Paddle Diva Clashes With East Hampton Town Officials Again Over Operation Of Springs Paddleboard Business

The Paddle Diva and East Hampton Town have once again found themselves butting heads over the popular paddleboard rental and touring business’s use of Shagwong Marina in Springs, barely a month after a state judge dismissed a town claim that the business was operating in violation of zoning.

Last week, after a series of complaints from neighbors of the marina about the paddleboard company’s using a public beach to launch its paddleboards, a Town Marine Patrol officer issued owner Gina Bradley yet another summons, for not having a $3,500 town-issued mass gathering permit that paddleboard and kayak companies must hold to launch tours from town shorelines.

“Any town beach, anywhere,” said Chief Habormaster Ed Michels. “She does all the business work from the marina but she lays the boards out on the beach because it’s safer for people, and I’m fine with that. But she has to get the permit.”

Ms. Bradley said she had the permit in years past but hadn’t gotten one this year because she was using the marina as her sole location this year, rather than touring different harbors as most other paddleboard and kayak companies do. She said she had understood the beach to be part of the adjacent property up to the high tide mark and had never been told it was an issue to launch there in the five years she’s used the marina.

The beach, as most bay beaches in East Hampton are, is actually owned by the East Hampton Town Trustees, up to the toe of the dune.

“Then this comes out of the blue,” Ms. Bradley said this week. “I feel like this is harassment now. I’m in a private marina with access to a beach and I have neighbors who are trying in every which way to limit access to the beach.”

Ms. Bradley made the comparison to efforts by neighbors of Amagansett’s popular “Truck Beach” to block the four-wheel-vehicle owners who gather there on summer weekends.

Mr. Michels said that while the enforcement action taken was spurred by complaints from neighbors, the legal standing of the use of the beach for paddleboard tours was fairly black and white and that, once alerted to it, his office has to demand the permit.

Ms. Bradley said she has applied for the permit and expects to receive it by the coming weekend.

Last year the town had tried to halt Paddle Diva from operating at the marina, saying that the paddleboard tours and storage of paddleboards on the property constituted a change of use of the property. In July a state judge issued a curt dismissal of the town’s position. The town has yet to file an appeal.