A night of surfing in Malibu turned tragic for two brothers.

At about 11:40 p.m. Thursday, screaming was reported at Topanga State Beach, where sheriff’s deputies found a man who had been performing CPR on his brother. The two brothers had been out in the water for a night session of surfing.

As they surfed, the brothers lost track of each other, authorities said. One of them later found his brother face down in the water and dragged him to shore, where he performed CPR, but was not able to save him.

Sheriff’s deputies say the two brothers are skilled surfers in good physical shape. The brother who died had been a pro surfer at one point, according to a deputy. The surfer’s father and brother were both on the scene immediately after his death.

The surfer was later identified as Damon Michael Geller, 48, of Pacific Palisades, according to the coroner’s office and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

A high surf advisory has been in effect for Southern California’s beaches since Monday after being extended multiple times.

It’s not clear if the high surf advisory, or a possible medical emergency, played a role in the surfer’s death. An autopsy is pending to determine Geller’s cause of death.

The tragedy was first reported to 911 as reports of someone screaming on the beach by people in a nearby Arco gas station, but Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies are not calling the death suspicious.

Issued: 1:30 PM PST Dec. 15, 2018 – National Weather Service ... High surf advisory in effect from 4 am Monday to 10 PM PST Tuesday...

... Beach hazards statement is cancelled...

The National Weather Service in Los Angeles/Oxnard has issued a high surf advisory, which is in effect from 4 am Monday to 10 PM PST Tuesday. The beach hazards statement has been cancelled.

* Surf... 6 to 10 foot surf with local sets to 12 feet can be expected across west facing beaches, peaking on Monday and Monday night.

* Impacts... there is an increased risk for ocean drowning. Strong rip currents can pull swimmers and surfers out to sea. Large breaking waves can cause injury... wash people off beaches and rocks... and capsize small boats near shore.

After high levels of enteroccocus bacteria found in the ocean water testing last week due to the heavy rains, Surfrider's Blue Water Task Force is pleased to report that the level of bacteria at Tower 15 and Tower 8 at Will Rogers State Beach were well under the accepted EPA minimum. Yew! Get out and enjoy some of this NW swell we’ve got on tap this weekend.

☝🏽PLEASE NOTE: if you are planning to surf in Malibu at breaks affected by the burn zone (between Point Mugu and Surfrider Beach) please use caution. If the surf smells smokey or has visibly dark sediment in the wave faces we recommend heading to the South Bay. We should have our results from UCLA next week that will give us a sense of the metal content at both Surfrider and Leo Carrillo, so stay tuned.

To learn more or get involved, visit Blue Water Task Force

A powerful, long-period WNW swell will build into California and peak early next week. Areas north of Point Conception will be macking, while big-wave spots will be XXL. The swell is more selective for Southern California, although the regions well exposed to long-period WNW swell will be very solid.
In general, it should be more in the medium-to-strong range at breaks with decent exposure — although select spots that can pull in the strongest energy will be very solid.

This Saturday streets along Santa Monica and Venice beaches will be closed for the Santa Monica-Venice Christmas Run.

Sobering results from last week’s Blue Water Task Force team…water collected Wednesday morning at the 3 Santa Monica sites show extreme levels of enterococcus bacteria, literally off the charts. These harmful levels were present before Thursday’s downpour, which will have only served to exacerbate the situation. Similar results were found near the Palisades, at Will Rogers Beach. A reminder, 104 CFUs/100mL is considered the limit of “safe” levels to come in contact with.

Santa Monica Pier - 24,196+ CFUs/100mL
Pico Kenter Storm Drain - 400 CFUs/100mL
Lifeguard Tower 26 - 10,112 CFUs/100mL
Will Rogers Lifeguard Tower 8 - 581 CFUs/100mL
Will Rogers Lifeguard 15 - 10,112 CFUs/100mL

Please stay safe out there and be mindful of the risks of contaminated water, regardless of how clean it may look.
If you would like to know more about BWTF, check out Blue Water Task Force

This Sunday at Brick Mart Santa Monica it’s going down. Sante Bentivoglio from Bay Street Boards be showing his latest paintings and live painting. Also live music, food and mad more art.

Volunteers needed for ranch restoration in Malibu. Join Surfrider LA as they assist local homeowners get back on their feet after the Woolsey Fire. Please RSVP in the comments and be sure you have the necessary gear to participate: boots, pants, long sleeves, and gloves.

Join Patagonia Santa Monica for a night of food, drink, and music. They will be giving away new exclusive Santa Monica store patches. Please see an associate for a patch. There will be activities for kids so come join the fun Wednesday night! Patagonia Santa Monica store
1344 4th Street ,
Santa Monica , California , 90401

"Why isn't Shacked posting about it?"
"Why aren't you blasting this kook?"

We got posts on Instagram, as well as DMs and emails asking this question. A couple that were insinuating that we are not being supportive of female surfers and black female surfers.

Well, first off, we didn't get news of this till a day after it starting making the internet rounds. We were not tagged in the initial posts on the incident like KooK_of_the_Day , Kookslams, and Inertia were. Which was probably for the best.

Second, if you're reading this, you already know what the incident we are talking about, as it has made the rounds of all the surf related websites and social media.

As we're started gathering info to make a story on the incident, we saw how the friend of the surfer who got her leash pulled and a website that is close to that person's organization were attempting to turn this incident into a racial hate crime of sorts. Now to be clear, what one surfer did by pulling that other surfer's leash was not right, but neither is what this friend and that website are doing.

That website has a very poorly written and factually inaccurate blog post "breaking" this story, stating race was the motivation behind the incident. Any person who points out the writer's errors in facts, or does not fully 100% side with surfer that got her leash pulled automatically gets labeled as "racist white man" by the website.

We politely and respectfully asked the writer some question about her story in a public forum, not only did she back-peddle, constantly lie, and just refuse to answer questions, she attempted to talk down to us, accuse us of harassment (ironic) , and more... As many have stated all over social media, the writer solely used race in order to drum up more clicks to her website.

Even worse comes from the friend who is spear heading this hateful vendetta against the surfer who pulled the leash.

Pretty much all the websites posting on this story are taking their info directly from those two sources. Some are calling it what it is, others are following those two's footsteps and labeling this as a race issue to earn sympathy views and shares (in order to make more money off the ads run on the sites).

The guy was being an arrogant kook, he wasn't being a racist.

We did find a lot of info to run a pretty good story on the incident, but the truth was that neither parties come off looking good. In fact, we are the only website that has actually talked to people that were present during all this, including Wagner Lima himself. We also found proof that all involved have a history of certain behaviors.

That and because we didn't want to give these false claims of a "race motivated assault" anymore attention (since sadly many have their minds made up already , they will accept no facts proving otherwise ). We made the call to not post anything

The only reason we are posting this is because some are trying to say this website is hiding the story because it is run by a "triggered white men" and "a Venice/Lima type". We just want to clear that BS up.

Will we eventually post the story we started writing up and getting screenshots for? To be honest, not sure. Prefer to not bring anymore negativity to our community.

NOTE: We withheld names of all parties involved including the name of that race-baiting website. We don't want to be the "source" of any attacks or harassment made to them by our readers. Looks like they are getting it enough now anyways.

More info at Mightyunderdogs.org.

Venice Beach Photographer Josh "Bagel" Klassman will be one of the featured artists at the next Midnite Bazaar.

Bagel will be showing off pieces from his huge collection of photos he took as a surfer/skater growing up in Venice:



Some of his works will also be for sale at his booth.

Sunday at 2 PM – 5 PM

Join Surfrider LA for their last cleanup of the year! This will mark cleanup number 34 for 2018 and they're going to go out in style by aiming to cover the entire stretch of Sunset Point - from the parking lot at Gladstone's in the north to the Bel Air Bay Club in the south.

Surfrider LA plans to have two tents stationed at either end with volunteers working in toward the center of the beach. They have done an outstanding job at Sunset this year but there's still so much work to be done. Come help pull a record haul!

The month of December is off to a quick start with yet another purple blob trotting through the North Pacific. That long period energy eventually makes its way towards the West Coast too, where good winds await to meet, greet, and groom the large surf. There's also weather coming along as a storm drops down the coast, bringing rain to Southern California this week.

Segments of a 20-mile stretch of Pacific Coast Highway in the Malibu area will have to close down starting on Monday to repair damage caused by the Woolsey Fire, Caltrans announced Friday.

The work will be done to stabilize hillsides and repair roadway infrastructure weakened in the fire. The closures will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. starting Monday on the right lane and shoulder of northbound PCH from Topanga Canyon Road to Decker Canyon Road. Caltrans expects the work to take place every day but Sunday, weather permitting.

Drivers should expect delays, Caltrans warned. Officials advised planning for extra commute time.

The repairs will include guardrail replacement, clearing of drainage lines, removal of burned debris, restoration of damaged signs, placing of netting along affected slopes and the installation of silt fences on the lower ends of burned hillsides.

Venice Surf-A-Thon

The trophies are being made, the t-shirts are being printed, the heats are being bracketed, wax 'em up surfers! It's Venice Surf-A-Thon time!

Malibu's Soleil Errico just won the 2018 WSL Womens Longboard Championship at the Taiwan Open Of Surf.

Sale over at Vintage Surf Art

Boardriders Malibu
18820 Pacific Coast Hwy
Malibu, Ca 80265
310 - 359 - 8274

High surf will pound Southern California from Tuesday through Friday, and rain is forecast Wednesday and Thursday, raising the threat of rockslides and mudslides in areas of L.A. and Ventura counties recently denuded by wildfire, the National Weather Service said Monday.

A beach hazard statement, which is slightly less serious than a high surf advisory, will be in force along the L.A. and Orange County coasts from Tuesday afternoon through Friday evening, according to the NWS.

"A strong storm system in the Gulf of Alaska has begun to generate a long period large groundswell that will approach the Central Coast of California by Tuesday afternoon," according to an NWS statement. "There will be enough of a westerly component to filter into the Southern California Bight" -- the coastline from Point Conception to San Diego -- "late Tuesday afternoon or evening, bringing the potential for high surf to most west- to northwest-facing beaches from San Luis Obispo to Los Angeles Counties, including the west-facing side of Santa Catalina Island."

In Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties ... breakers will range from 6 to 12 feet with long-period swells from late Tuesday afternoon or evening through Friday evening, NWS forecasters said, adding that the peak time for the highest surf should occur Wednesday morning through Thursday morning.In Orange County, surf of 5 to 8 feet is expected.

These conditions are potentially perilous, according to the NWS.