Beaches are vanishing faster than ever before. In San Diego, higher tides and stronger storms are reshaping a coastline beloved and visited by millions each year. What’s happening in San Diego mirrors what’s unfolding at beaches across the U.S.: as climate change accelerates erosion, our beaches are disappearing from the coastal squeeze between rising seas and hard infrastructure, and without action, we risk losing the beaches that define and defend our coastal communities.

The good news? Decision makers are not sitting idly by. The city of San Diego, for one, is taking an important step forward, and Surfrider is working hand in hand to ensure our ocean, waves, and beaches are protected for all people to enjoy.

A Case for Nature-Based Resilience

The San Diego Coastal Resilience Master Plan (CRMP) is the city’s first comprehensive roadmap for adapting to rising seas while protecting what makes our coastline special — public access, wildlife habitat, surf breaks, and our coastal communities themselves.

Instead of solely relying on hard structures, like seawalls and rock revetments of the past, the CRMP centers the future of coastal resilience around nature-based solutions like dune habitat restoration, and concepts that give beaches the space to be dynamic and shift over each season. These are proven approaches that work with natural processes rather than attempting to push back against them — helping to protect coastal infrastructure and public trust resources, while also allowing ecosystems to thrive.

Participants were invited to actively participate, explore tradeoffs, and directly shape the vision through mapping activities and ongoing feedback opportunities.

Surfrider has long believed that a community must be involved in shaping its own future — and that doing so often means having hard conversations. These meetings that helped shape the vision of the CRMP were both heartening and, at times, uncomfortable as community members grappled with change, weighed different priorities, and sought alignment on the path forward. But that’s what real collaboration looks like. Without community participation, even the best-intentioned project risks failing the very people it’s meant to serve.

Community outreach engagment events in Ocean Beach and La Jolla

Our Take: Let the Coast Be a Coast

At Surfrider, we believe that the ocean will always win — and that’s OK, so long as we plan and design with that reality in mind. The CRMP represents a turning point, one where we can choose to let nature act naturally.

We support the city’s vision overall, and urge continued focus on strategies that are based on sound science and support nature, including:

• Prioritizing nature-based solutions over new coastal armoring.

• Planning for the natural landward migration of beaches wherever space allows.

• Designing floodable and dynamic waterfronts that can absorb wave energy instead of attempting to halt it.

• Reimagining how public infrastructure like parking lots, roads, and trails can and should coexist along an ever-changing shoreline.

These aren’t easy shifts, but they’re necessary ones. They’re how we protect surf breaks, coastal habitats, and the public right to beach access — not just for ourselves, but for future generations.

What Surfrider Is Doing

Surfrider is deeply engaged in supporting the CRMP planning effort and ensuring the public stays part of the process. 

Here’s how we’re helping build momentum:

1. Raising Awareness Within Our Network

We’re sharing updates about the Coastal Resilience Master Plan through our membership, email newsletters, and blog features. By amplifying engagment opportunties and translating technical planningf jargon into everyday language, we’re helping more San Diegans understand how decisions made today will shape tomorrow’s coastline — and how they can weigh in.

2. Uplifting Holistic Planning

In partnership with Outdoor Alliance, the city of San Diego, San Diego Bird Alliance, and the San Diego River Park Foundation, Surfrider co-hosted a 30×30 Partnership Summit Field Tour at the future site of the Ocean Beach project area earlier this year.

More than 40 participants — from community members to representatives from the California Natural Resources Agency, State Parks, and even Congressman Scott Peters’ office — joined us for a walking tour and conversation to learn about how coastal resilience, habitat restoration, and recreation overlap.

The event showcased what collaboration looks like in action. In addition to the future resilience project, ongoing work to restore and preserve dune habitat at nearby Smiley Lagoon was featured. This location supports both important bird habitat and off-leash dog recreation on the same beach, making it a place that vividly illustrates the success and tension between protecting wild spaces and maintaining public access. Attendees had the opportunity to help restore the dunes by removing invasive plants, spotting migratory birds, and discussing how planning for the future can keep our beaches and ecosystems healthy. It was a tangible example of what the CRMP is striving to achieve — a coast where both people and nature can thrive together.

3. Engaging the Community on the Ground

Surfrider San Diego’s Climate Action Program recently partnered with Friends of Sunset Cliffs for a large-scale invasive species removal event at the proposed Sunset Cliffs CRMP project site — and the turnout was beyond expectations.

What started as a 35-person volunteer capacity event turned into 60 participants, all eager to roll up their sleeves and help restore one of San Diego’s most picturesque stretches of coastline. Five groups, each led by a Friends of Sunset Cliffs volunteer site captain, fanned out along the cliffs from 9 a.m. to noon, filling many dozens of XL construction bags with invasive plants that crowd out beneficial native vegetation.

But this wasn’t just a cleanup — it was part of a much bigger vision. The Friends of Sunset Cliffs have developed an ambitious five-year restoration master plan, rooted in the belief that meaningful change starts locally. Their volunteers aren’t just showing up for workdays — they’re growing native plants at home from seed, nurturing them until they’re ready to be planted when the conditions are right.

Partnerships like these are vital. Strong, community-rooted groups bring the people-power, place-based knowledge, and deep care that make large-scale resilience projects possible. Efforts like this bridge the gap between vision and action by combining community science, stewardship, and city planning.

The morning ended the way it began — with people standing shoulder to shoulder on the cliffs, talking about the future of their coast. Looking out over the expanse of the glittering Pacific, it was impossible not to feel hopeful. Small acts, multiplied by many hands, truly can build momentum for a thriving shoreline while also preparing us for a future of increased coastal hazards.

Friends of Sunset Cliffs Volunteer Lead, Leon Scales, walks the 2 mile the bluff top checking in with event volunteers.

Looking Ahead

San Diego’s Coastal Resilience Master Plan is a vision for how our San Diego community can live alongside and adapt to our changing coastline. Surfrider will continue to work in lockstep with the city and our partners to ensure this vision stays rooted in transparency, community input, and viable natural solutions.

The challenges ahead are real, but so is the energy behind this work. From policymakers to beachgoers, scientists to surfers, we all have a role in shaping a coastline that’s healthy, accessible, and adaptable.

Get Involved

If you love San Diego’s beaches, your voice matters in what comes next.

Stay informed about upcoming volunteer opportunities, community meetings, and updates on the Coastal Resilience Master Plan. Sign up for Surfrider San Diego’s newsletter below to receive the latest coastal resilience news and ways to get involved. Get plugged in with the San Diego Climate Action Program here!

Not a San Diegan? Find your local chapter here, and stay connected.