The Mystery of
Poles
We recently reran a story called Campus Exposed
that raised a question.
And it’s a question that rises up as often as the tide.
“Why is it called Poles?”
This is the only photo we know of showing the poles in question.
It’s from that article that Dewey Schurman wrote for Surfer Mag in 1965.
So we sent the question out to our subscribers, a quiz of sorts:
-When were the poles installed, and why?-
As expected, we got some colorful answers.
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It had something to do with the Marine Sciences program as I recall.
They were there when I first surfed there in 62 so I am asking a few smarter geezers!
The poles are the remains of the marine base installation that was the original campus of UCSB.
In 1941, Uncle Sam had a floating pier and the poles were the anchors o the pier.
The poles are a dedication to the Warsaw pact and like the Lincoln memorial, are an icon of the
polish immigrants to America
The UCSB fishing team used the poles to net sea bass and lobster
There was a time when sand would settle on the campus point area. They called this a beach.
Poles were erected for volleyball. With winter storms the beach was reclaimed and the poles
were in the sea
The poles were a submarine trap
The are poles left behind by aliens
Well if the poles were in the 1965 picture, that was before I was born. As for their purpose, I
seem to recall from my UCSB days (those years are a bit hazy) the poles were some sort of
sensors for the marine bio lab…maybe water temp.
Installed for marine research, tide and wave height
Not sure about the when, but as for the why – has to be for volleyball at low tide.
I think Keith put ’em up to prong San Marcos High School surfers….
I bet the poles were something from the marine base?
I know the poles were there at least until 76 because I started surfing there that summer. My
understanding was that they were there as part of some research being conducted by UCSB
which makes sense.
The first Marine Biology Department pump house is located under the bathrooms and I think the
poles had something to do with they’re water intake lines at the time.
Hmm. Don’t know, but I always figured they had something to do with the Marine Science folks –
whose buildings were close by.
For some reason I thought it was the salt water intake for the ocean lab. No idea where I got that
from.
Back in the 60’s I seem to remember the “Poles” having something to do with the Marine Bio
intake system at UCSB – but that may be something made up in my muddled brain cells.
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Some of the guys actually had the reason right, but couldn’t pinpoint a time of installation.
Finally, a couple of the experts at the UCSB marine biology lab were kind enough to let us pester
them with the question, and they had an answer.
“The term “Poles” came about when surfers started referring a surf spot that was close to the
steel poles that marked the location of the original UCSB Marine Lab seawater intake structure. It
is my understanding that the steel poles marking the location were metal pipes with concrete in
them. UCSB installed the seawater intakes at the year’s end extreme low tide. (so your photo
showing them in the breaking surf are the poles in question). The intakes were large concrete
rectangular boxes that were filled with gravel and sand that acted as a filter media. Pipes ran
underground from the intakes to the marine lab. At extreme low tides the seawater system was
not able to pump water to the lab. The original marine lab was completed in 1964 and the poles
seawater system was installed prior to that date. Floyd DeWitt the UCSB aquarist came to UCSB in
1962 and remembers surfing at poles in 1963 so your date of 1962 is probably correct. In 1975
UCSB constructed a new seawater system up the coast from Poles a 100 meters or so and out to a
depth of 7meters. At that time the seawater system to poles intakes were abandoned but not
removed. I arrived in 1975 and have a recollection that the poles were still there. Neither Floyd
nor I remember the poles officially being removed as part of any UCSB project so they probably just
succumbed to corrosion and the forces of the waves. There has been some confusion that the
term “Poles” referred to the PVC pipe mooring buoys that Dr. Neushul installed to mark the
location of his kelp bed research project. But that is not the case. The kelp bed project with the
PVC poles was much later after the mid 70’s and was much further off shore in 7 meters’ depth of
water and deeper.
That is about all we remember of the project.”
Now you know.
Installed around 1962 for seawater intake. Eventually rotted out in the
late 70s.
The story of the last poles demise that we have heard more than once is that a
couple of young surfers threw an old tire they found on the beach over the pole,
where it remained for quite some time. The tire and the tides slowly worked the
final pole loose.
Feel free to throw this knowledge around like you’re an old local….
“Dad, why do you call it Poles?”
One last note. An email we just received:
“I remember the day that they installed the new intake system. I was a 13 or 14 year old grom
surfing with buddies Tom Corlett and Tyler Richardson.The waves were pretty small but ridable.
They had this tug boat pulling a long flexible pipe which was floating on the surface. They had
assembled it in the lagoon and were dragging it out of there over the beach and into the ocean. It
got about 100 yards out, but couldn’t get any further due to the tidal surge. The tug was being
swung back and forth like it was on the end of a slow motion whip. All the workers were getting
pretty nervous on the beach and there was some thought of settling for what they had and sinking
the pipe. Finally another tug came to the rescue and together they pulled the pipe out probably 300
yards then filled it with water to sink it. Its connected to that cement building on the beach.”
Tim Connell.
