean up crew cost much less than a posse of sheriffs and legal jargon. Wish we had thought of 'Floatopia.'

The turds are always there, courtesy of Santa Barbara's leaky sewage system. There was no spike at all in Goleta Beach or Sands Beach bacteria due to the 2009 Floatopia.

^ You keep bringing up bacteria levels, but the real issue was the TRASH that was in the water for weeks after the event. You don't see that as a problem?

Yeah, the bacterial issues are somewhat moot in that regard, that's just hard to nail to just one source (obviously). However, the sheer amount of trash and literal destruction left behind was incredibly hard to believe yet there it all was, right in front of my eyes, for MONTHS after the first event - even a year and then some later, I'd still see remnants of this nightmare out there on the bluffs.

As a longtime child and friend of IV (my dad has lived there for 30+ yrs) I was completely flabbergasted by the audacity of it all, like someone else here commented, where the hell are the environmentally conscious people?? Clearly, they weren't anywhere NEAR this ridiculously under-planned and poorly executed event. As much as a cleanup crew might sound like an easier/cheaper alternative, and sure, the bulk of the trash *might* get picked up, but are they REALLY going to pick up human waste? I seriously doubt it...

With all that said, I agree with the other comments about the type of people who willingly participate in this kind of BS... totally ignorant, disrespectful and flagrantly oblivious to what their "fun" is doing for the rest of us who actually care... leaving a giant mess and literally destroying what should be there for everyone to enjoy, preferably as nature intended it.

I know there are good people still out there, even students, so I sure hope they stand up and stop this from happening like it did in '09.

The exaggerations of 2009 Floatopia usually include descriptions of human waste. Those exaggerations are just that... BS. There is a terrible problem, however, with leaky sewage pipes and septic tanks from the City and County of Santa Barbara, which no-one seems to care about.

As to the trash, well, the great majority of it was cleaned up and brought to the top of the Embarcadero access. Then the Indy took a picture of it up on DP and asserted that the trash was still on the beach. Because of that inaccuracy, I'm sorry, I'm not going to believe anyone's assertions... I think a false image got planted by the Indy and people are now exaggerating it into a fable.

I walk the IV beach several times a week. Yes there was trash after the 2009 Floatopia. Actually there has always been trash, from plane tires to refrigerator pieces to lobster traps, on the beaches of IV. I hate it and regularly carry stuff up to the access points on DP. But Floatopia 2009 was a blip on the screen, and the exaggerations are pure ignorance.

IV beaches are generally pretty clean. Not after 2009's Floatopia which is just an excuse for a buncha idiots to inflict themselves on the rest of us and the ocean environment. What kind of idiot would participate or condone? Someone who obviously is not local and wasn't there (exhibit A: PardallChewingGumspot). And if such an individual has some issues with the INDY's veracity, why do they read it?
If someone wants to drink themselves to death and wallow in trash and filth, they can go right on ahead but don't make the rest of us pay for it.

OK Pardall, keep on deflecting blame to leaky sewer pipes and septic tanks. Not the point, which I already explained to you once already. The issue was the trash that was, in fact, left on the beach. Go back and read the original article. The trash was left on the beach, and wasn't cleaned up until the day after the event, so your claim that the indy made false assertions is bogus. The trash WAS on the beach and didn't get cleaned up until finally some responsible students organized a clean-up (the day after the event!). By that time the tide had already came in and swept a lot of it out to the ocean. Re-read the comments if you want to keep on thinking that it was "blip on the screen" as you would say. First hand accounts of surfing through trash days after the event. I think this quote says it all -

'Bradley Cardinale, an assistant professor of ecology at UCSB, described Floatopia as “the most egregious events of dumping I have ever seen in this state.”'

So stay in denial all you want. If you actually "hate" seeing trash on the beach like you said in the previous post, then why would you keep on defending this event?

Also, how many students that participated in floatopia actually helped to clean up the day after? My guess would be very few, but I'm asking you, since you claim to know what goes on in IV.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Be_AdD...

For anyone that wants to see for themselves.

"The harmful debris from the first floatopia still clutter our beaches almost a month after the event."

And many of the participants (aka polluters) were, like on Halloween not even students from this area.
@MesaMike: Pardall wasn't even around here when the original event happened.

Its raining anyways

Well, if you care at all about cleanliness and overall health of the Channel, the terrible sewage leaks in Santa Barbara *are the point*.

If you don't actually care about the Channel and just want to rant and rave about imagined excesses in Isla Vista, then sure, actual pollution in the Channel is not the point.

Yes, I went back and read the original article and comments, and I actually visited the day after. The tide did *not* wash across 2/3 of the exposed beach... the IV beaches change regularly, and there was a huge dry patch on that day. That (dominant) page was quite clean, due to the terrific efforts of IV students.

I have way, way more first hand experience of the IV beach on that day and subsequent days than any other poster here. I really am not defending 2009 Floatopia, but I do think both the Indy, other media, and posters grossly exaggerate it. And to any surfer who alleges trash... I'd ask them whether they piss right in the Channel or nearby beaches.

So the youtube video was fabricated as well, documenting insane amounts of trash right on the tideline and already in the water? Documenting trash on the beach months after the event? Was the assistant professor of ecology at UCSB exaggerating?

More quotes from comments in the original article-

"There are still thousands upon thousands upon thousands of beer cans for more than a mile," he said. "[Clean-up] efforts may have taken care of 20 to 30 percent of trash refuge but the other 70 percent is still out there." -Daily Nexus

"Surfed in their trash Monday and Tuesday. I can't even imagine the stuff that's half submerged and on the bottom.- lordleadbetter."

And just to clarify, I think that all pollution is bad, including sewage leaks, leaky septic tanks, AND excessive amounts of trash that never should have been left on the beach in the first place, which is what this is about right?

Pardall seems to think one wrong justifies another. As an IV resident, I can safely state s/he is marginal in his thinking at best. Find some other excuse to get loaded but don't make the rest of us suffer.

My point is not that two wrongs make a right. They don't. My point is that the reports of Floatopia 2009 were grossly exaggerated, by the Indy and by posters here. Meanwhile far greater environmental damage is done to our environment by leaky sewage pipes and septic tanks on the South Coast, as measured by the very high bacterial counts in many places here.

I went back and watched the Rod Tucknott video.... .way, way over the top. Is he really saying that a barrel of rocket fuel was somehow related to Floatopia? Just makes me want to ignore the whole sanctimonious video.

He also systematically showed trash that had been gathered and cleaned up by volunteers (including myself). What is his point? That cleaning up trash is reprehensible?

It was bad propaganda made by people who just love to tut-tut others while their own sewage goes right into the channel. And then they lambast the volunteers who go out and do real cleanup.

Were they supposed to just let the trash lay on the beach until he was finished shooting? Where do you think all that trash came from, Gypsies from Outer Space? Do you consider the SurfRider Foundation to be tut-tutters?

The trash was for the most part *CLEANED UP*, although some did persist, which is of course *WRONG*, just not anything like the portrayal by local posters of equal in damage to the Sendai quake and tsunami.

SurfRiders piss unfiltered into the ocean and on the beach. SurfRiders also don't care one bit about carbon emissions from their cars... they are super-eager advocates of free parking so they can drive their giant CO_2 belching SUVs to the surf breaks around here. You think they'd arrange carpooling if they really cared about the environment.

Sure, I see mainly what SurfRider has done near where I live... they demand parking subsidized by others... and brag about it on their Santa Barbara Chapter website... and they don't carpool... interferes with their free-spirit surfer cache. And they pee in the ocean... 10 surfers per day for one year is at least equal to a Floatopia, and that is just at Sands. Add up everything from Oxnard to Gaviota, you probably get a Floatopia courtesy of SurfRider every few months.

so now surfers are to blame for pollution in the ocean? Any sense of credibility that you may have had is diminishing by each comment that you make. keep pointing fingers, maybe you will get lucky eventually. extremely doubtful at this point.

Seems to me surfers who piss in the ocean pollute the ocean.

Sewage from the City of Santa Barbara and leaky septic tanks pollutes the ocean.

I guess your shocked, shocked to learn that, mesamike.

But what do I know, I'm just a spot of old gum on the roof of a building. Round up the usual suspects.

Pardall if you're attending UCSB or SBCC, we surfers you hate so much are subsidizing your education.