With inflatable innertubes and rafts in tow, a group of an estimated 200 friends trekked to the edge of Mission Bay and cast off. They floated peaceably in the water on the Fourth of July, and enjoyed a beer while doing it.
Brad Boyle, a Pacific Beach resident and organizer of the floating party, said the peaceful gathering should motivate City Council to consider a partial ban on alcohol on major holidays instead of a permanent ban on alcohol at the city’s beaches and bays.
Boyle, an informational technology engineer for Qualcomm, said the event was not a protest against the beach ban.
“While working in conjunction with the city officials, we were able to prove that a group of people with alcohol could maintain our right to assemble peacefully and abide by the law without being subjected to a generalization that we are going to be a problem,” Boyle said.
Last year’s Labor Day fight on the beach involving a crowd drew riot police to Reed Street. It resulted in the arrest of about 15 people.
The fight spurred Councilman Kevin Faulconer to support a one-year trial ban on alcohol at the city’s beaches and bays. City Council adopted the law with a 6-1-1 vote in November.
Since December, consuming alcohol on the sand of the city’s beaches and bays has been illegal.
It is legal, however, to have an open beer on a floating vessel or boat as long as the driver is sober, according to San Diego lifeguards.
Lifeguards also pointed out that innertubes and floatation devices don’t always count as vessels.
“A surfboard is not a boat. An innertube is not a boat. But when you get into a raft, then the boating law starts to apply,” said lifeguard Lt. Andy Lerum.
While the group of floaters may have skirted around the beach booze ban, lifeguards and police do not recommend drinking while boating, swimming and, in this case, floating or rafting.
“Our concern was that people under the influence [of alcohol] could be in jeopardy of drowning,” Lerum said. “You could call it what ever you want; it’s not a good idea to drink and swim.”
Though nobody drowned or was hurt floating on the Fourth, there were no drinking citations handed out.
Police did order people off nearby boats in Sail Bay considered too full to be safe, Lerum said. He added that boats overloaded with people would not have enough lifejackets for everyone as required by law.
Also, nobody is allowed to build a pier, float or wharf in Mission Bay unless approved by the city, he said.
Between extra lifeguards and the San Diego Police Department’s Harbor Unit patrolling Mission Bay, the Fourth of July celebrations at Sail Bay went without any big problems, Northern Division Police Capt. Shelley Zimmerman said.
“The main goal is making sure everybody is safe,” she said.
Police also did not cite anybody for drinking while floating because no one caused any problems, police said.