The judge, lawyers and courtroom hoi polloi in the trial to regain public access to Martins Beach sacrificed courtroom drama Thursday for a spectacular sunny morning tromping around the sandy shore and admiring the aqua blue ocean and dramatic coastal scenery.

The Surfrider Foundation has accused billionaire property owner Vinod Khosla of flouting the California Coastal Act by blocking the only road into Martins Beach, a 53-acre haven along the coastal cliffs about 6 miles south of Half Moon Bay.

Judge Barbara Mallach wanted to see for herself what all the fuss was about, so she convened court on Thursday at Martins Beach itself, where property manager Steven Baugher led the San Mateo County courtroom contingent on a tour of the disputed property. What they found was an idyllic sun-drenched community of leased cottages, a brilliant white sandy beach, a signature shark fin-shaped rock surrounded by spectacular cliffs, two defiant surfers and a fisherman.

"There are not enough public beaches left. The ocean should be everybody's," said surfer Danson Drummer, 37, of Mill Valley, who, with his buddy Morgan Williams had walked past the closed gate to get to the beach and exited the water shortly after the jurist and her subjects had passed. "All we're asking is that they just leave access so we can get to the beach and the water. Nobody owns the water and the waves."

Bill White, a 39-year-old fisherman from Daly City who was visiting a friend in one of the cabins, said he enjoys the solitude - as well as the abundant lingcod - but still thinks others should be allowed to enjoy the beach.

"It's beautiful and there's hardly anyone here," he said, a little taken aback by the sudden onslaught of lollygagging lawyers. "I think there should be public access at least to the beach. All they got to do is give rights to come down the road."

Khosla, the co-founder of Sun Microsystems, is accused of violating the California Coastal Act by closing the gate on the access road, painting over a billboard welcoming visitors, hiring guards and putting up signs telling beachgoers to "keep out."

The closure of Martins Beach created a furor among surfers, beach lovers, politicians and environmentalists, who claim Khosla's actions are an assault on long-standing rules in California protecting public access to the coast.

At stake, they say, is the 1972 California Coastal Zone Conservation Initiative, which created the 12-member California Coastal Commission, and the California Coastal Act, passed in 1976, which prohibits homes or developments from blocking public access to beaches and makes the entire coast, including all beach property below the mean high tide line, public property.

The attorneys for Surfrider, which filed the lawsuit last year, insist that Khosla's actions constitute development under the Coastal Act because they change how the public uses the beach. Fundamental changes like that require a permit from the Coastal Commission, which was never obtained.

Khosla's lawyer, Jeff Essner, claims that the beach road has always been private and that his client has every right to keep trespassers off his property. He says that there was a gate on the road long before the passage of the Coastal Act, which negates the need for a permit, and that no other development has been done requiring such approval.

Khosla, who was not on Thursday's beach tour, testified Monday that he is leaving it up to the court to decide what right the public has to use the beach road. He said all decisions regarding public access, including closing the gate in 2010, were made by his property manager in consultation with his lawyers. There has been talk among county officials and legal experts about possibly taking the road via eminent domain, which would require Khosla to be compensated.

Mallach issued a gag order during the tour, but one attorney let it slip out that he had spotted two sea lions frolicking among the surfers. Others in the group admitted under their breath that they would rather take a dip than swim through more legal documents in court.

They were less circumspect after the tour. Jeffrey Essner, the attorney representing Martins Beach LLC, the company Khosla established to purchase the beachfront land in 2008 for $37.5 million, reiterated that no development requiring a permit, including the act of closing the gate, was done and that the tour was an attempt to establish that fact to the judge.

Joe Cotchett, who is representing the surfer group, disagreed.

"He's attacking the right of any Californian to walk down any access road to get to a public beach," Cotchett said as he stood in front of the closed gate. "That, to us, is illegal."