North Surfing

A sprawling metropolis with a population of approximately 10 million people, Los Angeles is home to movie stars, extravagant homes, 12-lane freeways and nearly 96km (60mi) of Pacific Coast beaches. Among the surf spots of California's largest city, none can claim to be as famous as Malibu and its long righthanders breaking beside the coastal Highway 1. Tom Blake pioneered the break in 1926, but Malibu's fame really took off in the late '50s and early '60s. Along with a host of other surf legends, Miki Dora's stylish riding prowess exposed the wave to the surf world, while a movie based on a Malibu surfer girl, Gidget, was presenting surfing to the mainstream. With the exception of the area north of Santa Monica and the Palos Verdes peninsula, LA County is all beachbreak, but man made structures like piers and jetties provide some good sand bars. Over development of the LA basin has resulted in huge volumes of urban run-off from the coastal concrete jungle, causing regular beach closures from high bacteria counts and other toxic pollutants.