Login / RegisterWreck Beach nudists slam Metro Vancouver’s park "goons"
ForWatermelon (real name Mary Jean Dunsdon), opportunities to bask in a Wreck Beach sunset have been "rare" lately.
However, when the self-proclaimed "weed diva" known for her beach merch stuck around until 9:40 p.m. on July 25, she was given verbal notice of a 72-hour ban from the beach. She said she’s still fuming over the indignity and the heavy-handed treatment she received for violating a rule prohibiting people from being on the beach after sunset.
"I would love to enjoy it [sunset] to its completion, the most beautiful part of it," Watermelon told the Straight by phone. "But not just that. I would love to enjoy it without a goon standing 40 metres from me, just waiting for the sun to dip so he can run over and kick me off, issue me verbal warnings, tell me I can’t come to my place of worship."
Watermelon said she objects to the strict enforcement of access hours at Wreck Beach, which on paper is open until 10 p.m. through August 13, like most parks run by Metro Vancouver, but in practice closes at sunset.
Judy Williams, long-time president of the Wreck Beach Preservation Society, told the Straight she agrees with Watermelon.
"I mean, you look at the confluence of the different oceans near Gandhi’s grave in India, and people from all over the world go there to see sunset because it’s very spiritual," Williams said by phone. "And it’s a spiritual thing with us. Because after all, this is where the Musqueam trod long before the white man came. The other thing is that the other beaches don’t have this kind of discrimination for their sunset closure time. Kits [Beach] doesn’t close until 11 p.m."
Richard Wallis, Metro Vancouver’s park operations supervisor, told the Straight that Williams had relayed her concerns to him adding, "It’s certainly an issue that we’ve discussed with them many, many many times in the past. I understand that they are not happy with how we handle it, but our position hasn’t changed."
Wallis added that the legal definition of sunset is "when it [the sun] goes below the horizon". Williams suggested authorities can stay up at the top of the winding stairs leading to Wreck Beach and wait for the public to leave.
"In our experience, it doesn’t work that way," Wallis said. "People will stay on the beach as long as they can."
Right now, sunset is at 8:54 p.m., Wallis said, so for Watermelon to be asked to leave at 9:40 p.m. "is a solid 45 minutes" after that.
"So, if she was asked to leave the beach at 9:40, then actually she had lots of time to enjoy the beach beyond sunset."
Yes, the sun may dip below the horizon before that, but there is still significant light for much longer, and that is what people intend on watching when you they say they are going to "watch the sun set".
Parks should only be closed after it gets dark, and if someone is there quiet, causing no harm, who really cares?!
The point of closing the parks is to be able to kick noisy teens out from parting there after dark.
As long as the bylaw officers are observing the correct, scientifically determined time. no one has any reason to complain.
Miguel
that is wreck beach in a nutshell.. every creep and boozer loser in the lower mainland congregates down there.
You want drugs - go to wreck
Underage drinking - no problem the vendors sell to anyone
get food poisening from the unregulated food
get your jollys creeping on young women
sit around drinking and smoking in the sunshine all day and call yourself naturists.. but never think of actually doing something about the environment.. just sit and bitch and harass the GVRD to preserve your precious beach...
pathetic really
there may be a small handful of nudists who don't engage in the drug and drink bingeing that normally goes on.. but the vast majority of the beach musicians, vendors and regulars you see (the tanned naked ones) are the most boring and useless group of people you'll ever meet... they capitolize on the illegal activities of selling booze and drugs to people and then bitch when they get caught or get thrown off the beach!
Six up is the term the regulars use for the beach cops and GVRD when they are on the beach and you hear this term shouted down the beach to let the druggies and drinkers know to hide their illegal shit. And it all resumes again upon departure of the enforcement...
I use to be a regular but got sick of the beer vendors every 3.5 minutes yelling 'ice cold beer'.. its not a relaxing beach when there are 5000 people on it and you are sitting in each others laps and smelling their armpits or worse.. their ass!
its hard to blame the cops and GV's for kicking the drunken fools off the beach when they have the law on their side.. you can;t hide a sunset under your blanket watermelon..
Bahahahahahaha!
What a load of solipsistic nonsense.
In the Wreck Beach area of Pacific Spirit Regional Park, there are about 500 steps on the stairway trail between the beach and the top of the trail, to Marine Drive and the University of B.C. campus. There are no lights on that steep stairway trail, so it is safer for people to leave Wreck Beach before it gets dark at night. At night, people have fallen off the stairs and been injured. Night-time access for medical rescue personnel becomes a lot more difficult.
Parks staff do not want people to stay at Wreck Beach at night and build fires and camp. In the summer, when the adjacent forest is tinder dry, a small camp fire can quickly become a large forest fire. During the last 10 years, there have been two significant fires that started at the base of the steep, tree- and brush- covered slope between Wreck Beach and the UBC campus.
-Glenn Bohn, Metro Vancouver
Glenn Bohn, communications specialist, Metro Vancouver
Thanks Watermelon for taking a stand and bringing this whole issue back into the light.... It is not the rules as much as how they are enforced that is so bothersome to me. The attitude and disrespect..... the glaring ........ It takes away from yes the "Spirituality of the Moment.
If you have not experienced going down those 500 or so stairs you may not realise how it makes for a unique area, where the City can sound and feel far away....... making it an awesome place to enjoy and experience wonderful Sunsets.... The group of people refered to as Lazy Naturists have been fighting to keep this beach NATURAL.... no roads ...no permanent buildings....this means that the dedicated and (they are regulated ) vendors put up and take down their stands everyday......
I invite you to come and experience the beach and its beauty and uniqueness for yourself but beware cause instead of the evening ending pleasantly you get to watch our finest looking for the worst and antagonising rather then defusing most situations they come across.
These cops are the worst. They're probably the rejects that are being disciplined for bad behaviour and questionable instances. Rather than bust real crime, they go down to Wreck and start shooting fish in a barrel, before walking back up those long stairs all feeling proud of themselves for ruining multiple peoples' days.
Leave Wreck alone. No harm, no foul. The area does a fine job of policing itself without hurting anyone. We don't need the cops' protection down there. Go away!
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