From Santa Monica Close Up:

"Highlights from Pier 360 at the Santa Monica Pier on Saturday, June 25, 2022. Pier 360 celebrates the best of beach life with an awesome, FREE, all ages festival! With ocean sports competitions, live music, food and drinks, interactive games, sampling by some of your favorite brands and so much more, Pier 360 offers a peek into iconic SoCal beach culture and brings together thousands of guests for a day of good vibes. Whether you're hanging with the family, competing on land or at sea or partying with your friends–Pier 360 has got it all! Pier 360 is on Saturday and Sunday, June 25, and 26."

Santa Monica Close Up is a photo blog by Santa Monica based Photojournalist/Press photographer Fabian Lewkowicz. Fabian is the former staff photographer for the Santa Monica Daily Observer Press, Santa Monica Mirror, Santa Monica and the Santa Monica Corsair.

Support Santa Monica Closeup/Fabian Lewkowicz with Venmo or PayPal to help earn money to make these videos:

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Be sure to turn on the volume for this one (mobile viewers should turn their phones sideways so the video player loads fully).

Designers that are completely out of touch with surf and skateboard culture, show off their guady "surf and skate inspired" clothing designs.

From Loic Prigent:

"Kim Jones is working with emerging brand ERL for his Spring 2023 DIOR collection! We decipher all the references to surfing and skateboarding (skateboarding was born nearby in Santa Monica). We have fun annoying almost all the guests with our absurd questions. The show is a variation on blue, HAute Couture, the Belle Epoque, skateboarding, the wave, all together. Oh and Christina Aguilera was here! The young couple Brooklyn and Nicola Beckham pelz too! They were on their honeymoon and barely restrained themselves from french kissing in front of the camera! "

From Santa Monica Close Up:

"Master Bikini over 35 compete at the Muscle Beach Bodybuilding Championships in Venice on Monday, May 30, 2022."

Santa Monica Close Up is a photo blog by Santa Monica based Photojournalist/Press photographer Fabian Lewkowicz. Fabian is the former staff photographer for the Santa Monica Daily Observer Press, Santa Monica Mirror, Santa Monica and the Santa Monica Corsair.

Support Santa Monica Closeup/Fabian Lewkowicz with Venmo or PayPal to help earn money to make these videos:

https://venmo.com/u/santamonicacloseup

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From Santa Monica Close Up:

"Cinco de Mayo Parade rolls along Lincoln Blvd. on Saturday, April 30, 2022. The parade was sponsored by the City of Los Angeles."

Santa Monica Close Up is a photo blog by Santa Monica based Photojournalist/Press photographer Fabian Lewkowicz. Fabian is the former staff photographer for the Santa Monica Daily Observer Press, Santa Monica Mirror, Santa Monica and the Santa Monica Corsair.

Support Santa Monica Closeup/Fabian Lewkowicz with Venmo or PayPal to help earn money to make these videos:

https://venmo.com/u/santamonicacloseup

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From Santa Monica Close Up:

"Highlights from Local’s Night Car Show at the Santa Monica Pier on Thursday, April 21, 2022. The classic car show was hosted by the LA Shelby Club. Local’s Night by the Santa Monica Pier is a curated series for locals held once a month. Local Night features amazing entertainment including live music from local high schools, KCRW & PYFC DJs, food and drink specials from our array of Pier businesses, local artists art installations, trapeze classes at a discounted price, and so much more! You really won’t want to miss out on this incredible and unique outdoor setting unwind with friends and loved ones while celebrating Santa Monica."

Santa Monica Close Up is a photo blog by Santa Monica based Photojournalist/Press photographer Fabian Lewkowicz. Fabian is the former staff photographer for the Santa Monica Daily Observer Press, Santa Monica Mirror, Santa Monica and the Santa Monica Corsair.

Support Santa Monica Closeup/Fabian Lewkowicz with Venmo or PayPal to help earn money to make these videos:

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Cosmic Demise Skate Contest

March 19, 2022 Stoner Skate Plaza Los Angeles, CA

From Santa Monica Close Up:

"Santa Monica Cruisin' Classics, with other neighboring car clubs, meetup at Santa Monica Beach on Friday, April 8, 2022. The car clubs meet every Friday night at Santa Monica Beach."

Santa Monica Close Up is a photo blog by Santa Monica based Photojournalist/Press photographer Fabian Lewkowicz. Fabian is the former staff photographer for the Santa Monica Daily Observer Press, Santa Monica Mirror, Santa Monica and the Santa Monica Corsair.

Support Santa Monica Closeup/Fabian Lewkowicz with Venmo or PayPal to help earn money to make these videos:

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DC hosted its first annual all women’s skate jam at Stoner Plaza in West LA yesterday, welcoming any and all ladies to come hang and battle it out for $1500 in cash. We held three separate jams on different obstacles, handing out $20s for individual tricks and $300 to the overall winners of each jam. Props to Skylar Chadwick, Isii Campos, and Amanda Castillo for taking the cake. And thanks to everyone who came out for a truly epic day at Stoner.

LIVE from the Malibu Car Show - Fireball Tim walks the Top Secret Malibu Car Show in his town, spots Malibu Taxis, Classics and more...

The City of Malibu Arts Commission’s winter public art exhibition in the Malibu City Hall Gallery, “Deliver Me,” featuring original works by world renowned fine artist Tom Fritz, is open to the public December 13 through January 20. The exhibition can be viewed Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM. City Hall is located at 23825 Stuart Ranch Rd., Malibu, CA 90265. No appointment is needed. Facemasks are required inside for COVID-19 safety.

More info at malibuartscommission.org

On Saturday, December 11th, the 28th Annual Venice Surf-A-Thon took place at the Venice Pier. This is Socal's longest running surf contest.

The Venice Surf-A-Thon Surf Contest was founded in 1993 by Ger-I Lewis after returning home from military service. He had the idea to do something for the children, young adults and the community in general that is fun and has a positive influence on everyone. Funds raised by Venice Surf-A-Thon Surf Contest go to Casa Del Padre in San Vincinte Baja Norte Mexico and to MLD Christian Charity School in Mucas Mindanao. Both of these schools serve children and women who have been trafficked and abused.



The Surf-A-Thon is also made possible by the many volunteers, such as Norm Antonio and Brock Mayeux (pictured above) who create the unique custom trophies every year.

Now here's the Shacked Mag recap of the 28th Annual Venice Surf-A-Thon.

We were orginially going to wait to find out the official results before publishing this recap, but Ger-I misplaced the the list of winners after the awards ceremony, and those we contacted who attended the awards ceremony don't remember much. So this recap will be from the memory of our photographer Six12 Media and our Venice Beach correspondent Venice's O.G.Peck.




The contest kicked off surprisingly on time, with the groms hitting the water at 7AM.








Then a couple guys competed in the body surfing heat.




The Jr. Mens divisionwas next, Eitan Gobi got 2nd in it.








During the Women's Open Division, Julianna in the yellow jersey caught and surfed the most waves in our eyes.




Later we found out tht she placed 3rd, behind Nicole Lynchie (2nd) and Stephanie Wise (1st). "Judging surf contests is highly subjective. The difference was .5 points between 1st and 2nd place", stated Ger-I.







Beck Adler took his division, beating Cole Sweeney.









"Cole Sweeny, always a threat to win it all! He took home 2nd place being edged out by Beck Adler." Ger-I said, "They were going at back to back and a young guy named Ben kept the heat on too!"







Peck thought Tonan won the Longboard division because he saw him do a coffin, but the judges gave 1st to Norm Antonio and gave 2nd place to Brock Mayeux. The dude that did the handstand through the pier got 4th.







This set of contest surf photos was shot by Six12media and brought to you by XCEL Wetsuits.

These are just a few of the 600+ 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.

Venice Surf-A-Thon 2021 Photo Gallery