California Beaches Forever

With the launch of the California Beaches Forever campaign, Surfrider Foundation is consolidating our multi–year, ongoing efforts to safeguard California's iconic beaches for future generations and ensure the preservation of our coastlines and communities as we adapt to climate change. Surfrider has both a long history of Coast & Climate policy wins and a bold new(ish) Climate Action Program providing real-time coastal dune restoration.

California’s ocean, waves, and beaches belong to the people – all people. Our shoreline is one of the state's most treasured features, a vital legacy we must protect. Yet our public beaches are at risk. Up to 70 percent of California's beaches are predicted to disappear by 2100, caught in the "coastal squeeze" between rising sea levels and coastal development. This is an equity issue as well as an environmental one: Without sand to walk, play or stretch out on, beach access is lost.

Already, seawalls, concrete bluff fill, rock revetments and other types of “armoring” cover 14 percent of California’s 1,100-mile long coast – and more than one-third of Southern California’s coastline. These false, temporary solutions destroy beaches, putting communities at greater risk of climate–caused flooding, threatening the loss of our treasured surf breaks, and foretelling a coast defined by cement, not sandcastles.

Preventing this future is largely in the hands of the California Coastal Commission, the state agency most responsible for helping preserve our beaches through appropriate planning and responses to sea level rise. California is the only state in the nation with such a powerful land use decisionmaking body defending the public's interest along its coastline.

Any development in the Coastal Zone must adhere to the California Coastal Act, a landmark law protecting public access and coastal resources. In California, every resident and visitor has the right to visit the beach. The Coastal Commission is how this right is enforced against efforts to privatize the coast. The Commission is also charged with safeguarding and, when feasible, restoring marine resources, environmentally sensitive habitats, and recreational use of coastal waters, including surfing.

To preserve the long–term future of our public beaches, wildlife and coastal recreation, we must engage coastal communities and all those who love the California coast in advocating for the preservation of our natural shoreline, demanding our right to public access and protecting California's wildlife from harm. The California Beaches Forever Campaign is our path to a future where sandy beaches and rideable waves still exist!!

The time is now. We must protect our public beaches before we lose them.

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The California Beaches Forever Campaign will:

1. Advocate for coastal access, resource protection and proactive climate adaptation at the California Coastal Commission

• Ongoing Efforts – Participating each month at California Coastal Commission meetings to prevent bad coastal development that furthers loss of our beaches; tracking coastal protection efforts through the ActCoastal website, newsletter and vote charts
• Public Education – Love Your Beach events educating the public and volunteers about their rights under the California Coastal Act

2. Advocate for coastal preservation and public access protection at other relevant state and local agencies

• Current Example – Protect San Onofre State Beach
• Ongoing Campaign – Save South Orange County Beaches from Railroad Armoring
• Ongoing Campaign – San Diego Coastal Resilience Master Plan

3. Implement "Nature–Based Solution" model projects and policies that promote beach preservation and climate adaptation

• Model Project – Surfers Point Managed Retreat
• Ongoing Efforts – Dune restoration and living shoreline projects

4. Pass legislation that protects the right of all Californians and visitors to a healthy, thriving, accessible coast

• 2026 Legislation – coming soon!