Spirit of Imperial Beach

An 18-foot bronze surfer stood beside a massive longboard at Imperial Beach, California, when KPBS covered the town's public art in 2023. The Spirit of Imperial Beach was dedicated on 3 January 2009. NBC 7 reported at the time that the Port of San Diego described it as honouring the city's surfing culture and the lifeguards who protect its beaches. It shows a surfer with a longboard, and at its foot, 10News reported in 2018, two children build sandcastles. KPBS added in 2023 that the base is a sandcastle and that large fish on the installation are climbable. The sculptor was A. Wasil, a Coronado resident and San Diego State University graduate who later taught at SDSU and San Diego City College; the Port described him as late by the time of the dedication. The statue was part of a $3 million project to improve the west end of Palm Avenue, sponsored by the Port and the city. KPBS reports that the face resembles Dempsey Holder, an Imperial Beach lifeguard and surfer who helped popularise big-wave surfing in San Diego in the 1950s. The body is another matter. Wasil told the Coronado Eagle & Journal in 2008 that a port commissioner did not want a "wimpy guy", so he used photos of Schwarzenegger in his prime as a model. KPBS placed the statue on Palm Avenue at Ocean Lane in 2023, just north of the pier. KPBS names it and Surfhenge, in front of the pier, as the city's most popular and photographed works of art. The Port's Imperial Beach art walk page lists it on a route of about 0.6 miles. KPBS also noted in 2023 that cross-border sewage pollution continues to close the coastline at times.