Floatopia.

Ah yes. Another phenomenon that has Santa Barbara written all over it.

Floatopia is an event that was started like 4 years ago where basically people get really drunk, walk to the beach (which can only be accessed by our neighborhood so it's all students), and float out on the water for several hours in some kind of flotation device - inner tubes and rafts seem to be most popular from what I've seen. In the past it's been a local thing, so only a couple hundred people go, if that. But this year word got out and it turned into Halloween all over again with toooooons of out-of-towners. I wanted to go, because it was a great beach day, but once I found out all of my friends were going to be drunk and no one would have a cell phone (for fear of losing/breaking it) I decided against. I did however walk over and take a peak about an hour or two into the event...

This was part of the huge line/lump of people trying to make it down the narrow path to the beach




I thought THAT was a lot of people. Little did I know though the pictures that I took were just the tip of the iceberg. This picture I got from a friend is what it was like once it was in full swing...



The authorities estimated 12,000 attendees and 13 hospital visits. Amazingly, no one died despite the many houses that have party balconies directly over the cliffs, and no one drowned despite the mix of swimming and intoxication. I read though that two guys fell off the bluffs and one girl was hit in the head with a glass bottle that was thrown from a balcony. It's one thing if you're dumb enough to wander over a cliff while drunk, but that poor girl didn't even see that bottle coming!

The next week a plan was in the works to ban events like that because of the huge scale of this year's event. Apparently it costs the county thousands of dollars to pay for the extra police (and they still were understaffed), the helicopters to lift the injured out and away, and the clean up. Students were "outraged" at their "rights" being taken away, but it was kind of inevitable... I've never heard of another beach where there AREN'T signs that say "No Alcohol" so it was only a matter of time. The law banning alcohol on the beach passed about 2 weeks ago, but beacuse it was made an emergency order, it has to go under review in 6 months, at which time I'm SURE there will be PLENTY of input from the student community. Silly Isla Vistans.