Flanked by high, steep cliffs, with only one point of access, the half-mile-long beach has served naturists with a remote, picturesque destination to bare-all for 30 years. It has been known to attract a unique crowd from around the Bay Area, as well as tourists and travelers from abroad.
“Clientele was probably 60 to 70 percent gay men,” said Montara resident Eric Nelson, remembering his three years working at a concession stand on the beach in the 1990s. “But, on the other hand, you had models, strippers, Europeans, Australians, some families, and people who wanted that all-around tan. It was an interesting scene.”
 A nude sunbather enjoys some quiet time alone in the northern corner of Gray Whale Cove State Beach in Montara. |
Today, the northern end of the beach is considered the nude zone. But if the ban is upheld that could potentially push nudists off the sand entirely.
Attorney Elva Kopacz of Huntington Beach filed a petition for review of the decision Thursday on behalf of the Naturist Action Committee, a Wisconsin-based non-profit group advocating in favor of nude recreation. Kopacz says the filing comes not as a moral debate on the merits of allowing nudity on beaches but as a matter of principle in state lawmaking.
“We’re not asking that state endorse nudity, per se. We’re saying that there have been traditionally nude beaches in California almost from Day 1, and that the California Department of Parks and Recreation cannot rescind that policy immediately without asking the regulated public what they think about it,” she said.
The state filed to repeal the policy on grounds that the public was not given adequate time to comment on the policy during its passage in 1979. Department spokesman Roy Stearns called the policy an “underground regulation” that hadn’t been adopted in accordance with proper administrative procedure.
Ironically, Kopacz made a similar assertion when she argued that the state department proceeded improperly in implementing the ban earlier this month.
The department’s move stemmed from repeated complaints of lewd behavior at San Onofre State Beach in San Diego, another beach where rangers unofficially permitted nudity. A portion of the beach had become a magnet for nudists, Stearns said, and was the site of a growing number of complaints from visitors and employees alike.
The department’s decision to outlaw nudity “was not so much about the nudists themselves – they’re pretty tame,” Stearns said. “This was (about) other people who had less than pure motives for going out there – seeking sexual encounters in the bushes and in the area, and flaunting that in front of some of our employees.”
In light of the recent ruling, state parks rangers can issue citations to naked beachgoers. But as far as actively enforcing the ban, Stearns said that if naked beachgoers aren’t causing problems, and people aren’t complaining, “we’ll do nothing.”
Paul Keel, State Parks San Mateo Coast Sector superintendent, echoed Stearns’ sentiment, adding that rangers haven’t cited anyone at Gray Whale Cove – nude or clothed – for at least eight years, to the best of his knowledge. Further, Keel says his skeleton staff has its hands full juggling the fallout from the state budget crisis.
Gray Whale Cove “is not on our radar,” he said.
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