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academia and surfing

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advertising and surfing

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aerial

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air-drop

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alaia board

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alcohol and surfing

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aloha shirt

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Andaman Islands

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Anderson, Simon

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angle

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Australia

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Azores

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Benson, Becky

Benson, Linda

Bermuda

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Beschen, Shane

Sunny, crowded, history-rich surfing area located in central Southern California; the birthplace of modern surf culture; current or former home to surf world icons such as George Freeth, Pete Peterson, Mickey Dora, Dale Velzy, Gidget, Malibu, John "Doc" Ball, Bud Browne, Greg Noll, and the Beach Boys. 

The 76-mile Los Angeles County coastline can be divided into three general surfing areas: 1) The Palos Verdes Peninsula, a hilly 27-square-mile promontory located in southwest Los Angeles County, is home to the wealthy communities of Rancho Palos Verdes and Palos Verdes Estates, as well as a small number of reef-and pointbreaks, including Indicator, Haggerty's, and the highly localized Lunada Bay. 2) The sandy and densely suburban beach cities of Santa Monica Bay, including Redondo, Hermosa, and Manhattan (collectively known as South Bay), as well as Venice and Santa Monica, all of which can produce snappy beachbreak waves. 3) The Malibu area, home to a series of rock-lined pointbreaks, including Sunset, Topanga, and Surfrider Beach. The rarely surfed Catalina and San Clemente Islands are also part of Los Angeles County. 

Los Angeles receives surf all year: Malibu and a small number of other area breaks require swells from the south or southwest, which generally arrive in late summer and early fall; most L.A. breaks are best on north or west swells, which commonly hit between late fall and early spring. Summer surf in Los Angeles is generally between two and four feet, but can drop off to nothing; winter surf is dependably three to five feet, but gets up to eight feet a few times each year, and can go as big as 12 or 15 feet—most notably at Lunada Bay. Average midday coastal air temperatures range from the mid-70s in summer to the low 60s in winter; water temperatures range from the low 70s to the mid-50s. Crowds are the primary Los Angeles County surfing hazard.

Hawaii's George Freeth introduced surfing to Los Angeles in 1907 at Venice Beach. (Freeth was long believed to be mainland America's first surfer, but it was later discovered that three Hawaiian brothers had ridden in Santa Cruz in the mid-1880s.) Surfing patriarch Duke Kahanamoku visited the Los Angeles area in the 1910s and '20s and helped popularize the sport; by the early '30s, Santa Monica surfer and lifeguard Pete Peterson was regarded as the best surfer on the coast, while Hollywood's Gard Chapin soon earned a reputation as the sport's most progressive rider. Palos Verdes Cove and Long Beach Flood Control were two of the most popular breaks on the coast; Malibu, first ridden by surf innovator Tom Blake in 1927, was beginning to earn a reputation as well. 

The Palos Verdes Surf Club, founded in 1935 by pioneering surf photographer John "Doc" Ball (whose work was published in 

), wasn't the first club of its kind in mainland America, but was the model for the era. 

, written by Hollywood bodysurfer Ron Drummond and sometimes referred to as the first book on surfing, was published in 1931; Ball's 

—filled primarily with photographs of Los Angeles–area waves and surfers—was published in 1946. Pacific Systems Homes in south Los Angeles had meanwhile become the first company to mass-produce surfboards.

The peak years for the Los Angeles County surf scene were just after World War II. Malibu, with its long and perfectly tapered waves, was by this time generally regarded as the world's best surf break; a group of Malibu-based board designers—including Bob Simmons, Joe Quigg, Matt Kivlin, and Dale Velzy—transformed the surfboard in just a few years from cumbersome 50-pound planks to foiled and tapered 25-pound "chips" that could be controlled and maneuvered. Los Angeles surfers like Kivlin, Dewey Weber, Mickey Muñoz, and Les Williams set and reset the performance standards in the mid-'50s; Mickey Dora, Mike Doyle, Kemp Aaberg, and Lance Carson came to the fore by the end of the decade, with the charismatic Dora also setting the parameters for the surfer/outlaw. Velzy had meanwhile opened what has been called the first surf shop (in Manhattan Beach in 1949), while Santa Monica school teacher Bud Browne debuted the first surf movie (

, in 1953). Dive N' Surf, founded in 1952 in Redondo Beach, is credited, along with Jack O'Neill's San Francisco Surf Shop, as the first company to manufacture and sell surfing wetsuits. The Los Angeles Surf Fair, held from 1962 to 1964 in Santa Monica, was the surf industry's original trade show; the 1965 KHJ Hermosa competition is sometimes cited as the first professional surf contest. South Bay's Hermosa Beach had by then become a surfboard manufacturing powerhouse, second only to Huntington Beach in neighboring Orange County, with companies owned by Hap Jacobs, Greg Noll, Dewey Weber, and Rick Stoner all producing thousands of boards per season.

Los Angeles writers, movie producers, and musicians began making regular contributions to surf culture, beginning in 1957 with the publication of 

 by Brentwood novelist Frederick Kohner. Columbia Pictures' version of Gidget was released in 1959; the Hawthorne-raised Beach Boys hit the national charts in 1962 with "Surfin' Safari," and West L.A.'s Jan and Dean followed the next year with "Surf City." (Surf music soon died out, but Hollywood would intermittently continue to produce surf movies, including 

Pacific Palisades surfer Rolf Aurness won the 1970 World Surfing Championships, but Los Angeles County had by that time lost its surf world preeminence. Overcrowding was partly to blame, along with a hard-to-define lack of drive—it's been said that the area is weighed down by its own history. Neighboring Orange County had by 1970 taken over as surfings industrial hub, while top riders in Orange County, San Diego County, and later Santa Cruz County soon eclipsed their Los Angeles contemporaries.

Los Angeles was home to both the United States Surfing Association (in the mid-'60s) and the Western Surfing Association (from 1968 to 1993). The Malibu Invitational was one of the biggest events of the early and mid-'60s; Malibu also hosted the 1981 Instinct U.S. Pro, the first world tour event held in California and the 1994 World Longboard Championships. 

Los Angeles has over the decades been home to dozens of surf world notables, including top surfers (Tommy Zahn, Vicki Flaxman, Johnny Fain, J Riddle, Mike Purpus, Allen Sarlo, Willy Morris, Jimmy Gamboa, Tyler Hatzikian), writers (Bill Cleary, Peter Dixon, Craig Stecyk, Jamie Brisick), and photographer/filmmakers (Don James, Leroy Grannis, Hal Jepsen, Scott Dittrich, Mike Balzer, Jim Russi). 

Surf magazines published out of Los Angeles include the 

 (1995–2002). Los Angeles County surf breaks are detailed in 

Surfer Magazine's Guide To Southern California Surf Spots

Los Angeles, Los Angeles County

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