As the Woolsey fire continued to burn, Bill Kerbox got a call Monday night from his friend. His 142-foot yacht, the Leight Star, was ready to be deployed. It boasts a helipad and plenty of space. The mission needed only one thing: volunteers and supplies to deliver to victims of the roughly 96,000-acre fire who had stayed behind.



Kerbox blasted out the call for help on social media. It didn’t take long for people, including those desperate to get back to their Malibu homes, to step (or paddle) forward.

Surfers showed up to meet the yacht at sea and bring the supplies to Malibu’s Paradise Cove.



“There’s been so much confusion,” Kerbox told the volunteers Tuesday as they began their journey. “We need to get out on social media that supplies are going to start be unloaded in a little over an hour.”

Standing behind a fully stocked wet bar, Kerbox contemplated what hashtag to use to notify people of their efforts. They agreed upon #malibuhope.

The yacht belongs to Howard Leight, a billionaire entrepreneur who owns the Malibu Rocky Oaks winery with his son. His boat is worth tens of millions of dollars. He spent Friday and Saturday fending off blazes at the winery and his other property in L.A. The fire destroyed much of his vineyard.

“All I could think about is that I didn’t want to lose my houses,” Leight said as he stood on the right side.

When he was done, he felt it was time to give back.

Kerbox estimated the boat was stocked with about 3,000 bottles of water, 100 gallons of fuel, shovels, snacks, dog food — and a bunch of beer.

Smaller boats were tied behind the yacht to help offload supplies. Among those who joined the brigade were Jerardo Bautista and his five-person landscaping crew. Since 1985, Bautista has been doing landscaping at some of Malibu’s most luxurious homes.

Bautista’s crew spent Friday going from home to home cutting back brush and putting out fires.

When the Leight Star neared the Paradise Cove coast, surfers and kayakers paddled toward the boat. Like a bucket brigade, they moved supplies from the yacht to their boards and kayaks, braving choppy waters, before going to shore.

Three small tenders were filled with garbage bags full of dry goods as a crew in a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department boat watched.

“If we’re not letting people in by land, we’re not letting them in by sea,” a deputy said.

At one point a woman boarded a kayak and made a mad dash for land. She was cut off by law enforcement authorities and forced back on the yacht.

But eventually all the supplies from the yacht made it to land. That provoked cheers and selfies as people celebrated on the yacht with beer and wine.

But Bautista was nowhere to be found. He had sneaked off the boat and was heading to help people with their homes.

Story By Benjamin Oreskes
Photos: Jay L. Clendenin

The flyer for this year's Venice Surf-A-Thon is out. Here it is:

Through Thursday, November 15th: Modest to locally fun, but steep angled, S swell peaks Tue-Wed. Clean conditions with offshore flow, especially in the mornings.

As firefighters race to control the Woolsey Fire, mandatory evacuation orders remain in effect for Malibu to West Hills in the San Fernando Valley.

The Woolsey Fire is still burning in spots on both sides of the 101 freeway. It has torched hillsides and coastline across 83,275 acres of Los Angeles and Ventura counties, and destroyed more than 170 buildings in the beaches, canyons, and Valley. Containment stands at 10 percent.

On Sunday, firefighters extinguished flare-ups and kept a hold on the fire’s perimeter, stopping it from spreading south into communities like Pacific Palisades, said Los Angeles County Fire Chief Daryl Osby. He noted that there were no new reports of homes burning down.

“Today was a better day,” he said.

But, Osby cautioned: “We’re not out of the woods tonight.”

Powerful Santa Ana winds are forecasted to kick up again later tonight, posing a major threat. Wind gusts can easily fan embers and ignite dry brush.


None of the mandatory evacuation orders issued for the Woolsey Fire since Friday have been lifted in LA County, and approximately 57,000 structures in Ventura and Los Angeles counties are still at risk.

The evacuation orders affect multiple communities, including Topanga, where many residents have opted to shelter in place, as well as the entire city of Malibu, which City Councilmember Lou La Monte has said was “hit very, very hard.”

Authorities continue to urge Topanga residents who have remained in their homes to “leave immediately.”

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is also warning residents in evacuation zones to resist the urge to return home. Even in areas where flames are no longer active, there are downed power lines and trees, smoldering embers that could reignite, limited to no cell service, and dangerous air quality.

“We ask people: Do not go back to those areas,” says Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department chief John Benedict. “Quite frankly, it’s still not safe.”

Since blowing south from Ventura County over the 101 freeway into Los Angeles early Friday morning, unleashing a barrage of flames on Malibu and neighboring communities, the Woolsey Fire has has destroyed 177 structures.

But assessment teams are still surveying the damage, and that number is expected to increase.

La Monte estimates the blaze has ruined “dozens and dozens of homes” in Malibu alone; it has wreaked havoc on Malibu West, Point Dume, Zuma Canyon, and Malibu Lake.

But the south side of Malibu, as well as Topanga and Pacific Palisades have not burned—and authorities are telling residents of those communities to be prepared to leave.

“We are trying to contain the fires north of those communities,” says Osby. But “if you see smoke coming your way, don’t wait for the evacuation [order] to leave.”

This interactive map shows the all the evacuations, shelters, and areas the fire has hit.

Laird Hamilton stayed as long as he could to defend his house from the Woolsey Fire, he posted these 2 videos to his Instagram:

View this post on Instagram

Now I know why I learned at an early age not to mess with mother nature. There is too much ground to cover for the brave firefighters so many of the members of the community are doing their best. I want to thank my dear friend @elijah_a.b who stayed behind with me and fought the fire at my house and my neighbors. For now he helped me keep the home standing. Most importantly is that the humans are safe. First video is all around our home and the second video is what we saw as we were exiting PCH just north of Pepperdine.Aloha

A post shared by Laird Hamilton (@lairdhamiltonsurf) on Nov 10, 2018 at 11:23am PST

Just after 5 a.m. Friday, the Thousand Oaks fire jumped the south side of the 101 Freeway at Chesebro Road near Calabasas. In response, California Highway Patrol shut down a four-mile stretch of the 101 Freeway from Las Virgenes Road to Kanan Road.

“Early this morning, as the fire transitioned through Agoura Hills, the fire jumped the 101 Freeway right around Liberty Canyon, mid-slope, caught wind, and became quickly established at where we were at today,” L.A. County Deputy Fire Chief David Richardson told reporters at a morning news conference.

The entire city of Malibu was under an unprecedented mandatory evacuation, in addition to areas south of the 101 Freeway, from the Ventura line to Malibu Canyon. The fire was burning south of Mulholland Highway and around 10:30 p.m. flames jumped Pacific Coast Highway, headed toward The Colony on Malibu Road.

Residents were advised to use PCH to evacuate, and to avoid using canyon roads. All four lanes of PCH were opened for southbound traffic at 12:45 p.m. Complicating matters were the traffic signals that were knocked out of service. Drivers were being advised to use the 405 Freeway up to the 118 Freeway in order to get around the backup.

Despite evacuations in Malibu and flames threatening near campus, Pepperdine University called for students and staff to shelter in place.

A free community screening Hawaiian: The Legend of Eddie Aikau.

Enter Here

El Nino is developing, will this winter rival past greats?
You’ve heard there’s an El Nino hitting this winter, so the waves are going to be pumping, right? Well, not exactly. El Nino is simply a term referring to warmer than normal water temperatures over the equatorial Pacific along with the subsequent response from the atmosphere it entails (where the storms/high pressure are). While strong El Nino conditions do correlate well with surf being larger than normal, El Nino’s don’t ‘hit’ and those years falling into the weak to moderate varietal have a tendency to go both ways. Some weak to moderate years are better than the norm, while others are pretty abysmal.

So while El Nino conditions are favored to develop in the next couple months and stick around for the winter of 2018-19, the projections across the models favor a weaker El Nino event. With the widespread of surf outcomes, weak to moderate El Nino’s make for shaky foundations when issuing a forecast spanning the entire winter. Boring as it may be, something in the realm of ‘normal’ is favored for the lot of locations we’ll feature here – Hawaii, the Pacific Northwest, Northern and Central California, and Southern California. Below, normal, or better than average, the winter is the undisputed king for size potential. Looking back at the top ten largest swell events for each data point over the last 35+ years, we found 95% occur in the winter. An interesting aside, the remaining five percent can be accredited to tropical swells.

Another thing we noticed when looking back at other weak to moderate El Nino events since the early 2000’s is the tendency to have a stronger December, while surf heights are down but holding fairly steady for January and February. While this isn’t too far off the mark for Hawaii and is the climatological norm for places like the Pacific Northwest, Northern and Central California, and especially Southern California are usually best after the holidays. An in-depth look at the numbers for weak to moderate El Nino events favors a slightly slower than normal winter in terms of size, and fewer days fair or better. A best-case scenario seems it would be a winter more akin to the weak El Nino of 2014-15. That saw Hawaii in more size and close to the same number of quality days of surf, while the entirety of the West Coast was close to the norm in size but trounced the normal number of quality days.

Southern California

Average Winter Conditions

Late fall/early winter there’s a higher potential for lingering combo swell
WNW swell potential increases JFM as lows drop further south
December through March offer the best potential of the year for significant swell events
Conditions often favorable, and it is peak season for Santa Ana events with December typically seeing the most Santa Ana events while January holds those lasting longest

What to Expect this Winter

Near to slightly below normal size – though the more we push into ‘moderate’ El Nino conditions we see increasing odds for more size
Stronger December, with January showing potential to trail below the norm
Days with favorable conditions close to slightly below the norm, an inside-slider storm track – storms moving ashore in the Pacific NW and dropping south to the east of the Sierra’s – often results in small surf and offshore flow

Through Friday, November 8th: Small (to very locally fun) SSW swell trends down through the end of the week. Small NW swell picks up Wednesday before easing Thursday. Light morning winds prevail, with offshore flow possible late this week

Frankie's Bikinis first ever pop up store.
Grand opening: november 17th, 10am - 7pm
9528 Brighton Way. Beverly Hills, CA 9021
If you snap a pic in front of the storefront and tag Frankie's Bikinis on Instagram, they’ll DM you with a surprise discount code.

Arbor Venice is hiring again:

We’re looking to hire a few part time and full time retail associates to join a crew of snowboarders & skateboarders at our Venice Flagship Store. Enjoy the perks of surfing the Venice Pier, skating the park on your lunch or simply working a block from the Pacific Ocean.

Arbor Venice Store // 310.577.1131

On Saturday, Frankie's Bikinis is having a sample sale in Beverly Hills.

Venice Beach Photographer Josh "Bagel" Klassman will be at the featured artist 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:

Win this Jay Adams Orange Stain Pool Deck by following these quick steps below:
1. Follow @zflexskateboards on Instagran
2. Tag 2 friends in the post with the above photo
They will pick a winner next week, good luck!

November 1-30

Drop off your polystyrene foam and used wetsuits in the upper parking lot of Malibu City Hall to be recycled. Sustainable Surf 's Waste to Waves program will use the polystyrene foam to make surfboard blanks and upcycle the wetsuits into Suga yoga mats. Malibu City celebrates five years partnership with the non-profit Sustainable Surf by expanding into wetsuit collection.

For more information, visit
https://www.sugamats.com/
http://sustainablesurf.org/

More info: Save The Waves Film Festival

Michael Blum, executive director of nonprofit organization Sea of Clouds, will present “Sally Saves Spaces by the Seashore: Protecting Surfing Areas, Marine Cultural Heritage, and the Malibu Historic District” in the Surfboard Room at Payson Library on Thursday, November 1, at 11 AM.

The iconic Malibu surfing area, designated as the Malibu Historic District, is the first listing in the National Register of Historic Places centered on surfing history. The project recognizes Malibu's worldwide contribution to surfing's history and culture, secures specific protections, qualifies for other recognition and protection frameworks, and establishes a precedent and process for other projects.

While relevant for its focus on a specific surfing area, the Malibu Historic District is also a rationale for protecting other United States surf breaks and, more broadly, coastal locations possessing cultural and historical significance. Recognizing special coastal areas brings closer together goals of preservation and conservation. It encourages additional energy be placed into coastal conservation to promote a broader, deeper, and more inclusive interpretation of our coastal history.

Sea of Clouds is a nonprofit organization whose practice spans the fields of historic preservation and environmental conservation. With a focus on coastal places, the work of Sea of Clouds illuminates the human dimensions of natural ecosystems—connections between nature and culture—to address how communities fully express their interests and values in public trust contexts

For additional information about this lecture, and to register to attend, visit the Pepperdine Libraries website

Hosted by Surf Academy.

* yeah, we know that is a photo of the Huntington Beach Pier, we didn't make that poster, Surf Academy did.