The National Weather Service Los Angeles has issued a GALE WATCH valid from Wednesday morning to Wednesday eve for the potential of Santa Ana winds gusting to 35 kt. affecting the inner waters between Ventura and Santa Monica out to Anacapa and Santa Cruz Islands.

Mike, aka German in Venice, vlogs about daily life in Venice Beach, and the nearby communities.

"Today, I went to Venice Beach, and for the first time, I realized how many businesses are out of business in Venice. Once Venice Beach was the number one tourist's attraction, now it feels like it’s a ghost town. There are still people on the beach, but nobody is really buying anything."

If 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

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

The iconic Santa Monica board shop secures a new lease, extensive new renovations, and will reopen in the Spring of 2021. The temporary store will remain open for business in adjacent building next door, during the renovation.

Boardriders Inc. is pleased to announce a new go-forward lease and substantial renovation of its iconic ZJ Boarding House in Santa Monica – a pillar of the local community for more than three decades.

Working closely with the building’s landlord and local leaders, a new five-year lease has been signed and major renovations are underway at the original corner location on Main Street and Ocean Park Boulevard in Santa Monica. These steps ensure ZJ’s ongoing service to the community in all things boardriding for the foreseeable future.

“What a silver lining at the end of such a challenging year,” says Todd Roberts, co-founder of ZJ. “ZJ Boarding House is such an integral part of the community and we can’t thank our customers enough for their patience and support of us over the years. Thanks to the hard work of the community, of Boardriders, and of our landlord, we now have a plan in place that will continue to make this space the ultimate destination for everyone looking to have fun in and around the ocean, the mountains and beyond.”

After the Main Street renovations, which include the replacement of the roof, seismic retrofits, and substantial interior upgrades, the entire 4,900 square foot space will be open and ready to share the stoke in just a few months’ time. “Spring 2021 can’t come soon enough,” says Ajai Datta, who leads US retail operations for Boardriders. “We’re all looking to turn the page on challenging year that will ultimately make us stronger in the long run.”

{BEACH HAZARD STATEMENT} in effect through Thursday AM per National Weather Service Los Angeles:

Elevated WNW surf of 3-5' is expected for all Los Angeles County Beaches. High tides around 6.6' around 930 this AM may produce minor coastal flooding​.

On Monday afternoon, word started spreading that legendary Venice Beach musician Harry Perry had passed away.

Postings on Instagram appeared about him passing away and the Harry Perry Wikipedia Page had been updated with his death info.

But several of his close friends have starting replying to the social media posts letting everyone know that he is alive and well. The part about his death was then removed from his Wikipedia Page

Apparently, according to a source close to him, this was a hoax. The reason why, still unknown.

So it appears Harry is still alive.

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.

On December 8, 2020, at approximately 9:20 am, the Santa Monica Dispatch received a call of an armed robbery in progress at the Wells Fargo Bank, 170 Pier Avenue. The robbery was reported to involve a male armed with a shotgun. The information was quickly provided to dispatchers who were able to quickly relay it to the officers. Santa Monica Police Officers were in the area and quickly arrived on scene. Officers observed the suspect inside a vehicle exiting the bank parking lot. Officers were able to conduct a high-risk traffic stop at the intersection of Neilson Way and Bicknell. The suspect into taken into custody without incident. Officers recovered a shotgun from the vehicle.

Arrestee: KOEHLER-MARSH, AARON,
Male from Dayton, Indiana.
DOB: 06/17/1993
Primary Charge: 211PC

Love the beach? Show your love and come down and support the cause! Always leave it better than you found it.

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