The Surfer

The Surfer Surfrider Beach

Read why everyone in Malibu loves this beach

Surfing for Science

Read about surfers helping gauge coastal warming

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Surfrider Beach

The Globe’s First World Surfing Reserve Since the 1920s, pioneering surfers had been going to great lengths to ride the three legendary point breaks at Surfrider Beach.

Swim club lifeguard Tom Blake, with his friend Sam Reid alongside him, is considered by many to have been the first to catch a Malibu wave in 1926. Malibu was then the 20-odd-mile private domain of the powerful Rindge family. In 1892, Frederick and May Rindge had purchased more than 13,000 acres of the Rancho Malibu, with the intention of making it a nature preserve and personal paradise. May had begrudgingly allowed members of the Hollywood elite to rent lots on a 1-mile stretch of shore due to a complicated court battle that forced her to allow public access to Malibu.

To clearly mark what was still the family’s personal property, the Rindge’s built Spanish style walls skirting the shore.

By the early 1950s, Sur-

frider Beach was the domain of a small, rag-tag group of surfing pioneers who could be found in the waves from the early morning to late at night.

They were led by the legendary Miki “da cat” Dora, whose grace and elegance on the board led fellow surfer Mike Nader to call him “the Cary Grant of surfers.” On land, Miki was an accomplished con-man, donning a tuxedo to steal from the wealthy at movie industry parties, raiding his fellow surfers’ refrigerators.

When they weren’t surfing, the surfers would hang around the iconic wall, a relic of the days when Malibu was the Rindge family’s private playground.

Surfboard designer Lance Carson recalled, “All the people would sit around the wall at Malibu Beachwhich we would call ‘the pit.’ We would play ukuleles, wear cut-off jeans and straw hats and drink beer as we watched Dale Velez shape boards.” This

chill, relatively unnoticed community would be shot into the stratosphere in the fall of 1957. Gidget’s father, screenwriter Frederick Kohner, had become fascinated with the world his daughter had discovered. Using her writings and recollections, he wrote Gidget, the story of a spunky teenage girl who falls in love with a boy named Moondoggie and surfing in Malibu, “where the waves coming from Japan crash against the shore like some bitchen rocket bombs.” The delightful book was a smash, selling around 2 million copies. In 1959, the movie version of Gidget, starring the effervescent Sandra Dee, was released.

Malibu has now fully embraced its status as the epicenter of surf culture.

You can take surfing lessons, surfing tours, and sign your child up for surf camp. In 2010, Surfrider Beach was named the globe’s first World Surfing Reserve.

Sur fing for Science

Surfers are Helping Gauge Coastal Warming

By Robert Brewin

The state of the marine life and temperature is very important to us, being surfers who inhabit the ocean daily. However, this issue is globally spread. Up until now we have relied purely on satelite data to measure the changing temperature of the marine life. But now, “We cannot trust satellite data in the nearshore environment for monitoring long-term trends in sea-surface temperature,” Brewin says. So his team is pushing to create a coalition of volunteer water sports enthusiasts who could gather more close-up data to complement satellite readings.

Join the Movement Their results could also help retune measurements from space to be more accurate along coasts. “If we start collecting these data sets now, we can begin to understand how our coastal environment is responding to climate change,” Brewin adds.

Surfers everywhere are coming together to help track the temperature of the ocean by attaching the “smartfin” to their boards.

This fin was designed by oceanographers to help track the exact temperature in specific areas of the ocean.

S M F A I R N T

SOCAL

B est B e a c h e s in

Malibu

Laguna

Stretching for more than 30 miles along the Pacific and Highway One, Malibu has achieved almost mythological status among California beach towns.

Hollywood stars and top athletes live in oceanfront homes here, under an elegant veil of privacy on long strands of beach, and enjoy front-row seats for surfing and unforgettable sunsets. While it may sound exclusive, there is plenty of Malibu magic for visitors to access too.

Considered to have some of the most perfect waves anywhere, Malibu’s Surfrider Beach, just off the Malibu Pier.

The artist colony of Laguna Beach is one of Orange County’s hidden gems, located halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego. The city’s topography is unique to other California coastal cities with its seven miles of coves and beaches where visitors can explore sea caves, tide pools, ocean side bluffs, natural tide pools and of course, sandy beaches, all within city limits. Laguna Beach also boasts the most beachfront lodging options in all of California, making it an ideal spot for a beach getaway. It’s an optimal location for adventurous exploration.

Manhattan Beach

El Porto is officially part of the City of Manhattan Beach between Dockweiler State Beach and Manhattan Beach. The best place to park is in the metered parking lot on 45th Street just west of Highland Avenue. Get there early, it fills up quick. If you’re a novice you can’t do any better than El Porto. The area is a great place to learn the hows and whys of surfing — not just the mechanics, but also the etiquette that is such a big part of surf culture. Thanks to an underwater cave El Porto offers some pretty sizable waves well into the winter that more seasoned surfers will enjoy.

Santa Monica Venice Beach

In the middle of the beach, extending from Colorado Blvd and the center of Santa Monica is the Santa Monica Pier. Featuring an amusement park, aquarium, and restaurants, the pier is a landmark for the beach and the city. Santa Monica beach is home to the original Muscle Beach (not the weightlifting kind, that’s Venice Beach) featuring gymnastic equipment including parallel bars, rings, swings and ropes are available for kids and adults. The summer season is the most popular time for residents and tourists to visit Santa Monica beach.

Speaking of popular beaches, Venice offers everything you think you want in a Los Angeles beach experience.

Not only does it host an eclectic boardwalk, but lots of volleyball, rollerblading and biking. The surfing at Venice is good for all levels. This is the place to surf if you want to be seen. It’s also the place to surf if you’re a tourist and want to get your feet wet.

The waves don’t lie, but they do break. Nicely. The best swells are located along the famed Venice Breakwater between the Venice and Santa Monica Piers, respectively.