When Bruce Kocsis, a former LA County lifeguard, came to his sister-in-law, Jamie Bateman, with the idea of starting a beach camp in 1997, Bateman was skeptical.
“I thought, ‘Who has a camp on the beach?’” recalled Bateman recently from under a canopy on the beach as a group of kids played in the sand nearby.
Having grown up in Sherman Oaks, Bateman, who is married to Kocsis’s wife’s brother, would ride the bus down to Santa Monica with her sisters and “barely went in the water,” she said.
But Kocsis, who played water polo and swam at USC, got a permit from the county to operate a camp on the beach in Manhattan Beach. He wanted Bateman’s experience as a preschool teacher and kindergarten camp director in Berkeley.
Almost twenty years later, Hammerhead Beach Camp has become so popular that not only have former campers come back as counselors, those campers’ children have attended the camp, too. The camp, which opened a second location in Torrance four years ago, has been voted Best of the Beach camp six out of seven years by Easy Reader’s readers.
But now it seems Hammerhead has become a victim of its own success.
“When we started, there were a handful of beach camps,” said Kocsis. “Now from Cabrillo to Malibu, there are hundreds.”
He attributes the increase in competition to the Department of Beaches and Harbors opening up all of the county’s beaches for camp permits in 2012. Hammerhead now has to compete to get its spot on the beach.
There’s also been a rise in surf camps operated by big companies like Roxy, which has a camp next to Hammerhead’s spot off of 6th Street this summer. Hammerhead, which is only open during the summer, can’t compete with those businesses’ advertising budgets, its owners said.
“Six years ago, we had waitlists,” said Bateman. “We had to turn people away. Now we have drop-ins, which I never would’ve allowed before.”
The duo, whose children and children’s friends have all gone through the camp, said they considered selling it. But because of their reputation in the community, they decided against it. The local Friendship Circle, which partners children with disabilities with volunteers, has sent its participants through the camp for years. Hammerhead and its campers do the annual Skechers Pier to Pier Friendship Walk.
Bateman and Kocsis, who each have jobs separate from the camp, are sad to be letting go of their operation. The camp, which is still accepting students, will continue running through August 21 in Manhattan Beach and August 14 in Torrance.
As of the writing of this article, they hadn’t told anyone, including their counselors or families. Bateman said she’s felt bad as people have asked her about working for Hammerhead in the future.
“I think it’s going to come as a huge shock to the community,” she said.”I don’t know what I’m going to do next summer. I feel like I’m missing an arm.” ER
