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Rules. Rules. Rules. San Diegans are always fighting for their right to enjoy the beaches as they see fit.

However, despite our best intentions, many rules have been instituted and enforced because of a 'few' scofflaws. So, please, look for the signs at the beaches and make sure you play by the rules.

• NO SMOKING! This is a new law that is effective NOW in the City of San Diego AND the cities of Coronado, Chula Vista, Del Mar, Imperial Beach, Solana Beach, Oceanside, the Port District, and in unincorporated areas of the County
• NO ALCOHOL! Effective December 20, 2007, don't even think about drinking an alcoholic beverage on any of the beaches in the City of San Diego. An alcohol ban will now be in effect 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. Now who is going to enforce this rule? The lifeguards and the police. Although lifeguards are lesser in number during the winter time, you can be sure that they will be trying to do something constructive when the swimmers are not in the water. There is an effort to gather enough signatures to repeal this ban for the third time. There is no telling if they will be successful so just keep your alcohol to yourself and away from the sand.
• No glass containers.
• Pick up your trash and deposit in the trash cans that are located at the various entrances or in the parking lots.
• Bonfires, once a tradition in San Diego, are now not permitted. Fire rings have been removed.
• Barbeques are allowed as long as they are elevated off the ground. Coals must be removed or deposited in City-provided hot coal containers.
• Dogs are permitted on beaches and in adjacent parks only from 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 a.m. and must be leashed at all times. If you and your dog do not want any time restrictions, then take them to Dog Beach (adjacent to Ocean Beach) and Fiesta Island (in Mission Bay) where dogs are permitted 24 hours a day unleashed. And, of course, please pick-up after your pet.
• Water use areas off the major beaches are divided into swimming and surfing zones to separate these users for safety. A black and yellow checker flag will normally be posted between zones to serve as the dividing line. Lifeguards do their best to keep the surfers and the swimmers apart by talking over their loudspeakers.