If you check the ocean for hazards before you take a dip, you may have to change where you look for that information.
It’s been weeks since frequent surfer Scott Moon has been able to get back into the water, thanks to the multiple storms that recently hit the Central Coast.
“The runoff isn't really kind to your body when you get out there,” Moon said. “So I wanted to wait for it to clean up a little bit.”
Moon said he waits longer than the suggested 3 days after a rainstorm to make sure most of the bad bacteria is away from the shore. He said when he goes out to surf, he usually checks for hazards online.
Surfers like Moon have one less place to check for hazards in the water because San Luis Obispo County’s Surf Safe SLO website has ran out of funding for the season.
“There can be issues with your gut,” Moon said. “There can be issues with staff. So if you have cuts or open wounds that can really present a problem to your system and that's what we want to try and avoid.”
I reached out to Peter Hague, the director of SLO county’s environmental health services. He said the county is given a grant from the state to analyze water samples across the central coast. However, the grant amount hasn’t changed in ten years.
With labor costs going up, Hague said it’s hard to stretch the grant money throughout the whole year.
Natalie Testerman said she surfs every weekend.
“I think that’s strange because if you're going to be in the water, you definitely like getting it in your system,” Testermam said. “I would like to know that it's like clean enough to go out and know what you're going into.”
Though Surf Safe SLO isn’t available for the winter, Shaun Cooper, another surfer I spoke to said they have other ways of checking the water quality, like Surf Line and Surfrider organization, a nonprofit that independently tests water levels.
Hague said water testing from the county will start up again on April 1.
