The LA Fire Dept has released a statement on Wenesday morning's fire on the Venice Boardwalk that started in a hmeless encampments and spread to the vacant building.

"116 LAFD firefighters took 2 hrs 17 min in largely defensive firefighting operations to extinguish active flame in a 68 year-old, two-story, 6,952 square-foot commercial structure that was vacant when an outside fire at a homeless encampment on the south side of the building extended into the structure - and briefly threatened, but was prevented from damaging 2 nearby structures. Any contents within the heavily damaged and now unstable fire building have yet to be identified. No injuries reported. LAFD Investigators are now at scene of what is considered an active investigation."

6 aerial ladder trucks were used to fight this Greater Alarm Fire" (a term which means a fire with more than 6 but less than 16 fire companies assigned to fight it).

Reports from witnesses say that the roof of the building collapsed.

Several sources have stated that the nearby "fire hydrants on Ocean Front Walk were dry" and "had been turned off to prevent tampering".




Photos by Allan Parsons



Photos by Anton Lopyrev

The aftermath of yet another homeless encampment fire in Venice Beach. #venicebeach #venicebeachfire #homelesscalifornia #mikebonin #la #LosAngeles pic.twitter.com/2ZFWbRukbW

— Lola Rose (@LolaBro47) January 13, 2021

Photos by Brendan James

Photos by Lola Rose

The Official Contest Recap and Results from Ger-I Lewis

In this season of sorrow and discontent Venice Surf-A-Thon was/is a bright spot of liberty, celebration, surfing, fellowship and competition!

With a cloud of uncertainty but plenty of strong support and sponsorship, we went forth and folks we did it! We put the 27th Annual Venice Surf-A-Thon Surf contest in the books! Everybody from the volunteers to the sponsors really did a wonderful job and the the turnout was greater than expected! As the day broke with a typical Southern California golden and pink sunrise, the Groms and parents were waiting at the pier! The surf pushing an early high was very contestable and clean 2-3 feet especially for the Menehunes division and Jr Mens. The surfers did not disappoint and the action was spectacular and a very competitive field was out to win the coveted Venice Surf-A-Thon trophies! Every competitor also received a limited edition Ric Clayton hand drawn T-shirt which will assuredly become a collectors item. One again Thank you and great job one and all . all gloiry to the Lord Jesus, amen!



Results 27th Annual Venice Surf-A-thon Surf Contest

Body Surfing
1st - Brett
2nd - Mike Wood
3rd - Sgt. Slaughter

Menehunes
1st- Mataeo Bierman
2nd - Austin O’Keefe

Groms Div #1
1st - Bohdi Deroma
2nd - Jack Noruzi
3rd - Lenny

Groms Div #2
1st - Max Hinton
2nd - Danny O’Keefe
3rd - Skylar Serrrano

Groms Div #3
1st - Liam Nassour
2nd - Danny O’Keefe
3rd - Skylar Serrano

Jr Mens Div#1
1st - Elijah Labb
2nd - Brad Kay
3rd - Koleo Golden

Jr Mens Div #2
1st - AJ Phelpsd
2nd - Gus Harrison
3rd - Logan Doerr

Mens
1st - Dirk Kay
2nd - Cole Sweany
3rd - Pablo

Masters
1st - Jaqoim
2nd - Lazlo
3rd - Eric Weis

Women
1st - Stephanie Weis
3rd - Seena Galan
3rd - Alysa

Long Board
1st - Lazlo
2nd - Brock M
3rd - Lazlo

For all the contest surf photos, check out the: Venice Surf Photo Recap

If you care to order a 2020 Contest T-shirt just go to Paypal and list the size and quantity. The email associated with the Venice SUrf-A-Thon account is surfathon62@yahoo.com $30.00 includes shipping in the USA. 2 or more tshirts $25.00 each. 5 or more $15.00 each including shipping in USA. Please allow for three (3) weeks in shipping and handling as the Venice Surf-A-Thon will shut down operations 12/24/20-1/1/21

On Saturday, December 12th, the 27th Annual Venice Surf-A-Thon took place at the Venice Pier. This is Socal's longest running surf contest.

We are still waiting on the official results, so we can do like an official contest recap and all that, but here's the surf photos now. Because really, that's all most people want anyways.

We do know that Stephaine Wise took 1st in the Girls Division, her dad, Eric got 1st in one of the two divisions he surfed in. Brock beat Norm in the longboard division, with was the huge upset of the day. And a guy from the South Bay won the Mens.

This set of contest surf photos was shot by Six12 Media and brought to you by XCEL Wetsuits.

These are just a few of the 150+ photos from this contest. If you were out there surfing, you probably got some surfing shots, probably multiple photos, they will be in the complete photo galleries for this event, check them out, the link to the complete galleries is down below.








Ger-I Lewis, the guy who runs the Venice Surf-A-Thon.

Stephanie Wise, 1st Place Girls.






This is Brock, he beat Norm.

That's Norm.



Norm helps make these custom trophies every year.



Cole Sweeney successfully shooting the pier, the next try he ended up with a busted surfboard.


You can find over 100 more photos from this session, all full size and in high-resolution, in these two photo galleries:

Venice Surf-A-Thon 2020 Photo Gallery


If you were out there, we probably got some cool surfing shots of you, go check them out!

We also got non-contest surfing photos from the Venice Pier on this day.
Click Venice Pier - Saturday 12-12-2020 to see them.

With this Saturday being the 27th Annual Venice Surf-A-thon, let's throwback to 2014 with the video from the 21st Annual Venice Surf-A-Thon.

Also, there's a lot of photos from other past Venice Surf-A-Thons, see the links below.

PHOTO COVERAGE OF PREVIOUS VENICE SURF-A-THONS:

2019 Venice Surf-A-Thon

2018 Venice Surf-A-Thon

2017 Venice Surf-A-Thon

2016 Venice Surf-A-Thon

2015 Venice Surf-A-Thon

2014 Venice Surf-A-Thon

2013 Venice Surf-A-Thon

Mike, aka German in Venice, vlogs about daily life in Venice Beach. His newest video, he checks out the lowrider meet on hipster paradise, Abbot Kinney Blvd.

"Today, I went to the car show. A lot of car lovers meet on Abbot Kinney in Venice, California to show their classic or lowrider cars. There were a lot of unique cars. I had a great time."

1f you would like to support German in Venice with some gas money or you want to buy him a coffee, you are welcome to donate to his paypal account: https://paypal.me/germaninvenice

Mike, aka German in Venice, heads up to Dogtown to check out the Friday night car meet.

SurfAid has just uploaded a video from their 2018 SurfAid Cup event in Malibu. Perfect timing, due to the Coronavirus closures, we haven't had any recent events to feature.

On September 8, the SurfAid Cup Malibu 2018 saw super-fun waves roll down first point, and competitors took full advantage. Over $74,000 was raised for SurfAid's Mother and Child Health Programs, which make a huge difference to the lives of people in communities connected to us through surfing. SurfAid