Saturday, October 24, 2026
At South Haven, the St Thomas surf spot locals call Makkas, there are no toilets, no changing rooms and no food, just boulders, sea urchins, sargassum and old tyres. Surfers along the coast at Mezgars Run and Retreat would welcome better facilities, but professional surfer Icah Wilmot fears that entry fees would follow, a first step, as he sees it, towards privatisation. NEPA, which houses the Beach Control Authority, says it has announced no plans to develop or privatise any public beach in the parish.
The worry has a source. The Beach Access and Management Policy tabled in March, billed as a first step towards replacing the 1956 Beach Control Act, sets a licensing and management framework for 67 public beaches and, according to Gleaner reporting, could support hotel beach passes for non-guests and exclusive licences. Officials say funding is the constraint on upgrades, while JaBBEM argues that bathrooms are not development and that tourism revenue and taxes, not fees, should keep public beaches free. If the toilet block arrives with a turnstile, who is the upgrade really for?
In scratchy pen and wash, a young surfer clings to a rubber ring marked “FREE BEACH” in the choppy water off a rocky St Thomas shore. Overhead, a helicopter labelled “UPGRADES” dangles a neat little toilet-and-changing hut just beyond his fingertips, while below the waves a grinning shark marked “ENTRY FEES” circles, and he asks the only question that matters: “WHO PAYS?”
Read more: St Thomas Surfers Fear Upgrades Will Put a Price on the Beach
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