Status on Golden Gate Water Ski Club

I've been out riding in the delta for a few years now and its such a shame to see those houses just sitting rotting away.

Anyone know what the current status is?

http://www.ggwsc.org/

1 bad apple...

The County is attempting to make the club demolish all the structures on the island. I heard an appeal has been filed by the GGWSC. This is a club we should all support. There are still some members who maintain and use Golden Isle. If the county wins the appeal the island could very well turn into another Ski Beach type of place and ruin some of our best boarding and skiing areas in the South Delta.

Is that the island at the end of Victoria?

Yes. It's at the SouthWest end of Vics.

Yes it is.
Most people don't know this but GGWSC is the oldest water skiclub in the US. It is sad my grandparents belonged, and my dad grew up out there. Its a shame to see it like it is. The county says that its bad for the river system but what they don't realize is that, the whole island is going to fall into the delta if no one burns it down first. It will just be a another ski beach is exactly right!!!! we all know that we don't want those types down in the dirty south. We should all support the GGWSC.

FYI
http://www.ggwsc.org/GGWSCCCC.pdf

We're waiting for the appeals court to hear our appeal but I don't believe a date for that has been set. The wife and I get out there about 1 weekend a month to check everything out and also occasionally when a member goes out there to stay, to visit them. The houses have been completely ransacked and are now being vandalized as well - mostly windows being broken. The Sheriff did however (after a call from my wife and evidently an anonymous tip) set up a sting operation and caught a number of people coming out after dark to continue looting the places about 2 weeks ago. 3 sheriff boats and a Heli - pretty cool!

The big picture:

The club has lost most of it's members and the general spirit is that everyone is kind of moving on. We agreed to give an individual the right to purchase the island from the club in return for him funding the remainder of our appeal which I believe is now approaching over $300K (of which we spent $175K initially). It's pretty hard to visualize the island and club ever getting back to the way it was whether we prevail or not.

I'd like to ask a couple of things of everyone who is out there boating around the end of vics:

1) If you come on the island please don't leave any trash, bring your own TP and if you do use the toilets take the time to dump a bucket of water into the bowls, which will automatically flush them. The septic systems are all still working fine but the pumps and solar panels we used to fill the flush tanks have all been stolen. That way at least we won't have a bunch of stink/flies.

2) The 5 zone still officially exists all around the island even though the buoys are gone so keep an eye out for the sheriff, who has personally told me they plan to heavily enforce that area this summer (ignorance of the existence of the idle zone will be no excuse - you will get a ticket)

Realistically even though everyone is now riding the turn around the lower end of Vics and bombing by the island, please don't do it when you see boats tied up there occasionally (especially the all white 05 VLX)

As Allen pointed out his family are long time members, Garrett Cortese's family are members and the LaPoints were members originally as well so the club has a long, rich history in the South Delta.

man i get so pissed about this crap, we might as well tell all the farmers to stop spraying chemicals in the fields bc alittle piss is getting in the water at the ski club. who cares, i really cant wait to get out of contra costa one of these days.

Thanks for the update guys! I read all the information about the RED TAG. My GF is a architech and she said its about impossible to get a zone changed without knowing someone important or being someone important.

I stopped by the island last week, dont worry I didnt break anything or steal anything thats not my style. I hope a date is set, Rich have you considered putting up some kind of donation through paypal? I would give 20 bucks to perserve a place like that.

Thanks for the kind offer Nate and back at the point when we were still paying our legal fees there were actually quite a few people like you that did help us with donations.

I can't fault the County for wanting illegal structures around the Delta removed what I question is their judgement in deciding which ones are truly a public nuisance and which ones actually help make the Delta a better place. 3 years have gone by and has the county ever gone back and done a single thing about quinn Island? (which is about a 1/4 mile from us and has always been a complete sh@thole)

Heck no, now that their budget is shot to hell because of the housing bust they seem to have forgotten all about their little crusade from a few years ago. We should have just ignored them like we did in the 70's (when we tried to rezone but they told us to withdraw our app) and they probably would have gone away again. Even if we win our appeal it will probably be too little, too late for the island ever being anything more then the garbage pile it's slowly becoming now!

That island is awesome. Too bad people are trashing it. SKi beach sucks. They should spend there time demoloshing that and leave the island alone.

rick i hear you on that, but would you rather keep the partiers on the beach or in the sloughs trashing the water??

very true.