California Backs Surfers as Billionaire Khosla Risks Property

No trespassing signage is displayed on a gate leading to Martins Beach in Half Moon Bay, California, U.S., on Wednesday, July 16, 2014.

Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

The state is threatening to step in to ensure Californians’ God-given right to surf.

The State Lands Commission may use powers never employed in its 77-year history, seizing private land for public use to end a battle between surfers and billionaire venture-capital investor Vinod Khosla, who has been locking a gate at his beach property along California’s Pacific Coast.