Yet another change in the plans of reopening LA beaches.

Now Los Angeles County public health officials said that they will "use this weekend to test whether people can obey loosened stay-at-home directives before deciding whether to lift some coastal restrictions next week."

“We are going to pay a lot of attention to how well we all do this weekend in terms of being able to comply with the directives,” Barbara Ferrer, director of Los Angeles County’s Department of Public Health, said during her daily coronavirus briefing on Friday.

"If things go well," she added, "officials might relax more rules next week."

“We’re looking forward to hopefully getting there by next week.”

This damn lady is always giving vague answers about this.

Basically, they are going to see how well people on the reopened hiking trials follow the rules. The whole keeping six feet from others, no large groups, and that everyone wears a face covering.

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

I got to witness a once in a lifetime phenomenon, bioluminescent algae appeared in the ocean and beaches in California. We ran down to Venice beach, when we arrived this is what we saw! I had to jump in the sea, it was glowing all around me, I literally felt like I was in Avatar! pic.twitter.com/KA43YoGLKA

— Louis Cole (@funforlouis) May 7, 2020

According to Surfline, " Good run of SSW swell fills in over the weekend, secondary NW swell shows then."



"Saturday, May 9th: 3-4′ waves from building SSW swell — more size PM. Light/variable to southerly AM wind, light+ to moderate PM onshores. Fresh SSW swell (205-185) is on the rise all day. Most breaks top out around waist-stomach high in the morning. By the afternoon/evening look for the long-period summertime focal points to be running chest-shoulder-head high+. Smaller NW swell blends in through the morning, rebuilding before dark. Light SE trending S morning winds shift more westerly and rise to light+/locally moderate in the afternoon before easing through the end of the day. Patchy morning fog."

"Sunday, May 10th: 3-5′ surf off peaking SSW/S at good exposures, more size at top spots. Some new NW swell joins in. More southerly morning winds for southern regions. Healthy, long period Southern Hemi shifts more southerly, SSW/S (200-180) and maxes out. That sets up chest-head high+ waves for exposed breaks in North LA. Combo beachbreaks that pull in that multi-directional swell mix will see some fun peaks. Light morning winds due from LA northward. Mainly moderate SW-W afternoon onshores, expected to ease by the evening. Patchy morning fog."

The average water temps as of May 7th.

Here's today update:

"We don't want a stampede to the beaches," said Nicole Mooradian, public information officer for L.A. County's Department of Beaches and Harbors, on Friday. "Right now we're planning for Wednesday."

What she really means is that the first phase of reopening the beaches might start next week.

There are 4 phases for reopening LA County beaches:

Phase one: gatherings beyond household members are prohibited. Surfing, running, walking and solo activities are allowed. No chairs, umbrellas or tents. Phase one lasts approximately six weeks and includes Memorial Day weekend.

Phase two: gatherings beyond household members are still prohibited, but chairs and umbrellas would be allowed. There’s a possibility, though, beaches would close for the Fourth of July weekend.

Phase three: small gatherings would be allowed, volleyball courts would open and film permits enabled.

Phase four: large gatherings would be permitted, with normal operation resumed.


She goes on to add that the first phase of the beaches reopening may last "about six weeks, but it could be shorter and it could be longer." She gives no clear reason for this, she just said, "It just depends on how many people come, and what the attendance looks like."

"We want people to wear masks when they're not in the water," Mooradian said.


But remember, mayors can cockblock the reopening.

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

Topanga - Photo: Six12 Media

It appears they are making changes daily about the reopening of beaches in LA. Here's today update:

Today, the Los Angeles County’s public health director Barbara Ferrer claims she is close to approving a phased plan for opening county beaches, paving the way for renewed public access to the coastline as early as next week. The Los Angeles Department of Beaches and Harbors is preparing for that possibility, with the most likely opening date being Friday, May 15.

Carol Baker, from the county Department of Beaches and Harbors said she she was “under the impression” the plan was close to complete. “As of now, we have not received a final word on when the beaches will open,” she added. “We’re preparing for as soon as next week.”

So basically, the Department of Beaches and Harbors and the Los Angeles County’s public health director are NOT working together, since neither knows what the other is actually doing.

Santa Monica officials have been getting ready for a potential early opening of beaches, but said they are doing everything in lockstep with the county.

“We have this limited reopening next week with all water sports involved,” said Manhattan Beach Mayor Richard Montgomery. All restrooms at beaches will be open and county staff will be in charge of frequent cleaning, Montgomery said. The concrete areas above the sand will also off limits. That means no pedestrians or cyclists on bike paths, the Strand or Esplanade.

Officials with Hermosa Beach, which also owns its beach, have said they will follow suit with whatever restrictions the county makes.

The draft plan that has been released (but still needs "additional tweaking") on reopening LA County beaches is as follows:

Phase one: gatherings beyond household members are prohibited. Surfing, running, walking and solo activities are allowed. No chairs, umbrellas or tents. Phase one lasts approximately six weeks and includes Memorial Day weekend.

Phase two: gatherings beyond household members are still prohibited, but chairs and umbrellas would be allowed. There’s a possibility, though, beaches would close for the Fourth of July weekend.

Phase three: small gatherings would be allowed, volleyball courts would open and film permits enabled.

Phase four: large gatherings would be permitted, with normal operation resumed.



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

As we reported already, select businesses are permitted to reopen on 5/8/20 and trailheads and golf courses can reopen 5/9/20.

Santa Monica officially announced that some of their closures, including the beach area, Santa Monica Pier, and Palisades Park remain in effect.
Source: @santamonicacity

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

Here's some of the surf photos from another quarantined morning at the Venice Pier.

This set of surf photos was shot by Six12 Media and brought to you by RVCA.

These are just a few of the 30+ photos from this session. If you were out there, you probably got some surfing shots, probably multiple photos, they will be in the complete photo gallery for this day, check them out, the link to the complete gallery is down below.












You can find over 30 more photos from this session, all full size and in high-resolution, in this photo galler7:

Venice Pier - Wednesday 5-6-2020 Photo Gallery


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

Wanna see photos from previous days at this and other local surf spots?
Click Surf Spot Galleries and look for the spot and then the date.

As we reported two weeks ago , the renegade crew at Mt Baldy reopened their lifts for skiing and snowboarding, offering up some prime spring conditions. Slushy goodness. They did enforced some strict social distancing rules, and only allowing a limited amount of people on hill.

Sunday was their closing day, making it one of their latest closing days ever.

"That’s a wrap on the 2019/20 snow season. Needless to say it was one for the record books, opening day was November 30 after a big Thanksgiving Day storm followed up by another massive post Christmas Day dump. For the next 16 weeks we had great coverage on Thunder Mountain, a few weeks of snow to the parking lot and several laps on #4 before closing 3/20/2020 due to an escalating COVID-19 virus outbreak."

"On behalf of ‘The Most Solid Crew Any Mountain Has Ever Had’ I’d like to thank you all for treating our operating plan with the respect that it deserved. Those 11 days of lapping Thunder Mountain could not have happened if everyone didn’t do their part." - Mt Baldy