Keep Bailing

In 2007, the city council of San Diego passed a year long ban that later became permanent. Prior to the ban, the San Diego Police Department needed an RV modified as a mobile jail to deal with alcohol related arrests. The ban was effective until drinkers found a loop-hole.

Specifically, the ban defined the word “beach” as the “land or sand area that outlined the territory of a bay or ocean“. Thus was born “Floatopia,” or float parties, for drinkers on San Diego’s coast.

When these parties began happening, the San Diego Police Department checked with the cities attorney’s office. To their disappointment, they found that indeed, drinking on the beach is illegal, but  drinking on the water, is not. Captain Chris Ball, of the San Diego PD stated “If you’re floating, you’re good.”

The Floatopia parties have welcomed over 3,000 guests at one time, many who end up drinking way too much, creating an awful amount of trash and ultimately, incoherent beach goers floating on almost deflated rafts. More and more lifeguards and police forces are needed for these events, which end up costing the city thousands of dollars.

Captain Ball said, “If you slip off and the first deep breath you take is seawater, chances are you’re not coming back up, that’s what we’re concerned about.” Fortunately, up to this time, this hasn’t happened.

However, Floatopia parties may soon meet their end. The committee of neighborhood services and the public safety council passed a proposal that would amend the current ban on drinking by incorporating the word “bathers” meaning that all who are not in a boat.

This week, the San Diego City Council is expected to pass an extended ban into place by making it “unlawful for any bather to consume any alcoholic beverage within a marine league of any beach.” The word “league” describes an area approximately three and a half miles.