Vacations Blog

No, this is not a post about springing Gwen Stefani’s kid from an unfair incarceration.  This is about the beach.

I have lived within a short driving distance of the beach most of my life, except for a 4-year landlocked period in South Bend, Indiana.  One might think that going to the beach for a day is no big deal to me, but one would be very, very wrong.  Because I love the experience of spending hours at the shore so much, I build it up in my mind so that my expectations are so high that anything less than a perfect excursion disappoints me greatly.  Not enough ice in the cooler?  Run out of snacks too soon?  Sand in all the wrong crevices?  Too windy/chilly/hot/smelly/noisy/crowded…etc?  Any one of those can spell Beach Day FAIL*.

Sandy snacks, pre-meltdown

In Southern California, unless you live within walking distance of a beach, you have to add the dangers of parking, paying for parking, and walking from your parking space to the list of potential Beach Day hazards.  And add some children into the mix, well…the treachery is endless and may make you give up altogether.  No need for Beach Day!  There is a tiny little frog pool we can play in right in our own backyard!

Periodically, I fight to overcome this futility because I do love the beach so, and I wish to impart its beauties and wonders upon my boy children, who are showing signs of loving it as much I as do.  During perfect moments, they run and scream unabashedly, hopping in the waves breaking on shore, digging in the sand, chasing after beach balls, making new friends, gobbling snacks and sand without caring which is which.  Inevitably, however, there have been child-related Beach Day disasters of epic proportions, mostly involving poop, and in one incident, a seawaterlogged peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  I will spare you the gore at this time.

The best I can do is learn from these incidents and move on, making minor adjustments each time we head on out for possible ill-fated Beach Days.  The best discovery I have made to date was Free Zuma, which is what my friends call Westward Beach, just north of Point Dume State Beach with its southern cliff boundary, rocky tidepools, and breathtaking scenic hikes.  With the kids this little I don’t care about any of that – all I know is that this stretch of beach offers the chance of a successful frolic in the surf and sand for hours on end.

Zuma Beach itself is a 2-mile-long stretch of unbroken beautiful white sandy beach with no rocks or points to break the surf, which means the waves can get huge.  It also means that when the winds come in off the shore you are in for quite a sand storm.  Along most of this beach there is an enormous parking lot which costs $6 per day.  Walking from the car to the sand is not a terribly long walk, but it’s even shorter if you forgo the lots and turn in the other direction – south – to Free Zuma.

Free Zuma is known as such because you just park on the side of the road right up against the sand where there are no parking lots at all.  On busy beach days the roadside spots fill up by 10AM.  That limits the number of people who land on this part of the beach, so it’s never as crowded as its northern counterpart.  To get there from the city parts, take 101N to Kanan Rd, turn left and follow that 12 miles to Pacific Coast Highway and turn right.  Just over the hill at the bottom of the slope, turn left on Westward Beach road.  There is no stop sign or light there, so look carefully.

How to get to Free Zuma

You’ll drive through some vegetation and then you emerge here:

Westward Beach

Point Dume

Park on the side of the road and enjoy a sandy day of fun, or venture farther south to Point Dume for exploring, hiking, tide pool inspecting, or any of the other many beach activities that one can do when one is not chasing a toddler.  My day at “Free Zuma” did not include a camera, so these pictures appear courtesy of Malibu Complete and Wikipedia.

*Yes, you are seeing that correctly.  There is a USC Trojans logo on the blanket in the background.  I blame its owner for cursing our otherwise perfect Beach Day.

Reports are in that people are spending much less on travel these days, and so it would follow that other leisure activities would suffer.  The SCUBA schools in the Los Angeles area seized upon a brilliant marketing tool when they teamed up with the Be a Diver traveling SCUBA pool that made its appearance at last month’s LA Times Travel Expo at the Convention Center.

This intrepid blogger made her way to the show to gather up information, fill an eco-friendly reusable tote bag with non-eco-friendly brochures and travel guides, and enter a few hundred giveaways.  As I made my way through the back end of the huge convention space, a woman from Malibu Divers accosted me.  What caught my eye was their booth display about SCUBA parties for children, but then the woman gestured off to my left.

And then I saw it.

Be a Diver Pool

The enormous 5-ft deep pool sat like a grounded whale in the corner and it was filled with otherwise ordinary people in wetsuits and masks, waiting for their turns to be taught how to use SCUBA gear from volunteer instructors.  “Would you like to try?” said the woman from Malibu Divers.

It was the end of the weekend-long travel show.  That pool and its festering warm water had been host to hundreds of would-be divers.  The wetsuits had been used over and over again, as were the mouthpieces of the breathing apparati.  I was alone and toting a Canon Rebel XT Digital SLR along with my purse, phone, and wallet.  But what the heck?  I heard my inner muse tell me to go for it.  I told him to be quiet (yes, my muse is male).  He would not.  He said “Do it for your readers, Kim.”  And so I did.

Let me first say that I have snorkeled in beautiful waters and enjoyed every moment.  Distant opportunities to learn to SCUBA dive have come up in my past but this is the first time the chance was so immediate.  And it was FREE.

Still, I felt like an idiot as the poor guy whose job it was to hand you a wetsuit looked me over and tried to figure out my size.  He handed me a smelly short suit and directed me to the changing tents.  My personal belongings were guarded by another volunteer.  Then I was given a mask and fins and I waited in line outside the pool for a spot to open up within.  It was chilly in the wet wetsuit, so the attendant invited me to wait in the heated water.

Changing Tent: Caution: Piso VERY Mojado!

I didn’t wait long, and my instructor, a tall guy in what he called a “dry suit” that looked like SWAT gear for the water, dragged my apparatus through the water and fastened it to my back.  He explained that in a real class I would also be given weights to keep me down in the water, but as it was I struggled a bit to stay down because the whole shebang was buoyant.  He showed me how to put my mouth around the breather, and told me that the number one rule, the only real instruction, was “Breathe.”

So I got underwater.

And I breathed.

Just breathe.

Keep swimming!

Who cares if you look like a dork? The fish don't care.

And I kept breathing!  And it was good!  And I was swimming and I didn’t have to hold my breath or go to the surface to get more air.  My first thought was “Why have I never done this before?!” I have traveled to many places where SCUBA diving would have been a wonderful activity.  Look at all I missed.

Save your children the heartbreak of a SCUBA-less life.  Check out the local dive schools below, and discover the joys of swimming with the fishes.  If you live in one of the cities that the Be a Diver Pool will visit in the coming months, I highly recommend trying the free lesson.  I got to swim around in the murky pool to my heart’s content.  Here’s a quick shout-out to Jeff, the volunteer who gamely shot pictures of all participants that were available for free download from the Be a Diver Pool website a few days after the event.

I didn’t even get scabies from the wetsuit.

Converted.

SCUBA Schools of America in Montclair has a special program for kids 8-11: SCUBA Rangers which is fully supervised in a pool.  Kids age 10 and up can take a special class to learn how to dive in the ocean.

Malibu Divers has a family program that kids 8 and up can take with Mom and Dad.  Open water diving starts after age 10.  This is the company that advertises a 2-hour SCUBA birthday party .  How cool is that?  Why just for kids, anyway…?

Aqua Adventures Unlimited in Burbank also advertises the SCUBA birthday parties but for a slightly higher price.  (They might want to rethink their skull and crossbones logo, however.  I’m just sayin.’)

Even kids can do it!

What’s the first thing you think of when you imagine a vacation in Los Angeles?  Disneyland.  Okay, yeah, that’s been covered here already, so what’s the second thing?  The beach, of course!  If you live in Wisconsin and you’re planning to visit Southern California, you’re not coming here for the art museums.

Santa Monica on Veterans' Day

The obvious beach destinations are the Santa Monica Pier and Venice Beach, both places that are good for classic photo opportunities.  But if you’re the kind of beach lover who wants to see more beach than people, head north.  Once you pass Sunset Boulevard you leave the tourist traps behind in favor of some of the most beautiful beach spots in the area.  If you have the time and enjoy a beautiful drive, keep going even farther than the vast stretches of Zuma Beach, itself a great destination for a quick two-hour out-of-town getaway.

Family fun at Zuma Beach

The steep terrain that drops off away from Pacific Coast Highway makes some of these beaches a little bit more difficult to access, but that’s what keeps the crowds away, and almost guarantees that you will have a pristine view once you get down there.  Nicholas Canyon and El Matador are two beautiful less populated spots.  Look closely for the brown signs directing you to the turnoffs – they’re easy to miss.  Parking here is paid for at a machine, then you display your ticket in your window.  Solidly constructed staircases get you down to the sand, but there are a LOT of stairs, so make sure you pack lightly.

El Matador

Just up the coast, Leo Carillo State Beach has a campground to the east of the highway, and plenty of parking along the sand if you take the turnoff to the west.  There’s also a stretch of beach there that allows dogs.  Not just for sunbathing, you can watch surfers, windsurfers, and parasailors, or poke around in the tidepools at low tide.  Parking is $10 a day, so make sure you’ll be there long enough to make your visit worth the cost.

The last chance beach in Los Angeles county is called County Line.  No longer the true line that ends the county, this is a local surfing spot famous for its dual breaks, perfect for long- and shortboarders alike.   You’ll know you’re there when you see the turnoff for parking on the west side of the highway, right across from from Neptune’s Net, an old-school beach shack that attracts local color as well as beach visitors for bottled drinks, grilled meats, and steamed seafood.  (Warning – there are only portable toilets at this beach and restaurant, so leave your daintiness back at Leo Carillo’s flush toilets.)  It’s a perfect destination for your drive – sit on the porch and have a snack and drink while you watch the surfers, then head back south to that turnoff that you missed on the way up.