Surf instructor wins fight to teach in Newport Beach
After a long legal battle, Pacific Legal Foundation client and surf instructor Jason Murchison just won the right to teach surfing lessons on city beaches.
The California native has been surfing since he was in kindergarten. Always pulled toward the ocean, Jason chose to attend college at the University of Hawaii and later spent time as a diver in the Navy.
While attending law school in California, Jason put his skills to good use, teaching surfing lessons to support himself. His original plan was to practice law after graduation, but he realized that the demand for surfing instruction was high enough for him to turn his small business into a full-time career.
He launched Learn to Surf, and since its founding, thousands of people have learned how to surf with Jason or one of Learn to Surf’s other skilled instructors. In addition to his paying clientele, Learn to Surf gives back to the community by offering free lessons to people in substance recovery and injured veterans from the Wounded Warrior Project.
Jason and Learn to Surf often taught lessons on Newport Beach. Unfortunately, a city ordinance makes it impossible for Jason and other small surfing schools to run their businesses.
In 2012, the City of Newport Beach enacted an ordinance that requires a written agreement with the director of the Newport Beach Recreation & Senior Services Department before “any instructional activity for monetary consideration in a park, park facility, or beach” can occur.
The ordinance is vague and has caused a great deal of confusion for surf instructors trying to comply with the law. For starters, nowhere in the text does it tell instructors how to obtain the agreement or the criteria used to determine the City’s decision. Still, Jason did his due diligence and tried to obtain the required agreement in 2015 and 2016 but was ultimately denied.
The only reason the City gave him was that no additional surfing instructors were needed. Not once did the City provide any information as to what the magical number of “needed” surf instructors might be. Jason soon discovered that the City has entered into agreements with only three surfing schools, two of which operate only seasonally.
Jason battled with the City for years. In 2016, Newport Beach even took him to court, claiming he was a public nuisance and demanding that he pay thousands of dollars in fines and fees. For a small business owner with a young family, the financial repercussions of the City’s actions posed a devastating threat to Jason.
After teaming up with Pacific Legal Foundation in early 2025, Jason and the City of Newport Beach reached a settlement at the end of July. The settlement secures Learn to Surf’s right to teach paid surfing lessons on city beaches under a five-year agreement—the same terms granted to the other three city-approved surf schools.
“The government doesn’t get to cap competition just because it feels like it. Every entrepreneur deserves the freedom to build a business without the city deciding the market is full,” said Pacific Legal Foundation Senior Attorney Caleb Trotter.
While the settlement is a win and restores Jason’s ability to run his business on equal footing with competitors, the ordinance is still on the books and poses a threat to other surfing schools. But thanks to Jason, his case has exposed how unchecked permitting power allows governments to suppress competition and deny entrepreneurs a fair shot at earning a living.
Pacific Legal Foundation also currently represents another California surfing instructor and small business owner, Helina Beck, who is challenging the California Department of Parks and Recreation’s monopolistic regulations that let the government grant exclusive teaching privileges to favored surfing instructors while denying that right to others.
