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Check out these new shots from Thursday at Topanga. These photos were taken by California Mermaid Photography.




You can find some more photos from this day on :

California Mermaid Photography Facebook Page


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


SAVE THE DATE!! • Jan. 19th Noon-4pm on the California Heritage Museum lawn • Come celebrate 30 amazing years with ZJ Boarding House !!

ZJ Boarding House
2619 Main St. Santa Monica, CA
(310) • 392 • 5646
Store Hours:
Mon - Sat 10am - 7pm
Sun 10am - 6pm

Surfline Forecasters have been very busy over the past few days as one of the stronger swells of the season looks to deliver this week. A hurricane force low developed roughly a 1,000-1,500nm away from the West Coast, sending solid West swell to California midweek. Conditions are pretty dicey in Northern California, however, Southern California will see lots of surf and much more favorable winds.



Jacks Surfboards is having a wetsuit sale. Take 20% Off all wetsuits. This is online only and you have to use the code: NEWYEAR19

We sat out on the first round of this nonsense, even though we are the ONLY WEBSITE that has actually talked to witnesses that were present during it all. And we are the ONLY WEBSITE that actually talked to Wagner Lima about it. Other websites, like The Inertia, never posted what actually happened that day, they just took what they read off some blog site that played the race card and posted an incomplete telling of the incident that was filled with inaccuracies. The only website that even came close to knowing what happened was Beach Grit. The NBC cameraman even lied about what happened.

We did feel that we should post something regarding it, so we just put this story up: The Infamous Venice Beach Leash Pull Attack!!!!!

Some of us figured all this nonsense will just fade away. Some of us didn't.

Hell, even the girl whose leash got pulled wanted all this to go away. And for those unaware, the person who was maliciously going after Lima, doxing him, telling people to go attack his Yelp page, his Instagram and Facebook, was not the girl who got her leash pulled, it was her friend Rhonda Harper who was on the pier. They are not even friends anymore because she wanted to let this all go and Rhonda didn't. We were told that "Her personal Facebook page is filled with posts she made showing anger and hate towards men, white people and the surf industry in general." and that she was "going to use Lima as a whipping boy for all her pent up rage and hate." Both of these things checked out as true (which makes the initial story she had written about this being hate crime pretty damn ironic).

Good thing, we kept all the links, screencaps, and photos that we were sent about what happened, along with all the things we found ourselves. Because the ones that didn't think it would fade away were right.

Rhonda is back:


#wagnerlima update: In my quest to be a better me in 2019, I reached out to Mr. Leash pull. The intention was to speak to him immediately but he was busy enjoying his herbs so I walked the boardwalk. I came back and my rental car had been vandalized😒so I went directly to him. He explained his side of the incident, which I stopped him dead in his tracks and reminded him that his actions caused this chain reaction. I told him about the threats I’d been receiving from his friends. He told me about all of his woes. I reached out again and reminded him that his actions caused this. We talked for awhile, I suggested we do an anti-bullying beach day. He declined. He said, “all I can remember everyday is when you said -you’re going to hear from me again. And my life has been devastated.”🤷🏽‍♀️He said if he had to do it again he wouldn’t done it. In the end he said the Harbor Commission pulled his license and he’ll go today to try and get it back. We filmed it even though he asked us not to. Said our first goodbyes and that was it…until he went and spoke with his friend. He apparently told him to get his butt back over there and continue to apologize profusely and get a picture together.🤣😂🤣 We exchanged numbers and he left. Then he came again to thank me for coming to speak with him. He texted later again thanking me for coming down. Someone had to address this situation, so I did because I’m grown. Look at his face. 💅🏾😏 #localism #blackgirlssurf #blacksurfergirl #surf #venice #beach #imgrown

According to Lima, what she wrote is not entirely true. Among the things he mentioned was that "she was apologizing to me."

We commented on Beach Grit's Instagram post how this is not actually the truth and Rhonda replied to us in the same manner that she apparently replies to everyone that does not fully agree with her. A very childish manner. She likes to belittle and bully people that do not see eye to eye with her. BUT that doesn't work with us...we don't take that nonsense.






Rhonda blocked Shacked after our last reply to her.

Did she block us because we didn't let her bully us, or because maybe she realized we talked to people we who were there when she showed up to the Venice Pier that day and tried to take over the spot for her "photo shoot". Telling people they "can't surf here because her surfer needs to be filmed".

And the hashtags Rhonda added to her Instagram and her Facebook posts are not the type a person with "good intentions" adds.



So if she does do an "anti-bullying beach day", would she even be allowed to attend it?

We'll see how this this nonsense plays out...maybe she could let us know how she went about getting that permit to make the Venice Pier a "closed set" for her and NBC to film.



Amazing the amount of trash we see on our beaches after it rains in LA. Surfrider LA activist Nick Richetta pulled all this from just 25 square feet of sand at Bay Street in Santa Monica! Such a sight is enough to make any ocean lover sick. But instead of despairing, Nick is spearheading the RIDERS ON THE STORM initiative, a beach cleanup strike force that mobilizes within 24 hours of significant rainfall, working to not only remove whatever trash they can but also document the problem to leverage more comprehensive support and solutions from the County of Los Angeles. A perfect example of someone taking it upon themselves to address a global ocean issue at the local level. Contact Surfrider LA with your email address if you're interested in being notified of any post-rain cleanup strikes and they'll include you on Nick's list.


A montage of Lower Topanga footage by 3 surf filmmakers - Scott Dittrich, Hal Jepsen, & Grant Rohloff - set to the music of Blue Juice. It shows the houses, nude beach, psychedelic parties, and up-close encounters with fires and floods. This film is now available to buy at Brass Tacks Press .



Good waves on the first Sunday of the new year.

After being flat for almost two weeks, we finally got some waves. Here the links to surf photos we got so far from two different photographers Sunday morning around the Venice spots:

Venice Breakwater - Sunday 1-6-2019
Venice Pier - North Side - Sunday 1-6-2019
Venice Pier - South Side - Sunday 1-6-2019 Part 1
Venice Pier - South Side - Sunday 1-6-2018 Part 2




Here's even more surf photos from another photographer at the Venice Pier. These were shot by Rocketfish Media - SteveChristensenPhoto








There are more photos, all full size and in high-resolution, in the Venice Pier - January 2019 Photo Gallery from Rocketfish Media - SteveChristensenPhoto.

See Venice Pier - South Side - Sunday 1-6-2019 Part 1 for the surf photos of this day by Six12 Media

Wanna see photos from previous days at this and other surf spots?
Click Surf Spot Galleries for a list of past days.