After years of hard work and negotiations, a new, 25-years lease for California’s San Onofre State Park is now in place, and one of the Golden State’s most loved surf zones is safe for another quarter century. The new lease agreement for San Onofre was hashed out by Federal and State officials, along with the tireless advocacy of folks at the San Onofre Parks Foundation and the Surfrider Foundation .
“California just signed a new deal with our federal partners to keep San Onofre open as a state park for another 25 years,” shared California Governor Gavin Newsom on social media on Friday night. “San Onofre’s beaches, hiking and biking trails, and campgrounds will continue to welcome visitors for years to come.”
“The 25-year-long lease between State Parks and the Marine base ensures continued public access, management, and protection of this beloved coastal resource into the future,” confirms a Surfrider statement .
California’s 50-year lease of San Onofre from the United States Department of Navy, which was originally signed in 1971 in large part thanks to President Richard Nixon, expired in August of 2021, but was granted a three-year extension while negotiations were still taking place. The area that’s currently being leased is some of Southern California’s most pristine and prized surfing grounds. It stretches from San Mateo Point (Cotton’s) all the way through Trail 6 at the Bluffs Campground. It is also comprised of nearly 2,000 acres of land, including camping facilities.
San Onofre’s rich history predates any European activity in the area. Eight thousand years ago the village of Panhe was a sacred ceremonial cultural and burial site for the Acjachemen people. Their ancestors continue to play a critical role in the area.
“San Onofre State Beach is the ancestral home to the Achajemen village of Panhe, a native habitat to 12 endangered species, at the mouth of one of the last remaining undammed streams in California, and the site of multiple world-renowned surf breaks,” continues Surfrider’s statement.
The first time the words “San Onofre” show up in historical texts is in the original Santa Margarita Land Grant documents dating back to 1836. Where it came from before that is up for debate. Some believe that “San Onofre” is a mash-up of the local Native American dialect and Spanish used by early European settlers to describe the nearby creek and valleys. Others theorize that Spanish missionaries named the area after the sixth century Egyptian saint, Onofreas. Whatever the case, when a small train station was built in 1880 and a hand-lettered sign hung out front reading, “San Onofre,” it was official.
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San O wasn’t actually surfed for the first time until the 1920s. It’s been estimated that going into the ’30s there was less than 100 surfers in Southern California. Eventually word of a fishing camp on a desolate stretch of beach halfway between L.A. and San Diego captured the imagination of this intrepid group. In 1937, a man by the name of Frank Ulrich took control of the fishing camp. He opened a gas station and café along the Pacifica Coast Highway and began charging surfers 25 cents to spend the day at “his” beach (50 cents covered you for the weekend).
“Times were tough in those days, money–wise,” life-long San Onofre surfer E.J Oshier told the San Onofre Parks Foundation. He passed away in 2007. “It was still in the Depression days, see? Money was hard to come by, and some of us guys were coming all the way down from the Palos Verdes area. So, we’d get a few of us to pitch in enough for some gas and jug of wine…That’s why we didn’t spend money on surfboards or trunks back then. If any of us had [money] we were off to ‘Nofre.”
Very quickly the bohemian surf lifestyle took hold at San Onofre.
“We’d camp out there for days at a time and just sleep on the beach,” explained the late Leroy Grannis, who was a surf photography pioneer and distinguished member of the Palos Verdes Surfing Club. “During the week you would get it all to yourself; but on the weekend, all sorts of characters showed up.”
Throughout the ‘30s the crew at San Onofre coalesced around the concept of remaining aloof from the rest of the Southern California surf scene, which by this time was starting to take itself more seriously. Competitions were starting to be organized and regional surf clubs formed.
“The real ‘Nofre guys didn’t care about a Club,” explained Oshier. “They went there to get away from that.”
In 1941, the United States entered into World War II and a lot of the San O regulars signed up for the service. In ’43, the U.S. Department of Interior claimed eminent domain over the Santa Margarita Ranch property and it was leased to the Marine Corps and Camp Pendleton was built.
San O enjoyed a renaissance after the war when the San Onofre Surfing Club was founded in 1951. The good times rolled on the beach until the turbulent ‘60s, when President Richard Nixon’s Western White House, the Vietnam War and the construction of the nuclear power plant all contributed to a rapidly changing landscape. Somehow, everyone still managed to figure out how to keep surfing.
Today, the San Onofre Surf Club is thriving. Families, weirdos and rebels still frequent the parking lot every day. The surf has remained as playful as it ever was. The vibes are always good, and now there’s a new 25-year lease in place to ensure that the good times keep on rolling.
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