Access to the LA28 Olympic surfing competition site, Lower Trestles, typically involves a hike down a steep dirt trail, stepping over train tracks without a safety crossing and continuing on a makeshift pathway that tramples through dense plant growth to get to the sand.
Part of San Onofre State Park, tucked between Orange and San Diego counties, Lower Trestles is considered one of the best surf breaks on the mainland, beloved for its perfect, peeling waves and off-the-beaten-path, natural feel that isn’t easy to get to.
But now it’ll be used as an Olympic venue, and those familiar with the surf spot are raising some concerns as preparations for the upcoming games get underway.
The San Onofre Parks Foundation has long sought solutions for the sketchy trek down to the beach.
“Our concern is, it’s not a safe crossing, it’s not a safe walk,” said Bob Mignogna, the group’s founding president. “We’d like to solve all of that for everyone.”
Folks have been making the illegal and unsafe railroad crossing at Lower Trestles for more than 50 years, since surfers first discovered the wave and would sneak onto the military base. Today, the area and its beaches on the edge of Camp Pendleton are leased from the Navy by the State Parks system.
Discussions about improved access to the beach date back 15 years, when concerns were brought up during one of the bigger surf contests, the Nike Lowers Pro, between the nonprofit and the event organizers.
Ahead of that surf contest in 2010, Nike and State Parks were exploring solutions, said Steve Long, founder of the nonprofit, and, at the time, lifeguard superintendent for State Parks overseeing the area.
Nike’s community outreach department connected with the nonprofit Architects of Humanity to hold a design competition, and more than 100 entries were submitted from around the world. Some of the finalists’ designs were showcased on poster boards at the Nike Trestles Pro so attendees could give feedback on their favorite designs.
“They came up with all kinds of wonderful ideas, we had community meetings, we had the community center with 300 people there,” Long said.
The selected winning design featured a wooden boardwalk going over the tracks and planks along the entire walk down, with railings for safety.
The crossing over the railroad was estimated at about $800,000, while doing the entire boardwalk up the steep trail and over the wetlands would cost about $4 million.
But the State Parks’ land lease was set then to expire in 11 years, and though Nike expressed willingness to fund the improvements, the future of the park was uncertain, Long said. Just this year, the parks system secured a lease for another 25 years
As a makeshift solution, surf contest organizers provide shuttle buses during their events to take people under a nearby railroad overpass and up the beach to the contest site.
But most people still opt to walk down the “goat trail,” over the tracks and through the wetlands, though there are warning signs and sometimes tickets handed out.
“Now is the time to address this crossing,” Long said, adding that there is bound to be new visitors checking out the surf spot that is soon to host the Olympics.
Long said he has dug up the old proposals, dubbed “Safe Trestles,” a play on words similar to the “Save Trestles” campaign that rallied supporters to stop a proposed toll road extension from crossing the natural landscape.
They would be a challenge to implement, Long said, because of the layered jurisdictions, but annually, there are some 200,000 crossings. While there haven’t been any deaths at the location, there have been several near misses, he added.
Mignogna recalls a scary situation while crossing the tracks, hauling his surfboard on a “wheelie,” the board carrier getting stuck right as a train was heading toward him. He pulled it to safety just as the train neared.
California State Parks is in the early stages of researching options and costs for improving access to Trestles ahead of the Olympic Games, said Superintendent for State Parks Scott Kibby.
“The goal is to better understand what may or may not be feasible from a safety, regulatory, operational, environmental and cultural resources standpoint in coordination with partner agencies,” he said in an email response.
Conversations and solutions would need to include a number of agencies, including the North County Transit District, the California Public Utilities Commission and other regulatory entities, as well as coordinating with tribal partners and representatives from the Marines and Camp Pendleton, he noted.
“Our goal is to continue working collaboratively with stakeholders to explore ways to improve public access and safety at Trestles while respecting the sensitive coastal environment, active rail corridor, and operational realities of the park,” Kibby said.
Watching the Olympic competition will require a ticket — World Surf League competitions using the surf break don’t — and the designated entry points have yet to be announced. When announcing the Olympic venue, State Park officials said the idea was to mimic WSL’s past layouts, which have included the world championships being held there, with similar crowd size maxed out at the 3,000- to 4,000-person range.
The safety and security of athletes and spectators remains the top priority of LA28 organizers, a spokesperson for the upcoming games said in an email.
“We continue to have positive conversations with our venue partners and look forward to welcoming the iconic West Coast sport of surfing to Trestles state beach in 2028,” they said.
With the spotlight on what’s arguably the mainland’s best surf break, now is the time to invest in the area’s safety, Long said.
“We recognize Trestles as the ‘Yosemite of Surfing,’” he said. “Let’s treat it like a majestic park, instead of an afterthought.”