Boardshorts

Last week, this column–which has been published in The Galveston County Daily News print edition since July 2017–moved to online only for the foreseeable future.

The Daily News, like many newspapers across the country, has been especially hard-hit by the economic turmoil created by the COVID-19 pandemic. Businesses that advertised in The Daily News have had to cut back on their marketing budgets and even resorted to layoffs in these uncertain economic times. Without advertisers, it’s difficult for The Daily News to keep producing a larger print edition, hence the newspaper has cut its production from seven days a week to five, starting earlier this month.

Subscribers help offset some–but not nearly all–of the losses in advertising revenue for the newspaper. So, if you value community journalism and want to see your local newspaper survive, please consider subscribing. You can do so on The Daily News website at https://www.galvnews.com/site/services/.

Now, on to our regularly scheduled program …

Despite an outcry from upper coast surfers who continue to watch the spring’s best swells pass unridden along Galveston’s beaches, the City Council this week decided it won’t vote to consider even a partial re-opening of the beaches until its next meeting on April 23.

At their meeting on Thursday, councilmembers asked City Manager Brian Maxwell to develop policies and procedures regarding a partial opening of the beaches-such as for a few hours each morning-for it to vote on next week.

Given the timeline discussed this week, even a partial re-opening of the beaches likely won’t happen until May 1.

During this week’s meeting, it appeared Councilman Jason Hardcastle was ready to bring a beach re-opening proposal to the council for a vote. But based on feedback from the other councilmembers, a vote was delayed until Maxwell could bring the proposed policies and procedures before council next week.

In the meantime, Galveston surfers have been driving south to Surfside/Quintana to try and score waves. While Beach Drive there has been closed to parking, surfers can still park at Jetty Park to access the beach.

As fate would have it, while Surfside did get a good swell last Sunday, the next day was blown out there and absolutely perfect and firing here in Galveston. Chest-high and bigger waves reeled along the beachfront as the strong offshores groomed them to perfection.

All we could do was sit on the seawall and watch the show.

While I understand that it’s important for the city to protect the public from the spread of the coronavirus, a full beach closure probably isn’t the best approach to make that happen.

People are still visiting Galveston, parking on the seawall and walking along or riding their bikes along the thoroughfare. Now, they’re just doing so on an 8-foot wide strip of concrete that stretches the length of some of the island’s beachfront.

Perhaps a better approach is the one being used in Hawaii during this pandemic. On Friday, the governor’s office added to beach restrictions in the Aloha State which forbid anyone from walking, standing or running along the beachfront but do allow access to water-based activities such as surfing, swimming or paddleboarding, so long as social distancing rules are followed. You can read about Hawaii’s policy here.

Even if just for a few hours each morning or evening, Galveston should consider a similar approach.

Stephen Hadley is a longtime surfer who live and works in Galveston. He can be emailed at stephendhadley@gmail.com.