Catalina Connection

Fourth of July, Island Style

By: KATHERINE M. CLEMENTS

AVALON— Catalina Island is celebrating Independence Day with multiple celebrations. Kicking off on July 3, the USC marching band will host a performance at the Wrigley Stage between 3-4 p.m. July 4 will offer several different family-friendly activities. Live music will be provided by local Avalon bands. The annual golf cart parade will begin at 1 p.m. The 2022 parade theme is “Explore Catalina by Land, Air or Sea,” Residents will dress up and decorate their golf carts in accordance with the theme or just in good old red, white, and blue. The parade line will meet up along casino way at 12 p.m. The Catalina Yacht Club has organized a dinghy parade which will begin at 3:30 p.m. The day will end with a firework show at 9 p.m and can be viewed from the sand or the walkways along the water. Participants can support the celebration by contributing donations. All donations will go to the City of Avalon to support the firework show and the USC marching band’s performance in the parade. Donations can be made on the Love Catalina website. Descanso Beach will also host a BBQ on July 4 from 6-9 p.m. Tickets are $69 per person.

TWO HARBORS— Two Harbors will kick off its Independence Day celebrations on July 2 with the 36th Annual Children’s Festival held at Buffalo Park. The event will include crafts and activities from 10 a.m. – 12 p.m. The 18th Annual Dinghy Parade will also take place on July 2, participants are encouraged to decorate their dinghy with a creative, patriotic theme and follow along in the parade through the coves of the West End. The event will begin at 2 p.m. and prizes will be awarded for the most creative dinghies.

On July 3, a firework show will be displayed at 9 p.m. over Isthmus Cove. Guests in Avalon are welcome to hop aboard the Cyclone power boat at the Green Pleasure Pier and will arrive in Two Harbors in time for the firework show. The Cyclone power boat’s departure time has not been determined yet and the price of a one-way trip is $16.51. Check back at the Love Catalina website for updated information.

Avalon residents go full-blown patriotic on July 4th, with creative and devoted nationalistic themed gold carts and dinghies.

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The USC marching band began its participation in the parade in 1990. It has since become a quaint celebration for the locals.

Historical PHOTO

Dana Point: A City Found on Surfing

DANA POINT— In the 1950s, pioneering surfers discovered the magic of Dana Point and its potential for a great surf session. In 1954, Hobie Alter of Hobie Surfboards, a Dana Point still a retail hotspot today, and the Hobie Cat Sailboat Fame, a catamaran unleashed on the Southern California beaches since 1970, opened the mainland’s first retail surf shop in Dana Point. Early surf legends came to ride “Killer Dana,” a legendary wave that broke at Dana Point Cove.

When seas were calm, ships could anchor at Dana Cove or send landing craft to its narrow strip of sandy beach. When swells rolled in, however, the seafloor amplified the wave action. Just like that, the wave was named Killer Dana. The cove and an adjacent promontory owed their names to sailor Richard Henry Dana, who collected cowhides there in 1835-36 and later wrote about his visit in “Two Years Before the Mast,” a book widely read throughout the area.

It wasn’t until the 1960s when that cove would become a harbor as the construction of Dana Point Harbor started with the building of the rock breakwater jetties. Dana Point Harbor was officially dedicated on July 31, 1971. Inside its one-and-a-half-mile jetty, the harbor houses two marinas.

Today the harbor provides slips and mooring for over 2,500 boats and more than 50 specialty shops and restaurants. Over two million visitors visit the harbor annually for shopping, dining, and enjoying various recreational activities.

In the 1970s, residential development began earnestly, and the sleepy beach town was transformed. Then, in 1989, residents voted to incorporate as a legal city so they could have control of planning and development.