In light of recent event in Santa Monica, Heal the Bay Knowledge Drop- Nick Gabaldon Day has moved to Thursday

Honor Nick Gabaldón Day and Nick's legacy as LA's early surfer of color!

Join Heal the Bay's Ines Ware in conversation with historian Alison Rose Jefferson and filmmaker Rhasaan Nichols. They will discuss the legacy of Nick Gabaldón, the first documented surfer of color in the Santa Monica Bay, through their work — Alison’s book, "Living the California Dream: African American Leisure Sites during the Jim Crow Era" and Rhasaan’s film "Walking on Water".

Thu, Jun 4, 2020 1:30 PM - 2:30 PM PDT
Register Here
Heal the Bay is responding with a new interactive science education series “Knowledge Drops”, where our team of scientists, experts, and advocates explores the water world and offers fun lessons about the marine environment. Each session is about 1-hour long and includes a live presentation, Q&A, polls, and videos. Our new webinar series is generally geared for 3rd – 8th grade students, but all ages are welcome and encouraged to attend!

Looting is going on in Downtown Santa Monica. This was not part of the peaceful protest that was happening on Montana and Ocean Aves.

The mall and several promenade stores, such as Vans, were looted.

LIve coverage has been posted to our Instagram Stories.

The average water temps as of May 28th.

Honor Nick Gabaldón Day and Nick's legacy as LA's early surfer of color!

Join Heal the Bay's Ines Ware in conversation with historian Alison Rose Jefferson and filmmaker Rhasaan Nichols. They will discuss the legacy of Nick Gabaldón, the first documented surfer of color in the Santa Monica Bay, through their work — Alison’s book, "Living the California Dream: African American Leisure Sites during the Jim Crow Era" and Rhasaan’s film "Walking on Water".

Mon, Jun 1, 2020 1:30 PM - 2:30 PM PDT
Register Here
Heal the Bay is responding with a new interactive science education series “Knowledge Drops”, where our team of scientists, experts, and advocates explores the water world and offers fun lessons about the marine environment. Each session is about 1-hour long and includes a live presentation, Q&A, polls, and videos. Our new webinar series is generally geared for 3rd – 8th grade students, but all ages are welcome and encouraged to attend!

Here is a list of surf shops in our Los Angeles area that are now open, their hours, and other info:



Santa Monica's Bay Street Boards officially opened 3 weeks ago. Hours are 11am-4pm until they figure out all the madness!

Bay Street Boards
🌴☀️Santa Monica ☀️🌴
Surf & Skate Shop
3216 Santa Monica Blvd
310.310.2485



At the Topanga/Malibu border, Boardriders Malibu is opening their doors again! 10am - 5pm are the shop hours to get you pumped!

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




Jacks Surfboards in Santa Monica is open 10am -8pm.

Masks are required to be worn while shopping. If you do not have a mask, no problem, they will be providing complimentary disposable masks. There will be a strict limit on max occupancy. In addition, each store will have staff on-site cleaning and sanitizing throughout the day. Jacks will be following all of the guidelines and protocols set by the County.

Jacks Surfboards
2012 Lincoln Blvd. Santa Monica, CA 90405
Store Hours: Mon-Sun: 10am-8pm



Rider Shack is open for daily curbside pickup from 11-3pm. For help call 310-821-7873 or text/email Jeff directly 310-902-6310 Visit their FAQs Page for more info.

Rider Shack
13211 W Washington Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90066
www.ridershack.com
310.821.SURF (7873)
877.57.SHACK (74225)



For the Vals, Valsurf is offering curbside pickup at our their Valley Village location on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 10am-2pm. Visit their FAQs Page for more info.

Val Surf
4810 Whitsett Ave.
Valley Village CA 91607



Santa Monica's ZJ Boarding House will be open from 2pm - 6pm. There will be limited entry to allow for social distancing. They are asking that everyone wear a face mask in the shop, and are recommending non touch (credit/debit cards) payments. They are so stoked to be back and can’t wait to see you in the shop! Shoot them a DM via their Instagram with any questions.

ZJ Boarding House
2619 Main St. Santa Monica, CA
(310) • 392 • 5646
Store Hours:
BY APPOINTMENT ONLY

For more of our coverage of the Coronavirus lockdown, closures, and how our local surf community and businesses are doing, CLICK HERE

Local surf photographer California Mermaid is hosting a paddle out in honor of George Floyd.

"In honor of George Floyd, a paddle out will be held in protest of his and countless other horrifying murders," she stated on her Instagram, "Please use your voice to make it STOP. We are one community in support of each other."

They are meeting at 6:00PM on Friday at The Inkwell, Bat Street Surf Spot, and plan to paddle out at 7:00PM.

Take note that the parking lots all along Santa Monica are still closed, and the street parking restrictions will be in place along Bay St between Ocean Front Walk and Neilson Way and on Ocean Blvd. between Bay St. and Hollister Ave. The image below shows where NO PARKING signs are placed:



So while it may seem like the lots are open, and people are still parking on the restricted streets, you are risking getting a ticket if you do.

California Mermaid Photography

Here's the full clips of all the footage from our Instagram Stories that were shot and posted live as the skaters re-claimed the Venice Skate Park on Sunday & Monday. Led by Peck and the crew from Venice Skateboarding Stuff, skaters and non-skaters from all over the city came down, grab shovels, brooms, and buckets and got to work digging out the skate park that the city buried during the Covid-19 lockdown.

For the story on the clean up of the skate park, CLICK HERE

As seen on our Instagram Stories, the city was looking at the Venice Skate Park early Tuesday morning. They cautioned taped off the park and were telling everyone to leave, becuase the skate park is closed.

A witness by the name of "Shane" who was present Tuesday morning when the "Chief of the Parks And Rec" was checking out the skate park. He "was calling the staff in order to specifically put sand back in it."

But mid-morning, they had left and skaters returned to the park and started skating it again.

By the afternoon, the park was packed with skaters, and the police where somewhat successful in trying to clear out the park, as seen in the videos below:

For the story on the clean up of the skate park, CLICK HERE

There continues to be great progress on Malibu's Temporary Skate Park.

California Skateparks is constructing the skate equipment off-site, and will transport the equipment to Malibu Bluffs Park once it is complete.





In 2019, the City Council approved the use of the Crummer/Case property adjacent to Malibu Bluffs Park as the location for a temporary skate park, and authorized staff to release a Request for Proposals (RFP) for the design of a 12,500 square-foot permanent skate park on the same property.

The City Council approved the Final Conceptual Design for the Temporary Skate Park on Monday, February 24.

The Temporary Skate Park is expected to open on the west portion of the property in Mid-2020, while the Permanent Skate Park is designed and built on the east portion of the property.

Venice Skate Park's Sergeant-At-Arms Peck and Venice Skateboarding Stuff got everyone together to clean out the skate park.

As seen on our Instagram Stories, the clean up started late Sunday afternoon, Peck rounding up shovels, brooms, and buckets, and the crew started removing most of the sand from the mini-bowl.


Sunday afternoon, mini-bowl almost cleared out and was skate-able.

Venice Skateboarding Stuff put the word out that skate park clean up will continue at 8am on Monday.

Clean up resumed early Monday with a few people, then it grew throughout the morning to a large number of people coming down to help out. More shovels and buckets were brought over. All ages pitched in, even the non-skaters jumped in and started shoveling out sand.


Peck in the completely buried snake run Monday morning.




There were all ages helping out.

No interruptions from Police or The Department Of Parks & Recreation. But a source said that Parks & Rec are just going to tell the workers to fill the skate park back up with sand again.


This kid was shoveling sand on Sunday and Monday morning, took a break from that to get some air over the hip.

@somasugiyama with sandals frontside airing a penny board.





By Sunday afternoon, the last bucket of sand was removed from the snake run. The mini-bowl was cleared of sand, and they were working on getting the last of the sand out of the pool. By late afternoon, everyone was skating the park again. But as seen in the photos, the city let the skate park get thrashed, there is graffiti everywhere, it has never been this badly tagged up before.


Venice Skateboarding Stuff , Peck, and all who helped get the skate park.

We'll have to wait till Tuesday morning when the Parks & Rec head honcho shows up to find out the fate of the park.

The city workers gave a heads up, that the park will just be refilled with sand. But Peck said, "We are prepare for that, we're ready for that, we prepared for that. But hey, let it be a battle. We gonna fight for what we believe in and our rights, cuz this skate park is our life and we're gonna fight for it."

Check out more photos of the clean up and skating in this gallery:

Venice Skatepark - May 2020 Photo Galley

News of another death at Venice Beach on Sunday:

“Another death on the boardwalk today. LAPD won't provide any information yet, but locals say it was an elderly homeless man that just showed up today. He was walking around by the paddle tennis courts and sat down on the bench and passed away."

Info and photo from Matt Fisher

The average water temps as of May 25th. Since last week, temps risen 1-2* in most areas, except for South LA, it dropped.

The thieves are back at it, targeting surfers' vehicles along PCH.

We got word that a vehicle at at Sunset got hit midweek at 12:30 in the afternoon. And another at Topanga around 2:00pm.

Don't just hide your keys around your car, theives are lurking and watching, waiting for their opportunity. .

Members of the surf community are doing our best to keep on the lookout, and warning other surfers not to just hide their keys under the fender.

And then, some individuals are not happy that surfers are being warned about the car burglaries, watch the video below:

"People who drive down to the beach to surf are sometimes getting their cars burglarized while out having fun. Some of us beach~boy elders are now watching out for these thieves. And we are doing a decent job, you might say. This woman in this video is verrry mad at me for trying to stop beach~side theft. I'll quote her: "That's not yo' problem"..." - Shot by R Wright


So take your key with you, or try using a lockbox, like the ones featured here:

On Saturday, a LAPD horse ran off from it's rider. The police chased the horse from the boardwalk down the bike path then on to the sand before they were able to get control of him.

“I would say it's like 70% less than what this weekend would bring normally,” said Los Angeles Police Sgt. Theresa Skinner, who oversees the department’s Venice Beach detail.

Josie Huang reports "The Asian and European tourists aren’t here but locals are still coming to Venice Beach — many not wearing masks."






For more of our coverage of the Coronavirus lockdown, closures, and how our local surf community and businesses are doing, CLICK HERE

LA County Beaches And Harbors and the crime approving mayor of LA have stated that no sunbathing, sitting, or laying on the beaches.

But an LA County Lifeguard Captain said all that is allowed via a Fox 11 News statement:

“There are still no umbrellas, no coolers and we don’t want large social gatherings,” said L.A. County Fire Lifeguard Captain A.J. Lester. “You can come down absolutely with your family, lay on a towel, sunbathe, watch your kids run in and out of the water, just try to do it near an open lifeguard tower.”

Fox 11 News added:

"Those in the same household are now welcome to sit on towels on the beach – an amendment to the COVID-19 beach restrictions for “active-use only.”

So basically, sitting and laying out on the beaches is allowed, but it is not allowed. Maybe the lifeguards are fed up with having to enforce these BS rules, as those that have been out on beaches already know people are and have been doing it all anyways.

For more of our coverage of the Coronavirus lockdown, closures, and how our local surf community and businesses are doing, CLICK HERE

On May 22,2020, LA County released this updated set on Beach Rules ALLOWED:

- Individual or family ocean activities (such as surfing, swimming, kayaking, paddleboarding and body surfing)
- Individual or family active recreation & exercise (such as walking, running and using the beach bike path)

NOT ALLOWED:

- Sunbathing, or sitting or lying on sand
- Picnicking
- Chairs, canopies or coolers
- Group or organized sports (such as volleyball)
- Gatherings or events
- Fishing

HEALTH & SAFETY REQUIREMENTS: - More than 6 feet physical distance from others at all times (except between members of same household)
- Face coverings, when out of the water AND around others (except for children under age 2 and those with breathing problems)
- Stay at home if you, or someone you live with, is sick

CLOSURES STILL IN EFFECT (until further notice):

- Piers – CLOSED
- Beach Accessways – CLOSED
- Beach Volleyball Courts – CLOSED





For more of our coverage of the Coronavirus lockdown, closures, and how our local surf community and businesses are doing, CLICK HERE

Once again, these city "officials" are sending out mixed messages about what is going on. This time these nitwits are releasing mixed statements regarding the beach parking lots.

This afternoon, the crime approving mayor made this announcement: "We are reopening the city beach parking lots at Cabrillo and Venice Beach as well as the beach bike paths — this is in addition to the County opening paths and lots at partial capacity at Dockweiler State Beach, Will Rogers State Beach, Zuma Beach, and Surfrider Beach."

One Hour later, LA Beaches & Harbors makes this announcement: "PLEASE NOTE: We will NOT be opening the County-operated beach parking lots at Venice Beach. The lots at Washington Blvd, Venice Blvd and Rose Ave will remain CLOSED for Memorial Day weekend."

Since, Beaches And Harbors apparently has the priority (the keys) on these lots, it's what they say that goes, and they are not opening the Venice lots.

And anyone who has actually been to the beaches already knows the bike paths have been open for a long time now.


For more of our coverage of the Coronavirus lockdown, closures, and how our local surf community and businesses are doing, CLICK HERE

ZUMA & SURFRIDER PARKING LOTS OPENED AT LIMITED CAPACITY & ACCESSWAYS UNLOCKED
LA County Department of Beaches and Harbors announced the opening of parking lots for limited capacity at select beaches throughout the County, including Zuma Beach and Surfrider Beach in Malibu. County disaster service workers will be at the lots to advise beach patrons of the COVID-19 related rules. In addition, County-operated beach access ways throughout the City will be unlocked during posted hours to allow easier public access to beaches.


For more of our coverage of the Coronavirus lockdown, closures, and how our local surf community and businesses are doing, CLICK HERE

According to Surfline, "Fading surf through the Memorial Day holiday. New Southern Hemisphere swell has surf rebounding next week"



Monday, May 18th: 3-4′ at most breaks, 4-6’+ sets at standouts — Light AM onshore wind but manageable.

Saturday, May 23rd: 2-3′ at many breaks, Eddy winds linger for the AM.
Easing blend of SSW swell and NW windswell. Breaks with decent exposure see surf in the waist-high range with good summer/combo breaks a notch better on sets. Light to moderate SW trending W winds 4-9kts+ for the afternoon will ease in the evening.

Sunday, May 24th: 2′ at many breaks, Light AM wind.
Leftover SSW swell and minor NW windswell energy. Most breaks are below waist high with good summer/combo breaks right around that mark. Light/variable wind early trends onshore through the morning. Light to moderate SW trending W winds 4-9kts+ for the afternoon will ease in the evening.