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Labor Day ritual renewed as campers, off-roaders visit rec area

By Sam Womack/Staff Writer

Sounding like a swarm of angry bees, thousands of ATVs, motorcycles and other off-highway vehicles darted around the 1,500 acres of coastline and dunes this past weekend at the Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area.

More than 50,000 people decided to spend their Labor Day weekend with family and friends buzzing up, down and around the mountains and valleys of sand — enjoying the holiday weekend for the day originally set aside to celebrate the achievements of American workers.

Andrew Zilke, Oceano Dunes district superintendent for California State Parks, said Tuesday it was a “pretty mellow weekend” with less than capacity crowds.

“It was a good family crowd — which is what we like to see,” Zilke said.

Total attendance from Friday to Monday was 52,630, Zilke said, with daily crowds never more than 13,000 at any time.

A capacity weekend would have been 60,000 as the capacity limit for one day is 15,000, he added.

Over the weekend, Zilke said, there were two surf rescues, two vehicle accidents with moderate to severe injuries, three vehicle accidents with minor injuries, five arrests for driving under the influence, and two other arrests.

“This is awesome,” shouted Gosia Ferenc, of Poland, as she sat atop her ATV Saturday on a hill near the southeastern boundary of the park.

Ferenc and her friends from Europe were vacationing in the area and having the time of their lives.

“There is no place like this in Europe for us,” she said.

In fact, the Oceano Dunes is the only place in the state that allows off-highway vehicles (OHV) to cruise on the beach.

The campground had been sold out for a week in advance and overnight and day passes were hard to come by Saturday.

What could have been chaos at the shoreline with children splashing through the shallow water, a miles-long row of OHVs and people setting up camp was instead organization born of what looked like mutual respect.

“So far, so good,” said Borja family members.

They and two other families planned a weekend vacation to the beach from Riverside County. And so far they have managed to have a fun, safe time.

Steve Egesdal, of Stanislaus County, said he’d been coming to the dunes for decades and always found his fellow campers and day-pass visitors kind.

“I love Pismo. I love the atmosphere and people are generally nice,” Egesdal said. “It seems like it never changes.”

But there is a dangerous mix of factors at the beach including alcohol, fast rides, steep sand dunes with unexpected drop-offs and a lot of people.

So far this year there have been six deaths at the park and Mike Lack, supervising state parks peace officer, said most fatalities and injuries can be traced to “unsafe speed.”

“Whether you’re going too fast or you’re not gaining enough speed and you tip over, you could get hurt,” Lack said.

However, Saturday there were no reports of injuries on the beach or the dunes as of 3 p.m., according to Lack. He added sheriff’s deputies who are trained emergency medical technicians ride on ATVs throughout the park to quickly offer assistance.

Lack also said that his officers so far had relatively few problems with alcohol, theft or unsafe driving among the crowds at the beach.

Approximately 1,000 camping passes had been purchased for $10 and 2,500 day passes were issued Saturday. More than 2 million people visit the park annually, Lack said and holidays are usually the busiest days.

Staff writer Julian J. Ramos contributed to this report.

swomack@theadobepress.com