88. Legal Skimming

It's no secret your SoCal gal loves the ocean beaches and loves to watch surfing...almost as if there is nothing else to do or watch at the beach.

So it would appear it is time for something completely different, skimboarding.  Okay, maybe not completely different.  There is a board involved.

A little over eighty years ago and approximately fifty miles from Manhattan Beach where the skimboarding showcased in this blog post took place, Laguna Beach lifeguards used to skimboard on pieces of wood.

Even though a piece of wood sounds about as high tech as a rock, the skimboards used today are built using technology adapted from aerospace to attain maximum lightness, buoyancy and rocker.

Unlike surfers, skimboarders stay close to shore running and throwing the board in front of them before jumping on and going for a ride.

The skimboarders in the video look like they are having lots of fun.  So much fun as to almost be criminal, which would then make this form of skimming illegal too.

50. El Porto - Break in the January Rain

After previously blogging about how very little it rains in the greater Los Angeles area, this winter has pelted more rain in the last five days than almost the last five years.

A trip to my closest beach, El Porto in Manhattan Beach, found me lucky to see how the rain has effected that beach during about an hour of dry and sunny.

Even though it was only about two hours until low tide, the water reach was still quite high on the beach.  The sand was very hard and compact.  Much of the beach was covered with a dark something making the sand look dirty (noticeable in the photo below and the accompanying video).

The waves were all over the place.  In many spots the water on the shore looked as if it had a large amount of soap dumped into it leaving soap-looking bubbles on the sand.

BTW did I mention how windy it was?  You can really hear it in the video, not to mention that it's a bit funny looking seeing some of those soap-looking bubbles being blown around the beach.

The most noticeable change from less than a week ago when the winter waves had the beach and water generously peppered with surfers (see the photo below taken six days previous to this blog post)...not a surfer to be sight seen.

From the news reports on T.V. I was expecting much worse (not that I am complaining).  As I stepped into my car to leave, the rain started again.  How lucky am I?

More rain is on the way.  Please stay dry and safe people.

16. To Beach or Not To Beach? That Is The Question.

Thought this might be a nice way to give you a quick taste of Manhattan Beach Pier



and not Manhattan Beach Pier (Downtown Manhattan Beach)



Then I'll tackle each a bit more in depth in the next two blog posts.

Until we cyber meet again.