yep, i hear ya. if you could camp out there, that place would be a freakin' gold mine for great photos though. the whole area is chocked full of amazing stuff. but the permit thing just makes it so hard to put it all together. not worth the hassle. laurent martres has a good write up on the whole area though. even without the wave, it's pretty amazing stuff.
the eco-terrorist thing has been floating around for quite awhile. i personally don't believe it. but i suppose it's plausible. we saw 15 people the day i was there, which means 5 didn't show up. which also seems plausible. 8 of the people were asian, 2 were german. i think i went out there in early 2007. maybe 2006. hard to remember. probably more people competing for them today.