By: Nicholas Murphy
Hayden Bleacker longs for the day where he and his friends can hang and relax on the beach and enjoy the ocean breeze.
“I go to the beach as a getaway location where me and my friends can hang and relax not to go surfing or run across the shoreline, to me the beaches are still closed and that sucks.” Bleacker said.
Officials in Ventura County state our beaches are only open for surfing and exercising
The partial closure is obviously causing plenty of mixed feelings not only with locals, but with many families, and college students trying to escape the boredom of quarantine and the increase of warmer weather.
Another Santa Clarita resident who isn’t pleased with Ventura County’s policy is Tom Brucher
“ What is the point of saying the beaches are open if you can’t fish from the piers? I bought a bunch of fishing gear for my birthday specifically for Ventura Pier and I’m pissed because I haven’t been able to use it yet!” Brucher said.
On the other side of the coin there is SCV resident Cory Cantrell who took full advantage of the Ventura County coast despite the partial closure.
“I went up to Ventura on Saturday to practice surfing. There was no one in the water; it was awesome I did not have to worry about hitting any little children. I had all the space in the world and could really let loose on some waves”, said Cantrell.
As beaches in Newport and Orange County start to enter stage 2 (needing to be active on the beach) on Wednesday May 6th, there is still a tremendous amount of people wanting the beaches to be fully open.
Governor Gavin Newsom is still standing firm on his policy putting out a statement.
“It won’t be on the basis of pressure, it won’t be on the basis of what we want, but what we need to do,” Newsom said. “And what we need to do from my humble perspective is listen to the public health experts.”
Santa Clarita residents Hayden and Tom will have to wait a little bit longer before they can truly kick off their 2020 summer.
