Latest News


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:

https://venmo.com/u/santamonicacloseup

https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/fabianlewkowicz


It's back, the 15th Annual Santa Monica 4th of July Parade.
As the annual parade returns, we're proud to honor our community heroes, first responders during the pandemic years: healthcare, public safety & food service workers The 2022 parade will go the opposite direction from previous years, headed NORTH along Main Street from Marine to Pico!

For more info Click Here



June 25-26, 2022 - Santa Monica Pier 360: Paddle & SUP Races (and more)!

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!

Join us for an all-day, family friendly celebration of decades of surf, skate, paddleboard and lifeguard history.

The pier deck will also feature hula dancing, beer and spirits garden, live music and a surf history museum celebrating the history of lifeguarding, paddleboarding, surfing, and skateboarding around the Santa Monica Pier. POP SK8 Roller Rink will be popping up for this year’s annual kickoff summer event!



Come skate the mini-ramp and street course at the Red Bull Skate Expierence.

SUP Yoga clinics with YOGAqua on the huge APP Pool on the pier deck. With demos from the top pros and youth clinics, the APP Pool brings the ocean lifestyle to the city in a unique and all-inclusive way.

Main Event Categories:

Saturday, June 25th
One Mile Ocean Swim
Juniors 250m Ocean Swim
One Mile Fun Paddle
Lifeguard Competition
Amateur SUP Sprints
Kids Activity Clinics

Sunday, June 26th
5k Sand Run/Walk
Malibu to SM Pier Distance Race - 10 miles



The Museum of Beach Life, exclusively at Pier 360, celebrates the Pier's role in the formation of SoCal beach culture and tells the stories of some of the legendary personalities that pioneered active beach lifestyle at the Pier. The unique attraction features surf/paddle memorabilia curated by local legends and notable collectors (Rich Wilken, Jeff Ho, Cary Weiss, Mike Young) and exhibits celebrating the birth of mainland paddleboard racing, 2-person beach volleyball, the original Muscle Beach and so much more!

Racers should leave ample time to park and check in at registration a minimum of an hour before their event start time. Day of registrations should allow at least 90 minutes to park and register.



Visit www.smpier360.com for the most updated race information.




“We Won’t Back Down” Women’s Rights March

Women’s Rights March from Santa Monica Pier to Venice Beach.

Location
Santa Monica Pier
200 Santa Monica Pier
Santa Monica, CA 90401

Time
Sunday, June 26
12:00 p.m.


For more info and to register, Click Here

Meeting at the bottom of the staircase near Big Dean’s Oceanfront Cafe at The Santa Monica Pier.

Santa Monica is a very pedestrian-friendly destination and visitors are encouraged to go car-free, but if you find yourself in need of parking information, here are some tips for Santa Monica parking at the beach, downtown and for metered parking. Santa Monica Beach Parking is broken down into the following three Zones: Southern Zone: Lot 4 South and Lot 5 South Central Zone: Lot 1 North (also referred to as the “beach lot”), Lot 3 North, Lot 1 South, Lot 2 South and Lot 3 South Northern Zone: Lot 4 North through Lot 9 North


We are expecting monsoon showers and thunderstorms Tue night-Wed evening, over LA and Ventura Counties.


Monday, June 20th: 2-3’+ at better combo exposures.
Variety of small swells in the water. Old S swell, blend of NW swells (mid and shorter-periods) and a little southerly energy from TS Blas shows mostly knee-waist high waves through the better spots along the coast. Standout combo magnets go stomach to occ. chest-high on the face. Clean and peaky in the morning, with only a light+ W onshore wind due in the afternoon.
Tuesday, June 21st: 2-3’+ at better combo exposures.
Almost a copy from Monday. A small blend of S/SW and NW swells show knee-waist high waves with stomach to occ. chest-high faces at best combo breaks. We may see a little S wind around OC but mostly clean up and down the coast. Light SW onshore wind develops midday and into the afternoon.

Originally published on Surfline


The Chevy Tahoe, that is said to be the cause of the brush fire in the Bollona Wetlands, had been parked there for over one week, according to several people who had drove by it regularly.







Over 3 acres were scorched by the fire, a pissed off resident made a video of the aftermath:

A pissed off resident made a video of the aftermath of brush fire in the Bollona Wetlands, that scorched over 3 acres.



Back in 2018, the tagged up Venice Pavilion was recreated as an art installation for a massive street art exhibition on the edge of Chinatown, called Beyond The Streets. The photo above shows the replica graffiti filled Venice Pavilion that was created for the show..

This weekend, pieces from recreated Venice Pavilion installation were spotted being thrown to the garbage as a crew of workers was clearing out the downtown warehouse they had been stored in.



On Saturday at approximately 5:34PM, a brush fire broke out in the Ballona Creek Wetlands.

According to Brian Humphrey of the LAFD: "LAFD ground and air response with nearby LACoFD in Automatic Aid, to one-quarter (0.25) acre light grass burning in the Ballona Creek Wetlands." Where Culver and Jefferson Bluvds meet is where the fire was burning.

A video (posted below) shows that it was most likely caused by a Chevrolet SUV that caught fire.





Whether that SUV being driving or being used as a home is not yet known.



The fire, known as the "Jefferson Fire", grew rapidly from 0.25 acre to 3.5 acres.



At 6:10PM, Humprey updated the fire's status that "The 86 LAFD responders assigned by ground and air (Joined by nearby LACoFD and Culver City FD ground crews in Automatic Aid) are making significant progress on the blaze." The fire was being held at "Major Emergency" status. No injuries and no structures were threaten. Closures of one or more lanes of Culver Boulevard and Jefferson Boulevard west of Lincoln Boulevard woukld continue until LAFD operations are completed.



By 6:30PM, the updated was that the LAFD had "fully contained the perimeter of the blaze at three and one-half (3.5) acres of vegetation in less than one hour. No injury. No structures damaged."

Humprey updated the possible cause, "Though the genesis of the fire appears related to a full-sized sport utility vehicle that was well involved with fire, with flame fanned by light on-shore wind already spread into nearby volatile vegetation on LAFD arrival, the specific and official cause of the fire has yet to be determined."
Subscribe to: Posts ( Atom )