Surfer statue ‘to honor the women of the water’ proposed for Pleasure Point

Santa Cruz might soon be home to a second bronze surfer statue.

Since 1992, the figure of a male surfer inspired by members of the 1936 Santa Cruz Surfing Club has stood on a pedestal along West Cliff Drive. Now there’s a proposal to install a similar female surfer statue along East Cliff Drive in Pleasure Point.

Kari Lochhead, who lives in Pleasure Point, told Lookout she started the project almost two years ago with the idea of having something on the Eastside that represents Santa Cruz, honors its surfing heritage and, more broadly, symbolizes “how much we all love and connect with the ocean.”

She has always loved the male surfer statue and “how much a part of the community he is,” she said. She imagines that there were always meant to be two statues.

“I went on vacation a few years ago to Kona, and there was this beautiful stretch of beach that’s flanked by two giant tikis,” Lochhead said. “I liked that idea of flanking Santa Cruz in the same way. So to me, a female surfer is like — of course, there should be a female surfer. Because why wouldn’t there be?

“There’s a lot of great symbolism around bringing together the Eastside and the Westside, there being an equal partner to the male surfer statue, and an equal icon,” she said. 

“To honor the women of the water”

The proposed location for the statue is on a bluff near the intersection with Manzanita Avenue, on a site referred to as the East Cliff Dirt Farm by Pleasure Point locals. Plans submitted to the county call for the monument to be about 18 feet tall. That includes a 7-foot pedestal, said local surfboard shaper Bob Pearson of Arrow Surfboards, who is involved with the project. He said the statue proposal features a 9-foot longboard and a woman, about 5 feet tall, wearing a wetsuit, in a small plaza with benches. 

“Even if you don’t surf, I think people connect with the male surfer statue, and I don’t think you have to surf to appreciate what surfing means to our community,” said Lochhead, who said she doesn’t surf but described herself as “an ocean lover.” 

Lochhead has had a hand in beautification projects along East Cliff. She said of the people involved in the statue project, “We’re just a collection of women who all interact with the ocean differently.” 

That’s how they came up with the dedication for the proposed statue: “To honor the women of the water.” The West Cliff statue, titled “To honor surfing,” has a plaque dedicating the monument to “all surfers, past, present and future, in Santa Cruz and elsewhere.”

Lochhead is the primary applicant on a discretionary application filed Dec. 23 with Santa Cruz County Community Development and Infrastructure. 

According to a statement from the department emailed to Lookout, county staff members have reviewed the proposal and are finalizing a staff report with a recommendation. The department did not have a date for when the staff report would be available. The project is expected to be considered at a zoning administrator hearing in March, when community members will be able to provide comments prior to the county’s decision. 

“To move forward, the project requires several approvals, including a coastal development permit, a site development permit and a variance to allow reduced setbacks from the roadway and adjacent property lines,” according to the statement. “A geotechnical report has been submitted and reviewed as part of the application.”

The Dirt Farm

County Supervisor Manu Koenig broke news of the proposal Jan. 29 on social media. 

“Notice of Proposed Development at the East Cliff Dirt Farm?!? Yes, it’s true but in the best way,” Koenig’s posts on Instagram and Facebook read. 

Many community members commented on the announcement, some in support of the statue and others who said the Dirt Farm, an open area on the cliffs above the surfing spot at 38th Avenue, should remain undeveloped. As of Feb. 5, a sign for the proposed development attached to a palm tree at the site was gone. Lochhead said someone had taken the sign and that she would be putting up a new one.

Lochhead said she met with county planners and a member of the parks department before submitting the permit application. They looked at Eastside locations such as Pleasure Point County Park and The Hook County Park and determined they were “already developed in a way that we’d have to undo something.”

Local surfer Aylana Zanville, who is on the project’s 13-member advisory council, said she feels the Dirt Farm is the perfect place for the statue “because it’s just dirt everywhere.” She said it could be improved with a place “where people can come together and sit around this female statue and look at the ocean in the background and watch the surfers.”

Zanville, who lives in Capitola, said she often rides her bike to surf Pleasure Point, and she envisions the surf statue as she rides by the location. 

She said she is “thrilled” about the statue and feels like it’s “the missing piece.” Zanville is an organizer of the Women on Waves surf competition, and has talked with that team about the statue. 

“We’re very excited to have a female surfer represented in our hometown,” she said. “And especially with a wetsuit and not being sexualized. I think rocking the Jack O’Neill wetsuit is just a great thing for our community.” The founder of the O’Neill brand lived on the bluffs above Pleasure Point.

Lochhead said the plaza will not include pavers or cement. 

“It’s going to feel like it belongs,” she said. 

In an email to Lookout, Koenig wrote that he is “happy anytime someone wants to contribute energy and resources to making our community a better place.

“The idea of a complimentary surfer statue for the east side is brilliant,” he wrote. “My office has been receiving a lot of feedback since the notice was posted. Generally speaking, I haven’t heard a lot of disagreement with the concept, concerns mostly center on the proposed location or the size. We’ll be sharing additional information and opportunities for people to weigh in soon.”

A modern surfer

Lochhead said the female figure would not be modeled after anyone specific. She will have the same stature as the original statue, but with a more modern surfboard, said Pearson, who would shape the board the figure will hold.

“She’ll also be in a wetsuit, as a nod to Jack O’Neill, but also, again, a more modern representation of surfing,” Lochhead said. 

Pearson helped Lochhead connect with the artists who created the original statue, Brian W. Curtis and Thomas Marsh. As before, Curtis would make the pedestal and Marsh would sculpt the figure. Curtis would also take a mold of the surfboard Pearson creates and translate it into bronze.

Marsh told Lookout he looks forward to sculpting the new statue and seeing the project “come to life.”

“This is my life’s work,” said Marsh, who is 74 and resides in Virginia, where he continues his decades-long career as a sculptor. “When I have a chance to create a life-size figure, I’m excited. Furthermore, this is now a larger concept. It is, you might say, creating bookends for Santa Cruz.” 

Curtis told Lookout he’s excited to work with Marsh again and to contribute to the community. He said the original statue has two windows carved into the pedestal with wave forms. The proposal for the new statue includes four windows with added aquatic animals, such as shells and a small octopus. 

“You’re going to be able to walk around and sit on the benches, and it creates just a little bit more interest,” said Curtis, who is 70 and works as an art appraiser. He still lives in Santa Cruz and for many years ran Curtis Antiques in Soquel Village. 

Curtis recalled walking along the cliffs with Lochhead to look at potential locations. 

“And when we got down to where the three palm trees are, it really was a no-brainer,” he said. “Because it makes the sculpture so in the round and three-dimensional.”

The proposal calls for a 650-square-foot public plaza with three custom concrete benches and drought-tolerant landscaping, and the existing palm trees, according to the planning application. Lochhead said the ground will be decomposed granite, the same material as the pathway that runs along East Cliff Drive. 

“It’ll feel very in keeping with the environment,” Lochhead said. 

The project will be funded by private donations. The team hopes to have the remainder of the project’s permits by later this spring and will then start fundraising, with donations going through nonprofit County Park Friends. Lochhead declined to provide the project’s budget. 

“We haven’t looked at the budget in almost over a year, so I would really rather not say, because I don’t want to be categorically off,” she said.

The current timeline calls for the statue to be installed in spring 2027. 

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