By Shivani Patel

With Malibu’s image as a surf city—as Planning Commissioner John Mazza once put it, “where surf culture started”—it comes as no surprise that Malibu has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The National Park Service’s (NPS) Keeper of the National Register appointed the 160-acre area “roughly along Pacific Coast Highway from E [east] of Malibu Pier to Malibu Colony privacy fence”—known as Malibu Historic District— to the list as of Jan. 29.

The listing is eligible for “National Park Service-administered federal preservation tax credits” and other grant programs to protect and preserve the designated area.

Malibu Historic District includes popular destinations, including the Historic Malibu Pier, Surfrider Beach, Malibu Lagoon State Beach and surf breaks at First, Second and Third Points.

This is the city’s third listing; previous two listings in the register include one for the Chumash Humaliwo village and another for the Malibu Adamson House. With Malibu’s image as a surf city—as Planning Commissioner John Mazza once put it, “where surf culture started”—it comes as no surprise that Malibu has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The National Park Service’s (NPS) Keeper of the National Register appointed the 160-acre area “roughly along Pacific Coast Highway from E [east] of Malibu Pier to Malibu Colony privacy fence”—known as Malibu Historic District— to the list as of Jan. 29.

The listing is eligible for “National Park Service-administered federal preservation tax credits” and other grant programs to protect and preserve the designated area.

Malibu Historic District includes popular destinations, including the Historic Malibu Pier, Surfrider Beach, Malibu Lagoon State Beach and surf breaks at First, Second and Third Points.

This is the city’s third listing; previous two listings in the register include one for the Chumash Humaliwo village and another for the Malibu Adamson House.

Nonprofit organization Sea of Clouds, which is dedicated to “recognizing and protecting America’s special coastal places,” first pushed for the nomination in 2015, and secured letter of support from City Council through a unanimous, 4-0 vote at an April 2016 meeting.

“If successful, this would represent the first mainland surfing area protected under a legal mandate,” Sea of Clouds Executive Director Michael Blum said in his pitch to council.

According to the Sea of Clouds website, the organization received more than 550 endorsements from a variety of people, including elected officials, organization members and individuals.

“From Barcelona’s Camp Nou to Yosemite’s Camp 4, people gathered together in sport have created places of history, culture, community and tradition,” Blum said in a published statement. “A jewel of surfing like Malibu is no different ... This project documents a part of our broad coastal history, an indelible part of California’s history, and certainly of surfing history itself.”

Malibu local and California Senator Henry Stern tweeted about his “hometown surf break (literally) making history” and then went on to thank those involved in the process.

The Malibu Historic District joins a list of more than 90,000 other properties on the National Register list.

To be eligible for a nomination, a property must meet certain criteria, including whether it’s old enough to be considered “historic” and if it remains unchanged for the most part. In addition, the place must have some sort of historical importance. The nominations can be submitted by anyone (in this case, it was Sea of Clouds) to the California Historic Preservation Office. Once approved, the nomination heads to NPS in Washington, D.C., for a final decision.

In an email to The Malibu Times, National Register of Historic Places historian Paul R. Lusignan said, "The historic district represents the first successful National Register listing for a site based around the theme of recreational surfing ... The nomination provided interesting insight into a relatively little known aspect of twentieth century recreational history, or at least little known beyond the confines of Southern California and the surfing community."

Lusignan went on to state that NPS was happy to consider "innovative" nominations—ones that aren't necessarily the traditional historic building.

“Surfrider Beach has long been a destination for beach goers and surfers alike while acting as the catalyst destination for the Southern California surfing community in shaping its surf and beach culture seen on the worldwide stage,” Mayor Skylar Peak said, in a statement to Sea of Clouds. “ ... The district honors a generation who created surfing history here and whose legacy you see today surfing at First Point. I’m excited to celebrate the listing with our residents, other Angelenos and the world community of surfing. Aloha!”

According to the nonprofit, a dedication ceremony for the new designation will be held sometime this summer.

In 2019, Quiksilver will celebrate 50 years. The iconic brand--founded in Australia and widely associated with Southern California culture--has been through it all as one of the founding members of an industry that, today, has evolved and grown beyond anything that could have been forecasted.

But Quik, like many companies, has faced its fair share of growing pains over the years -- most recently, filing for Chapter 11 for its US operations and undergoing an aggressive global restructuring.


About 18 months later, the company has emerged from a rebuilding phase, which included an overhaul of operations, production, and reorganizing “over-extended retail,” which meant closing a well-known big-box account, according to Oaktree Capital’s David Tanner, who was instrumental in leading this transformation. A corporate name change, from Quiksilver Inc. to Boardriders Inc., was announced in March, coupled with the news of the company’s return to profitability for the first time in years.

To say the metamorphosis was an enormous undertaking is a gross understatement, and Tanner and President Greg Healy have indicated there is still much work to be done. But the tide is turning with early indications of a silver lining, such as positive order book trends for fall, positive comps at full-price retail, and promising long-term growth internationally. The company will close out FY17 with a 7% margin. With those accomplishments under their belt, and an impending 50-year celebration and grand opening of the company’s new Malibu retail location, Tanner and Healy explain what this means for the future.

David Tanner:

We were going through a very intense period for these last 18 months, turning the company around. We've done a ton of work, cleaning up the cost structure and stabilizing the revenue line. We've got the organization pointing in the right direction.

We've built a lot of rigor and discipline into the business, and we are fundamentally in a different place from a performance perspective than where we were five years ago.

This was a company that, for a number of years, was declining at 15% per year, was dramatically unprofitable, and there was no bottom.

Taking it into Chapter 11, we’ve cleaned up the balance sheet, restructured the business, fixed the cost structure, and built the foundation for growth. We’ve taken the business from unprofitable to mid to single digit margins.

We wanted to signify to our employees and to the world that this a different company. It's not the same old Quiksilver, it's a fundamentally different organization in the way it acts, and its performance.

We aren't just one brand as a company, we are three strong brands that all have growth paths. We wanted to embrace all of our brands because they are all important to our future.

It opens the door to the next stage in our company. It signifies the shift from defense to offense, and looking at where we are going. We are looking much more at the market and how we are going to grow the business than we were two years ago. It's a combination of all those factors. It's been talked about for a while and we just felt like it was the time

Greg Healy:

Boardriders Inc. is a name that represents what all the brands under our roof stand for. The essence of our brands is centered around board riding, whether that's on the water, on a skateboard, or on the mountain, so we felt it was necessary to name our company along those lines.

We started along this path about five or six years ago when we launched our first experiential retail store called Boardriders in the Southwest of France, and that concept has spread across the world. We now have 14 of these stores globally, and just announced that we'll soon be opening a new location in Malibu on Pacific Coast Highway. It's been a really successful retail venture for us, and it was just a natural extension that we named the whole company Boardriders.

David:

The stores are very experiential, and are our most profitable doors. They really encapsulate the board riding culture and have become community hubs that people gather in. I think "board riders" just really represents the culture that we serve. It's where the former American Apparel store was located. An iconic location.

The 24th Annual Venice Surf-A-Thon was held on Saturday, once again taking place at the Venice Pier. The contest is a grassroots local tradition that has evolved from a mentorship gathering for youth beset by gang violence to an inter-generational celebration of community.

As usual, the heats are sort of mixed up, they just kind of happen. There's a Groms heat and a Super Groms heat, both of which usually try to go off the earliest. Super Groms had the youngest surfer in the contest's 24 year history. Jacob Packham, being assisted by his dad.


Full gallery filled with high resolution photos of this heat, check out the Super Groms Photo Gallery


Even though they were judged separately, the girls surfed alongside the boys in some mixed Groms and Juniors Heats.










There's a big gallery of full-size high resolution photos from these heats in the Mixed Groms & Juniors Photo Gallery



Continue on the Next Page

ZJ Boarding House held their 10th Annual Haunted Heats Surf Contest this past weekend right down the street from their location in Ocean Park.

Surfers in Haunted Heats are judged on their costume, with the costume performance portion on the beach and then on how they surf as the character they are dressed up as. Many surfers enter as a group with choreographed dance numbers and battle scenes. Some bride the judges with candy or string cheese.

The Cheese Goddess.
Winning Best Grom Surfer with this wave.
The Grom-Zombie, who drove up from Carlsbad for the contest, took Runner-Up in the Groms.

A member of the 3 Pinatas who took Best Runner-Up Costumes.
Best Adult Surfer Winner
One of the North Korean Bombs on one of the bigger waves.
Kim Jong and his Bombs during their costume performance, that combined with their surfing, won them the Best Overall Trophy.
The Bee Gees Staying Alive on a wave.
The Pirates took a trophy for their battles on the sand and sea.






This is just a few of the shots, there are over 100 more photos of the all surfing and costumes.

Check out the huge gallery of all the photos, all full size and in high-resolution: Haunted Heats Photo Gallery

The Surf Relik Championship was the biggest longboard event of the last 10 years in California and featured the elite of the planks on the magic rights of First Point in Malibu near Santa Monica in northern Los Angeles. This was a test event, with WSL level awards, and should be part of the World Circuit next year. This was a test event, with WSL level awards, and should be part of the World Circuit next year. Words By Denis Sarmanho
Photos by Steven Lippman Karina Rozunko for taking home the win in the Women's Pro division!

The Surf Relik Championship was the biggest longboard event of the last 10 years in California, the largest purse in California longboard history ($75k) and featured the elite of the planks on the magic rights of First Point in Malibu near Santa Monica in northern Los Angeles. This was a test event, with WSL level awards, and should be part of the World Circuit next year.


Joe Rickabaugh on his second place finishing in the logger division!

With a window of 15 days, the championship had epic waves on the first day, lowering a little during the finals. Due to a local rule, the event can not occupy the two days of the weekend, so it ended up being held this Sunday and Monday, October 8 and 9.


Tyler Warren took first this past weekend in the Logger division representing the icons of style.

A current leader of the WSL ranking, Chloé Calmon won the quarterfinals Hawaiian Crystal Walsh, her direct competitor in the world title race, which will have its decisive stage in Taiwan at the end of November. Previously, Carioca defeated former world champion Lindsay Steinridee, and in the semi-final was defeated by Malibu and event champion Karina Rosunko.


Ben Skinner gliding through the Surf Relik contest at First Point.

Since she joined the World Tour of surfing as a wildcard at just 17, Stephanie Gilmore, now 29, has lived most of her life on the road. In 2016 she put down roots in the historic surf mecca of Malibu. Now the much-lauded Australian sportswoman takes us through the surfboards, trophies, art and ephemera of her "country club for mermaids".

Several hundred people showed up to the Venice Pier on Saturday for a memorial paddleout in honor of beloved local surfer Liam Alexander Taylor. Known to most as Red, the always smiling 19 year old red head passed away on the 18th from a surfing accident. The entire surf and skate community of Dogtown was in attendance, as well as family and friends from Cambria, Ca, where Red also resided.

We put together a photo gallery of photos from the Paddleout, as well as the Pier Jumps, & Surf Session that followed.

Click here to view all the photos.

A Memorial Skate Session For Red was held later in the afternoon over at the Venice Skatepark (video coming).

Click here to view all the photos.

Do we need to enjoy nature in order to protect it? That’s one of the questions at the heart of a surfing art exhibit in Malibu this summer. The show was co-sponsored by the Laboratory for Environmental Narrative Strategies in the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at UCLA, a new lab dedicated to environmental storytelling across cultures and media, with the Depart Foundation in Malibu.

When you enter the “Sea Sick in Paradise” exhibit, curated by artist and surfer Amy Yao in a pop-up space in Malibu Village, you might first notice a patch of colors on the wall across the gallery’s central open space. It’s a board wider than it is tall, divided horizontally into a wash of orange-pink above and gently rippled blue below. So you might stand for a moment, in between two oceans, facing Billy Al Bengston’s “Lost at Sea, 6:00PM” with Malibu Beach at your back.

It is one of many views of the ocean in the show, many of them, like Bengston’s, blurred, fuzzed, partial, out of focus. And in most of these images, the viewer is positioned like a surfer: on the beach or in a wave. It’s as if the pieces are meant to show you what it’s like to see the ocean as a surfer, with salt in your eyes. 'Sea Sick in Paradise' suggests that seeing like a surfer could help motivate people to protect the coast, perhaps even more than facts about threats to our oceans, beaches, and surf breaks.

Joel Cesare of the Surfrider Foundation, and a sustainable building advisor for the city of Santa Monica, made this argument in a panel moderated by LENS co-founder Jon Christensen, one of many events taking place around the exhibition this summer. Surfrider, Cesare said, is based on the “very significant connection” that people experience with a place “that provides them joy.” When people enjoy a place deeply, they begin to see it differently, and are ultimately moved to protect it. In Cesare’s words, there is a natural progression from “enjoyment to protection.”
Indeed, this is the story of the Surfrider Foundation itself, which was founded in 1984 by surfers to clean up and protect Surfrider Beach in Malibu. A version of this story is told in the art exhibit as well. In the surf movie “Forbidden Trim,” clips of which are shown in a back room, a military spy casts off his uptight persona during a semi-mystical encounter with surf culture. He experiences the transformative possibility of loving a wave.

Scholars in the environmental humanities argue that communities devoted to environmental protection are built on stories like these. Compelling narratives, often coupled with scientific knowledge, create powerful environmental movements. But not all stories do this work equally well. In the book “The Power of Narrative in Environmental Networks” , Raul Lejano, Mrill Ingram and Helen Ingram emphasize the importance of what they call “plurivocity”: “the ability of a story to be told in differing ways by different narrators.” The beach can and should be a place for such inclusive stories.

In his remarks at the panel, Christensen, who is leading a multidisciplinary research project on “Access for All: A New Generation’s Challenges on the California Coast ”, quoted poet T.S. Eliot: “The sea has many voices.”
The story of surfing has not always been a many-voiced one. Surfers have helped open California’s beaches to the public, but they have also made some beaches and surf breaks unwelcoming to outsiders. The show is aware of this tension. It represents and pushes against the exclusionary elements of surf culture. Jeff Ho’s mural “Black & White” looks like it’s written in a sort of code, except for the words “Locals Only.” Other works highlight more inclusive corners of the surf world. Eve Fowler and Mariah Garnett’s documentary “Life is Torture” explores the experiences of lesbian surfers. And Cristine Blanco’s “Sharks” shows three women of color suiting up for surfing. At the panel discussion on “The New Lineup: Surfing, sea-level rise, access, and inclusion in the 21st century,” Blanco spoke of finding her own way into the surfing lineup as a student in college in San Diego, and now introducing other girls to the ocean with Brown Girl Surf, an organization that gives young women in the San Francisco Bay Area, some of whom live just miles from the beach, their first exposure to the surf.
“Sea Sick in Paradise” includes many voices saying many, sometimes contradictory, things. The exhibit as a whole makes the argument that this “plurivocity” is an important feature of the changing culture of the coast. It is also, as Christensen argues, a key to preserving access for all Californians to the coast, and protection of the coastline in an era of climate change. But art is seldom so literal.

Could art’s focus on the beauty of surfing as easily lead to complacency rather than action?

Beauty is certainly on display in many of the fuzzed-out, idealized images of the ocean in the show. In “The Ocean Comes to Us,” by Peter Fend, a video of waves lapping at a beach loops endlessly on a vintage tube TV. In Tin Ojeda’s photograph “FJV Knost,” a surfer is a dark smudge on a hazy gray wave.
Most strikingly, Matthew Lutz-Kinoy’s “Ocean Essays” consists of a huge tube of painted nylon. It sits at the entrance to the exhibit. Walk in and you’re inside a wave, everything blocked out but the ocean’s immediate blue.

In another of the show’s video installations, a surf documentary plays on both sides of a hanging screen. On one side you can sit in a plastic chair and watch as usual. On the other, you’re forced by the tiny room to stand just a few feet from the screen. Standing so close that you can see the film grain in the projection, you realize that seeing something up close is not the same as seeing it clearly.

But then, as if to put an exclamation point on “Sea Sick in Paradise,” in the last image that people are likely to see in the show, a surfer rides through a curl made up of as much plastic trash as water. Zak Noyle’s photographic illustration “Wave of Change” is a beautiful and disturbing complement to the life-size model wave that invites visitors into the tube at the beginning of the show. Instead of cast-off materials (canvas and wood) used to make a beautiful wave, a beautiful wave is compromised by cast-off materials.

The sudden, clear-eyed view of what an unprotected ocean looks like does not displace, but does complicate, the show’s other idyllic ocean views. And an inclusive story — like the story told in ““Sea Sick in Paradise”” — should be complicated.

Photos: Jeff McLane |Courtesy Depart Foundation

By Amy DePaul.
Four years ago, Detroit native Mimi Miller had never been in the ocean. Now she’s a devoted bodyboarder, surfer and volunteer for the Black Surfers Collective — a group that, according to its mission, raises cultural awareness and promotes diversity in the sport of surfing through community activities, outreach and camaraderie.

On Aug. 12, you could find Miller standing on the shoreline of Los Angeles’ Santa Monica State Beach, clapping and cheering on newcomers who took part in the collective’s monthly free lessons to introduce black people to surfing, called Pan African Beach Days.

Being active in the L.A.-based collective, with its 799 members on Facebook, has allowed her to do something she enjoys in a supportive, vibrant atmosphere: “I love the community,” she explained in between chasing down stray boards and yelling “Good job!” to kids and adults alike.
About 111 people signed up for the Aug. 12 event, although the collective cannot safely accommodate such a large number. Still, a good 40 people, ranging from young kids to middle-aged participants, got training and coaching. Most did not have experience surfing.

Miller and the rest of the collective’s members are part of the proud if lesser-known tradition of black surfing, which some would argue goes back to native Hawaiians (descendants of Polynesians), who are credited with inventing the sport in the first place. Among the legendary surf icons are Montgomery “Buttons” Kaluhiokalani, a black Hawaiian whom Surfer magazine called “the father of modern day surfing.”

L.A. has its own lore, beginning with black surf pioneer Nick Gabaldon, who frequented the Inkwell Beach in Santa Monica in the 1940s, where black beachgoers congregated during segregation. Also, the late Dedon Kamathi, a radio host and onetime Black Panther, was a surfing devotee, as was police abuse victim Rodney King.

Founder and co-president of the Black Surfers Collective, Greg Rachal is a former skateboarder who found his way onto a longboard early on. “I’ve been in and out of the water all my life, since I was 13,” he said.

Rachal and his wife, Marie, are beach enthusiasts and a vital presence in the collective, which organizes camping and surf trips and takes a leadership role in an annual tribute to Gabaldon.

Rachal’s son, Greg Jr., 15, volunteers on the collective’s surf days because he likes giving back. He is on his school’s surf team, which sometimes comes as a surprise to his white classmates. Greg Jr. would like to see more African-Americans in surfing. Until then, he said, he enjoys defying stereotypes.

He’s not alone. Waterman Michael Brown Parlor has been surprising people with his prowess in lifeguarding, surfing and sailing since he was a college student in South Carolina in the 1970s. He’s retired from surfing and mentors female surfers in competitive events, believing girls don’t get the respect they deserve in the sport. He spent Pan African Beach Day encouraging newbie surfers and taking pictures for his Facebook page devoted to surfing.

Pan African Beach Day was launched a few years ago because too few black people in L.A. get to the beach, and they don’t always have a background in swimming to enjoy the water, Rachal explained. He credited the Surf Bus Foundation, a nonprofit that promotes ocean sports and safety in L.A., for helping make Beach Day a success by supplying the boards, instructing students and providing additional volunteers. Beach Days are open to anyone, although most participants are people of color.

Before they took to the waves Aug. 12, participants gathered on the beach for a talk about ocean safety and played some games that got them into the water. Then it was time to plop themselves on boards laid out in the sand, where they learned how to position their arms and feet and practice their “pop up,” the tricky move from prone to upright, ending in a stance with knees bent and arms extended.

After some popping up, volunteer instructors such as Rachal and other members of the collective took participants into the water, finding the right wave and giving them a push forward. Some newcomers rode the boards on their bellies, zooming into shore with their arms extended, while others proved agile enough to stand up, maintain balance and ride in — always an exhilarating moment for a student and instructor. Waves were small, and wipeouts were minor.

Participant Pierre Scott had attended a few Pan African Beach Days before and was having a good run, standing up and even angling into the barrel of the wave, not just riding into shore.

“I love it. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do,” Scott said.

“It’s a hype experience,” said Garry Maxwell, who chuckled about the language of surfing, explaining that “I’m stoked.”

Devin Waller was a beginner and felt a bit nervous. But she felt the stoke the first time she stood up on the board.

“It was awesome,” Waller said after the session ended, depositing her board on the sand. “Heck yeah, I’m going to do it again.”