San Clemente Officials Consider Adding Lights To The Pier For Night Surfing

San Clemente, the unofficial breeding ground for competitive surfing, is considering adding lights to its pier for night surfing.

The City Council is meeting today to discuss the proposal, which calls for bright lights to be installed on the north side of the pier. 

According to the OC Register:

The idea of facilitating night surfing was first brought up in November 2020 by former Councilman Chris Hamm, who no longer serves on the council.

Last month, before council deferred a decision to this week’s meeting, Councilman Chris Duncan said the idea aligns with the town wanting to be widely known for being the home of USA Surfing and it sounded like a “really cool” idea, but he wanted more information from staff about other places around the world that have a similar concept and whether it would need to also be approved by the California Coastal Commission.

There are a few reasons this may not be the best idea:

• increased collisions due to limited visibility 
• large marine predators feed at night
• light pollution disturbing natural biological cycles of marine life

But who cares, more surf = good time. Does anyone know if all of those e-bikes have reflective lights on them?

Read the full story here.