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WE WILL NEVER FORGET YOU

The Internet community mourns all those who perished on Tuesday September 11, 2001

, the passengers and pilots of the crashed flights, the workers and visitors in the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and all the people in and around the attacked areas. Our thoughts and our prayers are with you and your families. The Internet community is with you. We won't forget you.

Webmaster@playadelrey.com

last update10/8/02 The Surf of del Rey

......At one time, out here, we had some surf. Waves that stretched from Ballona Creek, (Hoppyland, named after Hop-a-long Cassidy, an old time western film legend who owned land there, ) to the pipe, out in front of Culver Blvd., once known as Tareynton Jetty. I heard It got it's name from the Tareynton cigarette smokin' surfers, Terry Fergus being one of the kids who would terrorize the town and then dive into a bag of french fries at Zaffs Marina Fountain, only 25 cents, a big brown paper bag full, from what my friend Holly Hunter (Johnny Hunter's sister) told me, she lived on Trolley Way back then. 1963 or so. Later, I would go there when it was Captain's Burgers, get breakfast for a buck or a shake then go across the street and see Chuck for a Shackburger, fries and a coke, that's about all he had at the time and it was a "shack". Those are great memories. Thanks Holly, for your info..

This area was known as "Toes Beach" or "toes over"I was told that nickname came from surfing "toes over the nose", during the early years, when all there was were longboards. These waves usually were fast , it definetely wasn't a slow wave. "The Line-up", is what local surf veteren Bruce Peterson knew it as,because there were waves as far as you could see, a south west swell made it happen. The original "Toes Tavern", if you remember the pool hall chain a few years ago, started here below the "Chez del Rey", (the old brick bldg next to the "Shack") a little trivia. Anyways, from what I remember, surfing here was fun and convenient. I started off rafting, we called it, in the late 60's, a 2 ft by 4 ft air canvas mattress with a rope around the perimeter, you couldn't go anywhere else but straight down the face and to the beach, and that was o.k. and fun. Then my uncle, Don Russell Anderson, who lived in Westchester, gave me a long board he glassed, shaped by his partner Bob Russell Brown(Russell Surfboards, moved to Newport 34 years ago and still there end of the 55)...... I took it out at D & W (Dockweiler) with my neighbor, Larry Dickson, now a Lifeguard in Southbay, already into surfing. I had no clue what I was doing. I went out on an unwaxed board and, well, you know, it was like a slip-n-slide, I didn't do much standing.

A little later I tried knee-boarding only to eventually try surfing again. The first standing ride I got was out at R & R's (Rights into the Rocks) at Tareynton, on the north side, with Johnny Nueslin, back in the 70's. There were so many hot, even pro surfers, who came out of this town, that I wouldn't do it justice to try to mention all the names, besides , that isn't why I'm writing this, I'll finish this story another time.

What I'm trying to say is, some of the best waves I've ever ridden, broke right out front , maybe not as often, but just as perfect, if you grew up surfing here, you would have scored some of the most perfect waves, even barrels, such as South Side, R & R's, Northcurl, Mimi's, Gillis, (thank God Gillis still breaks a few times a year, and we need to keep it that way) some of the funnest lefts, at the creek, (It would just keep reforming), D & W, (still breaks in the winter, sometimes) but most of all, Tareynton lefts, when it broke, and it did on a southwest, usually early and late summer, late being best, It was awesome, the water was warm, and that time of year, you could trunk it. This left, would break from 2' to 10' backs, though, I didn't have a tape measure. On a good day, when it held its shape, laying back in the pocket seemed easy, such a rush and an experience I'll never forget, especially at your home break, I was regular foot and loved it, (left foot forward, sometimes a disadvantage on a wave breaking this direction) . At high tide R & R's would take you from 20 to 60 yards north of Tareynton, back to where the rocks met the sand.

Our beach had it's share of surfers, and all of the spectators who loved the sport, usually you could surf something out there, and in the winter, south side, was a literal "SHACK!!!!" The Shack had a local double meaning at that time. Then came the storm in the 80's. It scattered the jetty (groin) rocks all over and I guess brought alot of sand out of Ballona Creek into the boaters pathway to the Marina.

........Well, instead of repairing the groin or jetty, they removed it completely, put an ugly concrete encased pipe (storm drain) which needs repairing anyways, removed all the rocks, dredged out the sand that created the surf that so many of us grew up surfing on, only to allow boats to get into the Marina. Well, if they had a problem before the storm, it could have been thought out with more than just the boaters interests at heart, but since, at that time most surfers weren't well off, (though many are now), the sport was not as respected as it is today. We really didn't know what was about to happen to our surf, our beach, our lifestyle, but afterwards we were angry. Alot of locals moved away, to distant surf spots like the North shore, Oahu, (Playa del Rey's got their little community over there). Some moved to other coastal breaks, some lost interest, some quit, some even worshiped it too much, steppin' away from the lifestyle would've been the wisest choice for them, and of course, some passed on, still, some remain and surf semi-locally, many have become very successful with their lives, and some are active in our community, I hope that you would voice your interest and concern over this issue, even if you don't surf, you may still be able to understand what a wonderful lifestyle it was to be able to surf where you live. Our kids and grandkids still may be able to enjoy this once again as we and so many before us did.

.....On a side note, most real-estate in every surf town in Calif. is good, Malibu, Newport, Huntington Beach, La Jolla, Silverstrand,- Ventura, Rincon,-Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa, just to name a few. Businesses also do very well. When the surf's up locally, so are profits, look at Mary Thompson's portrayal of Toes in '75 (click on art below) or come see it on the wall at Cafe Milan's, that's how it was, we would be foolish not to want that for our town.

.......We are blessed with a balance of activities in Playa del Rey. Sports, such as biking, volleyball, skating, boating, skateboarding and surfing should all be acknowledged as part of our beach town activities. I believe somehow a channel could be designed and built to allow the boats to enter safely from the south side, without allowing the sand to interfere with the passageway, sure we may not be able to surf Ballona creek, but the groin in front of Culver could be restored. This would bring back a forgotten characteristic Playa del Rey had enjoyed for years. I wish we knew what was being taken from us, I guess we found out too late. Well, even if Pratte's reef @ El Segundo finally breaks, and I hope it will, (it still needs more bags) it's too long of a walk. I'd hate to have to walk that far to play volleyball. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Mike Lind

Please share with us more of Playa del Rey's surf history and photos or paintings 821-2945 or 310-804-5504 or click on

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ONCE VIBRANT BEACH COLONY A GHOST TOWN

Broken streets and a butterfly preserve are about all that remains of a neighborhood that once stood under the flight paths of LAX take-offs.

By David Ferrell, Times Staff Writer

The old neighborhood isn't what it used to be. Every home is gone, nearly 800 razed to nothing but a few low retaining walls.

Streets are still here-Rindge, Jacqueline, Kilgore-but not a car has passed over them in a quarter-century. Knee-high weds breach the asphalt, running in lines like lane strips. A few old, globeless lampposts are the last standing pieces of a beachfront community wiped from the map.

Machine gun nests protected this coastal strip of Playa del Rey from threat of enemy invasion during World War II, but the homes were defenseless against American planes: an onslaught of noisy commercial from LAX next door. As the airport grew, the thunder of first-generation jetliners rattled the windows and shook the ceilings. The city solved the problem in the 1960's and early 70's with four rounds of condemnations-forced purchases at a fraction of what the land alone would be worth today.

More than 470 acres of gently rolling hill sides-prime ocean-view land above Dockweiler State Beach- were bought up, cleared and cordoned off by chain link fencing and barbed wire. Then it was all left to sit, year after year after year.

The scene is nearly the same today as when Apollo XI landed on the moon, as when the boys came home from Vietnam. It is a ghost town that may last another century, as far as anyone can guess.

"The plan is no plan at all," says Harold Johnson, an airport spokesman, when asked about the future of the desolate property. The broken streets are visible to anyone driving along along Vista del Mar north of Imperial Hwy.. The track extends inland to Pershing Drive and is bounded North by Napoleon and Waterview streets, near Playa del Rey village.

"You talk about prime real estate, that's it," says Steve Matilla of Matilla Realty, whose childhood home was gobbled up by the Condemnations. He talks of the emotional sufferings of having to move but has great memories of playing football in the now dead streets and chasing jack rabbits across the sand dunes.

"It was ideal-two blocks from the beach, ocean views from about every spot on the block," he says. "The only bugaboo was, the jets did fly right over our heads. Some of those jets got so close you could almost pick up a stone and hit them. Literally, you had to stop talking and put your hands over your ears and let them go by."

It is one of the classic and inevitable urban battles-airports verses the neighborhoods that feed into them. Playa del Rey became the worst-case scenario, a scarred place, a place of heavy losses, tears, lawsuits and hard negotiations over fair-market value.

New runways, federal restrictions on jet landings and takeoffs, and potential liability for hearing loss were all part of the equation. As a result, wonderful old buildings were knocked or, in other cases, moved in sections to other neighborhoods.

One of the first demolished, in 1967, was a 6,400-square-foot Spanish-Moroccan mansion that locals called "The Castle." The airport bought for $86,000 and set upon it with bulldozers rather than let it draw vandals and transients.

"It was a fantastic neighborhood," remembers Wendy Saner, who rented a home here and watched the grim exodus, one parcel at a time. "They kept saying, 'This is the end of it... this is the end of it.' and they kept moving the line."

Saner, a retired interior designer who now lives only a few blocks away, talks lovingly about the old beach colony, developed in the 1920's. Cecil B. DeMille had a cottage here, as did other Hollywood luminaries and writers. It was comparable to Pacific Palisades in it's topography and charm.

The airport was not a worry then. It opened in 1928, a tiny place that would grow and grow, like a fleshy mass that squeezes everything around it. By the mid-1960's, when the condemnations began, the annual passenger volume had grown to 7 million, Today, the number is 67 million, making LAX the third busiest airport in the world. Even with quieter modern jets, the noise is horrendous and the fear of further home condemnations dogs homeowners in other parts of Playa del Rey and Westchester.

After the targeted beach-side homes were bought and removed, airport officials set about the in the early 1980's to bring other uses to the property. They drew up a scheme that included an 18-hole golf course, a viewing area to watch the planes take-off, a 12-acre sand dune preserve and an 80-acre habitat for the endangered El Segundo blue butterfly.

Ultimately, concerns about the butterfly superseded all other options. Project plans were approved by the airport and the city but voted down by the California Coastal Commission.

A park of only two acres was developed-a few picnic tables across the street from the beach. The remaining land, lampposts and all, became the domain of the butterfly. From the insect's point of view, it's a happy story; Fewer than 500 butterflies were counted way back when; now there are believed to be 50,000 or more.

The empty acreage, with it's dry grass and eerie, weed-filled streets, remains puzzling to many of the people who lie in the little park to watch the ocean.

"I do wonder what happened," says Bythell Franklin of Manhattan Beach, peering through the chain-link. "To me, it's an eye-sore."

Sandpiper is the only street still open to traffic through the property. It is lined with fences and "no parking" signs; for a while, it was a notorious lovers' lane. Some people ignore the signs to catch the sunsets or watch the planes. Private pilot Jerry Guzman is one of them, and he knows about the butterfly preserves.

"What I don't know," he says, "is what used to be here."

In the surrounding neighborhoods, emotions are so raw that nothing besides butterfly conservation may ever be done with that land. Not long ago the airport planted palm trees around the perimeter to spruce things up. Activists became enraged about the nonnative species, and the trees may have to go.

"It's a mess," says Lon Cadis, whose home borders the empty parcel. He loves it here despite the jet noise. He just wishes they had built the golf course: The third green would have been right out-side his front door.

"That would have been so nice here-so nice," he says, his gaze fixing in the distance. "It would have been comparable to Pebble Beach."

 

volleyball:

Check With Phil Stutzel for more info and results 310-546-3191 or CBVA for more info @1800-350-2282 or e-mail @ cbvainc@aol.com

************************************************************** Mike Bonin Deputy Chief of Staff and District Director Los Angeles City Councilmember Ruth Galanter 7166 W. Manchester Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90045 Phone: (310) 568-8772 Fax: (213) 847-0553 e-mail: mbonin@council.lacity.org

other links Friends of Ballona Wetlands

For directions, please call (310) 306-5994 or e-mail fbw@ballonafriends.org

www.neighborhoodlink.com/la/wpdrnc  

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