In a recording released Monday by attorneys who filed a class-action lawsuit against the so-called “Bay Boys”, a local surfer is heard explaining the hassling is, “all out of love.” Photo: Chuck Bennett/Daily Breeze
Localism is in the midst of an unprecedented legal challenge in the state of California. In May, attorneys filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of Diana Milena Reed, a surfer who was allegedly harassed when she tried to take photos of the waves at Lunada Bay. Now, in an audio recording released by attorneys on Monday, a Lunada Bay surfer is heard explaining to Reed that locals indeed hassle outsiders in an effort to dissuade them from coming back, and to keep the place from becoming overcrowded.
“The rousting is all out of love,” says the surfer, a man attorneys identify as Charlie Ferrara.
“So you think they’re rousting me out of love?” asks Reed, laughing somewhat uncomfortably.
“No,” says Ferrara. “They’re rousting you because you’re a newcomer.”
In the 13-minute recording, Ferrara goes on about respect, and the underlying logic behind harassing non-locals.
“Listen, this is completely open to you,” he says, before explaining why it’s not. “The surfing is different. I can’t tell you you can’t be down here. I can’t tell you that. I can’t tell you you can’t go surfing. But what I can do is make sure you don’t have fun out there, you know what I mean? And then what’s the point of that? You’re gonna come here when the surf’s good everywhere else and get burned and have a bad day? ‘Cause that’s what we’re gonna keep on doing. They wanna come out, we’re just gonna keep on burning ’em and make ’em have a bad session. Because we’re gonna stick together like a pack. Because that’s what we are… We don’t bother people, they come to us.”
In a statement obtained by the Daily Breeze, Reed’s attorneys explain, “a second-generation Bay Boy, Charlie Ferrara, approached Diana to attempt to defuse any tension and explain the group’s modus operandi — that the tradition of violence and intimidation is necessary to keep Lunada Bay ‘protected’ (illegally) from nonresident Southern California beachgoers.”
Ferrara’s attorney, Laura Bell, reportedly denies that it’s her clients voice in the recording.
“Charlie does not have an older cousin who lived in Hawaii for three years and Frank does not work on cars,” she told the Breeze, referring to details in the conversation. Although Ferrara’s father, Frank, previously told the paper he works in auto wholesale and his brother owns an auto garage in Torrance.
Over the course of the conversation, Ferrara claims that Lunada Bay is not unlike other surf spots up and down the coast. “Look at Oregon,” he says. He also accuses Reed of knowingly coming to a spot that’s “localized.” “That’s where you went wrong.” But he stops short of naming any specific instances where locals resorted to physical abuse to intimidate non-locals. He says to Reed that despite what people may say, no one will ever actually touch her.
“It is how it is,” Ferrara says, somewhat dismissively. “It’s been this way forever.”
